Make Before You Manage: An Executive Leaders Guide to Productivity

Are you working ten to twelve hours a day but feeling burnt out and unproductive?

TL;DR

• Time is fixed, but energy is boundless—focus on managing energy, not time.

• Match your most important tasks to your peak energy hours for maximum impact.

• Build renewal into your day with movement and recovery routines to sustain productivity.

• Discover the four dimensions of energy—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual—and unlock your full potential.

"Make before you manage" - Tim Ferris.

Time management is a recurring theme with my executive coaching clients. 

The approach involves:

• Thin-slicing time.

• Switching contexts and priorities.

• Rarely completing important tasks on the to-do list. 

The problem is that "managing time" is a fixed mindset. There are only 24 hours in a day.

To exacerbate the problem, most executives struggle to feel productive for two hours a day despite toiling away for ten or more.

The return on invested time is terrible. 

Reframing time management to energy management could be the key to unlocking productivity.

Let me explain.

While time is fixed, energy is not. 

Simple routines can replenish energy stores. If you understand your energy patterns, focus on renewal strategies, and match work types to energy levels, your output per hour will dramatically improve.

Early in my executive career, I would get to the office early to crush tasks before the flurry of busy work started. I would open my email and get lost in low-value inbox management. 

By the afternoon, I would look at my most important "must get done today" list and realize I had not achieved any of them despite eating lunch at my desk and running the gauntlet of back-to-back meetings.

I would finally give up and head home, knowing I had family obligations to satisfy. I would soothe myself by committing to work after the kids went to bed or on the weekend. I was running hard just to stand still.

Something had to change. That is when I found Jim Loher's book The Power of Full Engagement.

Loher's book explains the four energy sources—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual—and their relationship to each other.

Physical energy is the base for all beings, and spiritual energy answers the "why" we do what we do. Mental and emotional energy dictate how we respond to stimuli during the day.

I applied the energy renewal concepts, reorganized my day to match my natural energy flows, and dramatically increased my productivity.

Here is what I did:

Renewal:

Mental and emotional energy are the two critical energy sources for great leadership. However, those energy stores are limited. Science has shown that the best corporate athletes have about 90 minutes of continuous capacity before impairment starts.

Renewal of mental and emotional energy is rooted in managing physical energy, which isn't in an afternoon cup of coffee. 

I accidentally discovered my renewal strategy. I wanted to learn to swim, and the YWCA offered adult swimming lessons at lunch.

Within a week of spending my lunch in the pool, I no longer needed afternoon coffee. In the afternoons, I was more creative in problem-solving and more patient with the inevitable late-afternoon office drop-ins.

By spending less time behind my desk, not more, I could get more done with higher quality. As Loher explains in his book, physical activity replenishes the mental and emotional energy stores critical for effective leadership.

I reframed my day to a series of sprints and recoveries instead of a marathon I was struggling to finish.

Matching:

Though I figured out how to replenish my energy throughout the day, I certainly had a natural energy signature. There are times when one's energy is at its peak, and for me, that was mornings.

Upon reflection, I realized that I was using my most productive and creative energy to manage my email inbox.

I started blocking my mornings for creative, high-stakes projects. To preserve my focus, I would only open my email mid-morning. 

Those early hours became power productivity blocks.

What would take me two or three hours of distracted, low-energy time in the evenings was done before my official work day started, and the output quality was often better. 

I moved management meetings and other lower-energy and lower-stakes activities to the afternoon when I knew my energy would be lower. 

My productivity and creativity soared by inserting renewal strategies and matching my most important work to my best energy.

Do you want to experiment with increasing productivity through energy management?

Here are two suggestions to get you started:

For two weeks, track your energy levels:

1. when is your energy the highest, and when is it the lowest?

2. Key in on your behaviour and attitude as well as physical feelings. 

If you lack patience when you typically have patience, that is a symptom of low emotional energy.

If everything seems like a problem instead of an opportunity, that is a symptom of low mental energy.

Document sleep and movement patterns

1. overlay sleep hours  

2. track movement during the day

Remember, effective energy management starts with the physical dimension.

As Tim says, organize your day to create before you manage. When it comes to productivity, creativity is often the highest-order task.

If your team could benefit from a productivity tune-up, my 90-minute workshop is highly engaging and practical.

Here is a slide from my Power of Full Engagement workshop with a few quick hacks to apply to your day immediately.

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🗞 "Leadership on the Edge" 📧 Visit www.philipedgell.com 👇

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