2011 ECONOMIC RECOVERY AND INVESTMENT ACT

Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time
by Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy

The science of stamina has advanced to the point where individuals, teams, and whole organizations can, with some straightforward interventions, significantly increase their capacity to get things done.


Most of us respond to rising demands in the workplace by putting in longer hours, which inevitably take a toll on us physically, mentally, and emotionally. That leads to declining levels of engagement, increasing levels of distraction, high turnover rates, and soaring medical costs among employees.

The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy is a different story. Defined in physics as the capacity to work, energy comes from four main wellsprings in human beings: the body, emotions, mind, and spirit. In each, energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific rituals—behaviors that are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic as quickly as possible.

To effectively reenergize their workforces, organizations need to shift their emphasis from getting more out of people to investing more in them, so they are motivated—and able—to bring more of themselves to work every day. To recharge themselves, individuals need to recognize the costs of energy-depleting behaviors and then take responsibility for changing them, regardless of the circumstances they’re facing.

The Body: Physical Energy

Our program begins by focusing on physical energy. Before participants in our program begin to explore ways to increase their physical energy, they take an energy audit, which includes four questions in each energy dimension—body, emotions, mind, and spirit. While most participants aren’t surprised to learn these behaviors are counterproductive, having them all listed in one place is often uncomfortable, sobering, and galvanizing. The audit highlights employees’ greatest energy deficits. Participants also fill out charts designed to raise their awareness about how their exercise, diet, and sleep practices influence their energy levels.

The next step is to identify rituals for building and renewing physical energy. Unfortunately, without intermittent recovery, we’re not physiologically capable of sustaining highly positive emotions for long periods. Confronted with relentless demands and unexpected challenges, people tend to slip into negative emotions—the fight-or-flight mode—often multiple times in a day. People can cultivate positive emotions by learning to change the stories they tell themselves about the events in their lives. Often, people in conflict cast themselves in the role of victim, blaming others or external circumstances for their problems. Becoming aware of the difference between the facts in a given situation and the way we interpret those facts can be powerful in itself.

To access the energy of the human spirit, people need to clarify priorities and establish accompanying rituals in three categories: doing what they do best and enjoy most at work; consciously allocating time and energy to the areas of their lives—work, family, health, service to others—they deem most important; and living their core values in their daily behaviors.

A number of firms we worked with have built “renewal rooms” where people can regularly go to relax and refuel. At several companies, including Sony, senior leaders collectively agreed to stop checking e-mail during meetings as a way to make the meetings more focused and efficient.

The implicit contract between organizations and their employees today is that each will try to get as much from the other as they can, as quickly as possible, and then move on without looking back. We believe that is mutually self-defeating. We envision a new and explicit contract that benefits all parties: Organizations invest in their people across all dimensions of their lives to help them build and sustain their value. Individuals respond by bringing all their multidimensional energy wholeheartedly to work every day. Both grow in value as a result.

Please invest in peace and divest from occupationI strongly encourage you to
vote for selective divestment from companies that benefit from the
occupation of Palestinian lands and help give the Israeli and Palestinian
people a real chance at peace. As a Jewish-American it is so important to me
that people understand that disagreeing with policies of the Israeli
Government and choosing to divest from businesses that profit from the
occupation does not equate to anti-Semitism. In fact, it is the teachings
of my Jewish heritage that have led me to feel so strongly about this issue.
I have spent a lot of time in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and the
human rights violations that are occurring here on a daily basis are
astounding. The Israeli Occupation of Palestine is not only an assault on
the Palestinian people who lived in peace with their Jewish brothers and
sisters in the region until the 1920s, but it is an assault to Jewish values
and Jewish morals. Selective divestment is one of many important
non-violent strategies for resisting this brutal, violent military
occupation. I admire and appreciate your courage in taking a stand on this
complicated issue.

With much love and thanks!
Susan Koppelman