W09 - Practices and Insights on Energy Management

Last week I chatted with Yunfei about work and he asked me again, “Where does your time come from?” I recall several colleagues have asked me this more than once. I’ve given brief verbal answers before; this time I’ll provide a systematic response about my understanding and practice on this question.

Last year I went through an iteration: shifting from managing time to managing energy.How to understand the difference between time and energy? Personal productivity is determined not only by time but also by health, family, life, worldview, and other factors. It’s a systemic issue; tricks in time management alone won’t last.

I summarized a formula:Benefit = Goal * Efficiency * TimeFor an individual to achieve good results, there must be clear goal setting, scientific efficiency improvements, and reasonable time allocation. Time is a scarce resource; good time management means making good investments. Getting invested resources to operate efficiently is likely the key lever in this formula. Scientific, sustainable efficiency measures are what energy management needs to address. To give an extreme example: under a 007 work schedule, no matter how brilliant your time management is, you can’t avoid eventually breaking down physically and having family collapse, which reduces overall benefit to zero.

If you search for “energy management” you’ll mostly find methodologies borrowed from Jim Loehr’s book Energy Management. Loehr breaks energy management into four levels. If maximum efficiency equals “full engagement,” then full engagement = abundant physical energy + emotional connection + clear thinking + strong will. It’s about consciously changing and adjusting life habits to establish balance and achieve full satisfaction in work and personal life.

Below are my practices and reflections on this approach.

Level one: physical energy. The body is the foundation of any endeavor. Some people succeed simply by living long enough.

• Develop health awareness, learn basic nutrition and medical knowledge, perceive what your body needs, and respond proactively.

• Create flexible plans, use fragmented time well, and be prepared for random disruptions. Don’t make large reserved blocks with hour-precise detailed schedules, because in a large company you often lack the conditions to execute them. Every company has its own inertia and rhythm; don’t fight against it. Going head-on is unsustainable and only increases frustration. Face reality and adjust proactively. Use lunch breaks, commute time, and other pockets to find a schedule that works for you. Take exercise (aimed at maintaining physical health) as an example. Here’s a plan I don’t recommend: Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 8 PM, one hour each time. The plan is too granular, and you shouldn’t cling rigidly to it—design some random fault tolerance. For example: three hours of exercise per week with no limit on sessions, minimum 15 minutes each. Some might say 15 minutes isn’t worth going to the gym and changing clothes—then find ways to eliminate those prep steps. Our goal is to improve efficiency.

Level two: emotions. A person’s reality is essentially the sum of all social relationships. Manage your social relationships well and prevent fires in your backyard.

• Emotions affect judgment in doing things. Learning some basics of psychology and sociology and broadening your humanistic perspective helps cultivate inner strength and increase tolerance. Accept the existence of things you disagree with and accept your own flaws.

• Social relationships are complex, especially the multiple layers within a family. You must manage intimate relationships and relations with your family of origin. Also pay attention to the social environments of your partner and parents. For example, understand whether your partner’s workplace is upright and healthy or corrupt and toxic. You can’t avoid being grossed out by dirty things, but ensure you aren’t contaminated by them.

Level three: thinking. Use tools wisely. Thinking ability is trained.

• Learn some neuroscience and brain-health knowledge to use tools better and free your mind. A good mental state is self-perceptible. As an extreme example, in bipolar disorder’s mania phase, patients’ thinking can be extremely active and creative, with heightened self-perception. Normal people rarely experience such clarity—some say deep spiritual practice can sustain that state. We only need to know such a state exists as a goal; most of the time it’s enough for the mind to be clear. Working memory is scarce; using note-taking apps that suit you (Omni series, OneNote, Evernote, Agenda, etc.) can relieve you of trivial short-term memory load. The brain needs domain switching to recover and rest; rushing from one meeting to another daily won’t yield good thinking. Appropriate solitude (walks), meditation (apps like Tide), and engaging with humanistic content (platforms like Lixiang, Wenhua Zongheng) may spark creativity at work.

• Time management. The core of time management is subtraction. Gradually reduce trivial tasks to improve efficiency and free more time for high-value work. “Subtraction” is an art that means letting go—letting go of leisure time, low-priority tasks, and some people’s expectations of you. When to let go of what and how to let go requires practice and growth; I feel I’m still at the beginning.

Level four: willpower. Grit depends on resolve, and resolve comes from a sense of meaning.

• Work that lacks a sense of meaning causes emotional exhaustion and professional burnout. This level is somewhat mystical; I don’t think it can be trained easily, because seeking meaning is closely tied to one’s worldview and values. If there were a training method, it would likely be found in the military. I’ve only just begun practicing at this level and don’t have many insights. Practical advice is to broaden your horizons—use the open internet and diversify sources of meaning. If we achieve technological breakthroughs like a “thought imprint,” this level could be materialized.