Last week I was an unproductive zombie. For the first time in my life I suffered from a persistent bout of insomnia. It sucked. I’m a gal who needs her z’s. Like, REALLY needs them. Without some good old mouth-hanging-open-calling-hogs sleep I become cranky and paranoid, not to mention overly emotional.
Imagine my surprise when I discovered that there’s a name for what I was experiencing. It’s called an energy crisis. I stumbled across a quiz in the chapel at my job outlining all of the different areas people tend to overlook and/or neglect in an effort to save time. The irony is that in our attempts to save time, we often end up losing energy. I’m sharing the quiz in the hopes that it will help some of y’all if you’re also seeking to balance your energy and time more effectively.
Click here for a link to the online version of the quiz provided by Harvard. (Yes, Harvard darling). For my old school readers, I’ve provided a printable version below. Just put a check next to each statement that rings true for you and tally up your score when you’re done!
Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time (Schwartz and McCarthy)
BODY
___I don’t regularly get at least seven to eight hours of sleep, and I often wake up feeling tired.
___ I frequently skip breakfast, or I settle for something that isn’t nutritious.
___ I don’t work out enough (meaning cardiovascular training at least three times a week and strength training at least once a week.)
___ I don’t take regular breaks during the day to truly renew and recharge, or I often eat lunch on the go, if I eat at all.
EMOTIONS
___I frequently find myself feeling irritable, impatient, or anxious, especially when I have a lot of things to do.
___ I don’t have enough time with my family and loved ones, and when I’m with them, I’m not always really with them.
___ I have too little time for activities that I most deeply enjoy.
___ I don’t stop frequently enough to express my appreciation to others or to savor my accomplishments and blessings.
MIND
___ I have difficulty focusing on one thing at a time, and I am easily distracted during the day,
___ I spend much of my day reacting to immediate crises and demands rather than focusing on activities with longer-term value.
___ I don’t take enough time for reflection, strategizing, and creative thinking.
___ I am busy in the evenings and on weekends.
SPIRIT
___ I don’t spend enough time doing what I do best and enjoy the most.
___ There are significant gaps between what I say is most important to me in my life and how I actually allocate my time and energy.
___ My decisions are more influenced by external demands than by a strong, clear sense of my own purpose.
___ I don’t invest enough time and energy in making a positive difference to others or to the world.
Number of checks in each category?
Body___ Mind____
Emotions___ Spirit____
Guide to category scores:
0: Excellent energy management skills
1: Strong energy management skills
2: Significant deficits
3: Poor energy management skills
4: A full-fledged energy crisis
How is Your Overall Energy?
Total number of statements checked:____
Guide to overall scores
0-3: Excellent energy management skills
4-6: Reasonable energy management skills
7-10: Significant energy management deficits
11-16: A full-fledged energy management crisis
Thankfully, I was able to catch up on my sleep over the weekend. Hopefully, the quiz will serve to help you pin point which areas of your life you can work on improving for optimal energy and time management. So what’s the next step? Click here to explore The Energy Management Project in greater detail.
Have you ever struggled with insomnia? How do you re-center yourself when you have a stressful week? Do you think there’s something to this energy management theory?
Photo credit: f1uffster (Jeanie) / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND
Faith Simone 
It turns out that I have excellent energy management skills (I didn’t know such a thing existed!). The only time I’ve ever suffered from insomnia was because of PMS, and cutting back on caffeine helped that (and the chocolate cravings. Lord!) immensely. I HAVE to have my quiet time. Otherwise, my creativity suffers. I do this by getting up early in the morning while all is still quiet. Glad you were able to catch up on sleep. Hope you have a productive week!
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I’m still working on my energy managment skills Quanie and the struggle is so real. Like you, I have to have my quiet time too. I go a lil’ crazy without it. And you’re right about the creativity suffering. I have trouble putting together a complete sentence when I’m off center, let alone writing an entire chapter or whatever I’m working on at the moment. Don’t even get me started on the PMS situation. Sometimes I feel like that episode of Roseanne when she literally morphed into a monster around that time, lol.
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I have never heard of this before- and good to know about it because I’ve definitely experienced my version. Lately when feeling depleted I try to remember to rest, rejuvenate, and practice a lot of self-care, which can be easy to neglect. If I feed myself then I have overflow to give.
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You are preachin’ Diahann! It is so easy to neglect ourselves with the misguided intention of giving to others, but it’s not healthy. I always think about how people on a plane are instructed to put the mask on themselves first if the plane is going down, THEN help those around them who may not be able to do it on their own. The same principle applies in everyday life: we have to take care of ourselves to have energy to spare for others.
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