#16 - Feeling drained? Read this before you push through
Wednesday Wisdom
Thought for the Week
People always set financial budgets, but they never set an energy budget, and wonder why they're always overdrawn. Have you ever proactively managed your energy? If so, how?
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Hope you've had a great week! & wishing those celebrating a Happy Hijri New Year! 🎇
🕑 3 mins
This Week's Insights🎙️
When people start a business, they tend to wear exhaustion as a badge of honour. 4 hours of sleep? That's dedication. Skipping meals? That's commitment. Working weekends? That's what separates winners from losers.
However, it's only when they reach the point of burning out do they realise that this portrayed appearance is a huge misconception. Take a car, for example. Would it run longer if you only serviced it when it breaks down, or if you service it regularly? Seems like a simple question, right?
The challenge is, despite this simple knowledge which to many, may be pure common sense, we don't apply the same principle to our energy. We are so caught up with trying to maximise every minute of our day, that we forget to account for the biggest factor: energy.
Yes, machines exist and AI tools can take over a big majority of tactical tasks that are below your hourly rate, but at what expense? Having learned this from experience when I started over 2 years ago, I came to realise that trying to be as productive as possible was destroying my productivity.
How so? Productivity is typically understood as "the rate of which someone does useful work", whereas I believe it should be based around enjoyability, as that is the core reason people are driven towards something. When they enjoy what they do, it doesn't feel energy-draining, but rather energy-gaining.
So, stop treating rest like a luxury and started treating it like fuel. Invest in it, make your rest non-negotiable and protect your energy. You may have all the time in the world, but if you drain out your energy, you won't be spending time on anything at all.
Practical Tips ✅
Peak Performance Hours: Identify the times when you work best and protect them for working on the core elements of your work.
Energy Split: Go through your week and identify your energy-draining tasks vs energy-gaining. If it drains, delegate or delete and if it gains, well then keep it going!
Phone-free = Happy: No email and no meetings, reserve mental space for thinking, not reacting and spend some time away from the digital world.
Top Resources This Week 🤓
📚Power of Full Engagement
Learn why managing energy, not time, is the key to high performance, health & happiness.
Track your energy in real-time using HRV and stress data from your devices. Know exactly what your body needs.
🎥The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Practical tips on how to figure out what's needed & establish routines for effortless execution.
Did You Know? 🧠
Stanford researchers found productivity drops sharply after 50 hours of work per week, and crashes after 55 hours. More hours don’t necessarily mean more output; it often means more mistakes.
Pretty websites don’t pay bills.
Your homepage might be costing you more than you think. Try a simple test I use to see if your website actually works and serves its purpose.
That's all for this week.
See you next Wednesday!
Raman
P.S. To learn more about marketing and productivity, Follow Me on LinkedIn.
