energy fading... losing power...
This week I returned to work for the first time in three years. My office is far away from where I live, so the impact of this change of circumstance was felt by my whole family and not just myself. My children now go to pre-school, my partner has to be a single parent on top of his full-time job while I'm away, and I have to remember what my job actually is. My partner and I had additional challenges; the children picked up a cold and so needed extra attention when they got home, and I'm trying to return to my exercising and studying habits that I had before I had children. (OK, maybe my challenges don't feel quite such a burden as his do…)
On my first day I had an hour commute each way to the office from my part time home, which I successfully used to get some study in. I spent seven hours in the office learning about the company's policies, meeting lots of people, and starting to think about what we as a new team want to consider as our goals. After work I went into the city to get some dinner and have a walk around my old stomping grounds. I had a fantastic day, and although I was physically exhausted when I got on the bus home, my energy levels were still through the roof.
Later in the week, whilst working from my actual home, I realised that my energy levels were much lower. I was spending time alone, not getting out of the house, and running through online training as part of my new role. At one point, I couldn't even remember what I had spent the last 30 minutes doing, but I could see that I had successfully passed something…
This got me thinking about how I'm going to need to be more proactive about managing my energy levels now that I'm back in the workforce. I had considered that some things would drain me, and so I've been putting aside some time each day to do these things rather than try to do them all in one go. However, I failed to put in something immediately afterwards to help restore my energy levels so that I could bounce back before trying to concentrate on the next thing. As a result, it took me almost as long to get into the next thing as I had put aside to actually do it.
Time to reflect on how my week has gone in relation to my energy levels! I listed all the things that I could remember doing this week, and then rated them as having either a positive, negative, or neutral impact on my energy levels. I now have a list of things that I need to be aware could drain my energy, and a list of things that I can do to restore it. I also have an ever growing to do list of things that I'm going to have to produce or contribute towards in the next few weeks. Using these two things together, I'm hoping to be able to block out my days so that I can keep my energy levels in check and be as productive as possible.
If you're interested in completing an energy audit for yourself, check out these links: