That's a great tip right there about assigning energy levels to tasks. When I plan my day in the morning, I only look at the tasks waiting to be completed, but I don't look at how much energy they require. As a result, when I have more energy-intensive tasks in one day, I usually skip one.
I didn't realize why this was happening, though! Thanks, Raviraj!
For me the biggest drain on my energy are on-call schedules. How would you tackle being on call where you are low-key always on the edge in case something goes bad.
1. Sleep extra. So that if I am woken up during the week then it doesn’t feel as stressful. During other times, I sometimes compromise on sleep to get some stuff done. Though during oncall I will sleep extra.
2. Cut down unimportant tiring things. I conserve my energy to deal with oncall issues instead. Of course, there is a balance here. I won’t stop doing all things anticipating getting busy with oncall.
Only thing I followed to manage my WLB was taking a PTO monthly once.
I struggled to figure out the high, medium, low energy tasks when I moved up the ladder. It was easy when i was just a developer, but it went out of hands when I moved to a management role.
One more take away from this article is to "invest in reducing effort" in personal front also. I never thought about automating some household chores. Can you please suggest some tools, it will be really grateful.
By automating household chores I mean paying for services that helps me or buying the right gadgets and tools. Eg: I setup two diaper stations for my child in the house instead of running up and down.
It's very much aligned with the GTD methodology that I follow which has 2 dimensions: priority and energy.
I never though too much in explicit terms of penalty / reward as I think I implicitly factor them into the priority, and in some cases very explicit deadlines.
Ultimately, I think nothing beats being very intentional with your daily plans as well as knowing when your energy peaks are.
That's a great tip right there about assigning energy levels to tasks. When I plan my day in the morning, I only look at the tasks waiting to be completed, but I don't look at how much energy they require. As a result, when I have more energy-intensive tasks in one day, I usually skip one.
I didn't realize why this was happening, though! Thanks, Raviraj!
Glad I could help! Thanks for reading.
+1 on @Akos’ comment.
This was very insightful. I might have been doing this a little implicitly but thinking about this more consciously should help a ton.
To what extent do you assign these various attributes, Raviraj? In your head or in a planning app or anything?
Glad you found it insightful!
I do it in my head. I have tried apps but they are not for me. They just make to stressed about the process then :)
I think it takes a very organized mind to hold all of it together :)
I completely agree with the WLB being different for each one, and it’s not just about working hours.
Interesting approach. I’ve also only thought in terms of how long a task takes to complete, not how draining/rewarding it is. Will give it a try :)
For me the biggest drain on my energy are on-call schedules. How would you tackle being on call where you are low-key always on the edge in case something goes bad.
Two main things I do
1. Sleep extra. So that if I am woken up during the week then it doesn’t feel as stressful. During other times, I sometimes compromise on sleep to get some stuff done. Though during oncall I will sleep extra.
2. Cut down unimportant tiring things. I conserve my energy to deal with oncall issues instead. Of course, there is a balance here. I won’t stop doing all things anticipating getting busy with oncall.
Great tips to follow.
Only thing I followed to manage my WLB was taking a PTO monthly once.
I struggled to figure out the high, medium, low energy tasks when I moved up the ladder. It was easy when i was just a developer, but it went out of hands when I moved to a management role.
One more take away from this article is to "invest in reducing effort" in personal front also. I never thought about automating some household chores. Can you please suggest some tools, it will be really grateful.
By automating household chores I mean paying for services that helps me or buying the right gadgets and tools. Eg: I setup two diaper stations for my child in the house instead of running up and down.
thank you.
Great, thanks for sharing
Great read, simple, practical and easy to apply.
Love it! Nice perspective with ERP. I have used the Eisenhower Matrix to manage my priorities. I like your ERP approach as well.
Great tips!
I try to do one big task in a day and a few small ones. So, that I don't feel I am draining so much energy on one day.
yea, that's a sustainable way.
Thanks for this post Raviraj
It's very much aligned with the GTD methodology that I follow which has 2 dimensions: priority and energy.
I never though too much in explicit terms of penalty / reward as I think I implicitly factor them into the priority, and in some cases very explicit deadlines.
Ultimately, I think nothing beats being very intentional with your daily plans as well as knowing when your energy peaks are.
Yea I realized how the perceived penalty would affect me. That's when I realized I had to manage how I felt due to those.
Yes, the goal is to be intentional and that is when we come closer to a good WLB.