Three Strategies to Better Manage Your Energy
1. Identify how much energy is required.
For each performance a certain amount of energy is required for you to do your best. To identify how much energy you need to perform optimally, determine what your attention, physiology and emotions should be like. For example, if you bring too much energy to an activity, your heart rate may be too elevated, your focus may jump around, and you may feel anxious. But if you don’t exert yourself enough, your heart rate may not rise sufficiently, you may struggle to focus, and you may feel apathetic.
When your attention, physiology and emotions are where they need to be for optimal performance, then you are in your individual zone of optimal functioning (IZOF). This zone is different for every activity, and people have different IZOFs for the same task. The goal is to find the energy levels that enable you to be at your best, regardless of the day or the conditions.
2. Adjust how you respond to your stressors to spend your time and energy effectively.
When responding to sources of anxiety, you may need to act differently based on the category of the stressor.
- Controllable and important stressors: You want to act.
- Uncontrollable and important stressors: Change the way that you look at the stressor.
- Controllable and unimportant, and uncontrollable and unimportant, stressors: These are your hassles. Let go of these sources of aggravation and pressure, and don’t put more energy toward them than necessary. Instead, save your energy to act on the things you can control.
3. Use deliberate breathing.
Deliberate breathing can help you to manage your energy to improve your performances. Take two or three deep breaths to get your focus on the present. Doing this can boost the following critical attributes:
- Precision, accuracy and motor control
- Memory and recall
- Composure, poise and self-control
- Concentration and mental agility
- Reaction time
By incorporating these three strategies into your daily routine, you’ll find that you are more in control of the amount of energy you put into a performance. You’ll also start to identify where you are unnecessarily wasting your energy and, thus, can save that energy for a different task. As you practice these essential skills they will become easier. What’s more, not just service members but their Families, too, can benefit from applying these skills–it’s a win-win!
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