Effective leaders manage their energy, not their time.

Your first and foremost job as a leader is to manage your own energy, and help manage the energy of those around you.  ~Peter Drucker

Author, Tony Schwartz, wrote the following in his Harvard Business Review Article entitled, "Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time."  "The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource.  Energy is a different story.  Energy can be systematically expanded and regularly renewed by establishing specific rituals – behaviors that are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making them unconscious and automatic as quickly as possible.  To recharge themselves, individuals need to recognize the costs of energy-depleting behaviors and then take responsibility for changing them, regardless of the circumstances they're facing."

Tony shares a number of examples of rituals throughout the article that have increased executives' energy.  You may read the suggestions I chose to include in this list and say, "I knew that."  Well, then I’ll ask, if you knew it, then why don't you do it?

• Take brief but regular breaks at specific intervals throughout the workday – always leaving your desk.
• As little as several minutes can allow you to disengage.  This could range from getting up to talk to a colleague about something other than work, listening to music on an iPod, to walking up and down stairs in an office building.
• To defuse negative emotions, take several deep abdominal breaths.  Exhaling slowly for five or six seconds induces relaxation and recovery.
•  Fuel positive emotions by expressing appreciation to others – write a handwritten note, send an email, or make a call.  The more detailed and specific, the more the impact for both you and the receiver.
• Remove all distractions.  Yes, all, including email, phones, etc.  Work on a project with no distractions or interruptions for 90 to 120 minutes.  This may mean finding your own secret remote office from time to time.
• Answer email only two or maybe three times a day.  Not every time a new message pops up on your screen.
• Start your day on the most important topic, before email and returning messages.  You may feel like you've already had a productive day before 10am!
• Do what you do best and enjoy the most at work, and consciously (that means intentionally!) allocate time and energy to the parts of your life that you deem most important.  Live your core values in your daily behavior.

Ironically, while writing this blog an executive returned my phone call and I asked, "How are you?"  He hesitated and then said, "Well, I only had three hours of airplane sleep last night."  So of course I asked, "Why are you at the office?"  His reply, "Because I'm stupid."

Effective leaders manage their energy, not their time.