The Four Energies.
Energy, not time, is the currency of high performance. Four kinds, one loop.
The Creator's Journey · Chapter IX, The Instrument
For most of my career, I managed my life with a calendar. Every hour was allocated. The more I fit in, the better I felt about the day. It took me far too long to see that the calendar was measuring the wrong thing.
Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz made the point in The Power of Full Engagement. Energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of high performance. Time is fixed. Everyone gets the same hours. Energy can be expanded, depleted and renewed. Two leaders with identical calendars can produce completely different results.
- Physical
- Sleep, movement, nutrition and rest. The fuel the other three run on.
- Emotional
- The quality of what you feel. Confidence and calm are high-quality fuel. Frustration and anxiety drain it.
- Mental
- Focus. The energy most damaged by constant interruption, and the one founders spend most carelessly.
- Spiritual
- Purpose. When it is strong, it carries you through days when the other three are low.
They fail together
The four energies are not separate tanks. A short night drains the body. That makes you reactive, so a small setback turns into frustration. Frustration scatters attention, so you finish nothing. By evening you cannot remember why you started the company. Run it the other way and it builds. A rested body steadies emotion. Steady emotion makes focus possible. Focus serves the mission, and the mission gives you a reason to protect tomorrow’s sleep.
The four energies are not separate tanks. They draw on each other, and they fail together.
The core problem with working longer hours is that time is a finite resource. Energy is a different story.
Recovery is part of the cycle
Loehr began with elite tennis players. The best were not always the most skilled. They had routines between points that brought their heart rates down faster. Every system that performs at a high level oscillates. Performance requires recovery.
Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy tested the idea inside Wachovia Bank and reported the results in Harvard Business Review. Employees trained in energy rituals beat a control group’s year-over-year gain in loan revenue by 13 percentage points in the first three months. The calendar did not get emptier. It got a pulse.
Put it to work
- Audit your energy for a weekAt the top of each waking hour, rate your energy from one to five and write one word for the feeling.
- Find the first dominoNote which energy drops first on your bad days. Often the chain starts with a short night.
- Install a recovery ritualTwo to five minutes between demanding blocks. A walk, box breathing, a window with no screen.
- Move the important workPut your most important work into your highest-energy hours.
Quick answers
What are the four energies of high performance?
Physical, emotional, mental and spiritual, a framework from Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz’s The Power of Full Engagement. Rob Frasca stresses that the four draw on each other and fail together.
Should you manage energy instead of time?
Rob Frasca argues yes. Time is fixed, while energy can be expanded and renewed. Schwartz and McCarthy reported in Harvard Business Review that bank employees trained in energy rituals outperformed a control group.