Manage Your Energy

Imported from heyharmony/skills (skills/manage-your-energy/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add heyharmony/skills --skill manage-your-energy. Copyright stays with the author.

Purpose

Energy management is more fundamental than time management. Time is a fixed resource—everyone gets 24 hours. But energy is variable and recoverable. You can feel exhausted at 4pm and restored at 6pm if you recover. Burnout isn't from working 60 hours; it's from working 60 hours without recovery. This skill teaches you to audit your energy (where does it come from, where does it go?), understand the four sources of energy (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual), and restructure your work and life to do more of what energizes you and less of what drains you. The goal isn't more productivity—it's sustainable productivity with better work quality and less exhaustion.

When to Use

• You're experiencing burnout risk: Exhaustion is the signal that your energy is depleted faster than it recovers
• Pushing harder isn't working anymore: You've optimized time management but still feel tired. Energy management is the next lever
• You need to sustain high performance long-term: Sprints are fine; sustainability requires energy recovery
• You're struggling with work-life balance: Balance isn't 50-50. It's structuring your week so recovery happens
• You want to increase output without increasing hours: More energy per hour is more efficient than more hours
• Certain tasks drain you faster than others: Understanding what drains and what energizes helps you redesign your role
• You're managing a team and watching people burn out: Teach them energy management, not just time management

Instructions

1. Conduct an energy audit: identify green (energizing), yellow (neutral), and red (draining) activities

   • List all major activities you do: deep work on projects, meetings, email, 1-on-1s, presentations, travel, exercise, sleep, family time, hobbies, exercise
   • Rate each activity: does it energize you (green), drain you (red), or neither (yellow)?
   • The same activity might be different colors for different people: meetings energize extroverts, drain introverts
   • Map when you do each activity: do you do red activities when you're already depleted, or when you have energy buffer?
   • Count the proportion: are you doing 20% green, 50% yellow, 30% red? Or 10% green, 40% yellow, 50% red?

2. Understand the four sources of energy and which are depleted in your life

   • Physical energy: Sleep (7-9 hours), exercise, nutrition, movement breaks, hydration, sunlight
     • Is this your weak point? Most people skip this first, then wonder why they're exhausted
     • Audit: how many hours sleep per night? How many minutes exercise per week? What's your nutrition like?
   • Emotional energy: Clarity on expectations, resolved conflicts, positive relationships, trust
     • Unresolved conflict drains emotional energy passively (you think about it all day)
     • Unclear expectations create anxiety (am I doing this right?)
     • Negative relationships are energy vampires (you dread interactions)
   • Mental energy: Cognitive focus, novelty, learning, problem-solving, decision-making
     • Mental energy peaks in the morning and depletes through the day (decision fatigue)
     • Context-switching fragments mental energy (you never reach flow)
     • Unfamiliar work requires more mental energy than routine work
   • Spiritual energy: Alignment between work and values, sense of purpose, progress toward meaningful goals, community
     • Misalignment between what you do and what you care about is soul-draining
     • No progress on meaningful goals creates drift and malaise
     • Isolation (not working with people who share values) drains spiritual energy

3. Identify which energy source is most depleted in your life

   • Most people have one that's critically low: physical (skipping sleep), emotional (unresolved conflicts), mental (fragmented schedule), or spiritual (misaligned work)
   • Start there. Fixing your sleep won't help if your marriage is in conflict
   • Ask: which energy source, if I restored it, would have the biggest impact on how I feel?

4. Restructure your week to recover more energy than you spend

   • You don't need to stop doing red (draining) activities. You need to recover from them.
   • Structure the week so red activities aren't back-to-back
   • After a red activity (stressful meeting, difficult conversation), schedule a green activity (walk, solo work, time with a friend)
   • Example: customer call at 2pm (often red) → immediate recovery at 3pm (solo work or walk)
   • Build in daily recovery: 30 minutes of exercise, a real lunch break, an evening off screens
   • Weekly recovery: at least 1-2 full days where you mostly do green and yellow activities

5. Protect the foundation: sleep, exercise, and nutrition are non-negotiable

   • These are the bedrock. Without them, nothing else works
   • Sleep: if you're sleeping 6 hours, you can't optimize anything else. Add an hour of sleep.
   • Exercise: 30 minutes of movement at moderate intensity (walk, strength, cardio) at least 4x per week
   • Nutrition: not diet culture, but eating food that fuels your body. Skipping meals depletes energy faster.
   • If you're not protecting these, nothing you do with the rest of this skill will work

6. Address emotional energy drains: resolve conflicts and clarify expectations

   • Unresolved conflict is a passive energy drain: you think about it, worry, anticipate problems
   • Have the difficult conversation. It's uncomfortable for 30 minutes; the drain lasts weeks if you avoid it
   • Unclear expectations create constant low-level anxiety: "Am I doing this right?"
   • Get clarity: what does success look like? What's the timeline? What's the constraint?
   • Toxic relationships are energy vampires. Limit interaction or exit if possible.

7. Optimize mental energy: protect peak hours, batch similar tasks, reduce decisions

   • Mental energy peaks early in the day for most people. Protect those hours for complex, creative, decision-making work
   • Batch decisions so you're not making decisions all day (decision fatigue = depleted mental energy)
   • Reduce low-value decisions: choose outfits the night before, use default meals, autopay bills
   • Context-switching fragments mental energy. Batch similar tasks so you reach flow
   • Save routine work for low-energy times (end of day): admin, email, organizing

8. Reconnect with meaning: review whether your work aligns with your values

   • Spiritual energy comes from alignment between what you do and what you care about
   • If you're doing work that contradicts your values (but pays well), the misalignment drains spirit
   • Some work will always misalign with values. Add green activities that align with values to recover spiritual energy
   • If the entire job is misaligned, you might need to leave or find a role that aligns better
   • Reconnect with why: why does this work matter? How does it serve people you care about?

Output Format

=== ENERGY AUDIT ===

ENERGY PROFILE
Current overall energy level: [Depleted, Low, Moderate, Good, Excellent]
Burnout risk: [Low, Moderate, High]

ACTIVITY ENERGY AUDIT
Activity | Category | Color | Notes
---------|----------|-------|------
[Deep work on projects] | Work | Green | Flow state, challenge level appropriate, progress visible
[Meetings] | Work | Red | Back-to-back, no recovery time, many without clear outcomes
[Email] | Work | Yellow | Neutral, necessary, but takes mental space
[Exercise] | Personal | Green | Energizes, but I'm only doing 2x/week (need 4x)
[Sleep] | Personal | Red | 6 hours/night, should be 7.5-8.5

Proportion breakdown:
- Green activities: [X%] (Target: 30-40%)
- Yellow activities: [X%] (Expected: 40-50%)
- Red activities: [X%] (Should recover from these)

PHYSICAL ENERGY ASSESSMENT
Sleep: [X hours/night] (Target: 7-9 for most people)
Exercise: [X minutes/week at moderate intensity] (Target: 150+ weekly)
Nutrition: [Brief description. Are you eating regular meals? Fueling before/after exercise?]
Sunlight/movement: [How much daily movement and outdoor time?]
Hydration: [Are you drinking water regularly?]

Physical energy status: [What's the biggest gap? Sleep? Exercise? Nutrition?]

EMOTIONAL ENERGY ASSESSMENT
Unresolved conflicts: [Relationships or situations creating ongoing stress]
Unclear expectations: [Work situations where you're uncertain about success criteria]
Energy-draining relationships: [People or roles that consistently exhaust you]
Positive relationships: [People and interactions that energize you]

Emotional energy status: [What conflict or expectation, if resolved, would have the biggest impact?]

MENTAL ENERGY ASSESSMENT
Peak energy hours: [When are you most mentally sharp? Morning? Afternoon?]
Context-switching burden: [How many separate projects are you juggling? How many context switches per day?]
Decision-making load: [How many decisions are you making daily? Can any be automated or batched?]
Flow opportunities: [How often do you reach flow state? Long enough uninterrupted blocks?]

Mental energy status: [What's consuming mental energy without return? Decisions? Context switching? Complexity?]

SPIRITUAL ENERGY ASSESSMENT
Alignment between work and values: [How much of your work aligns with what you care about? 20%? 80%?]
Sense of purpose: [Do you see how your work serves something you care about?]
Progress on meaningful goals: [Are you making progress on what matters to you? Or just maintaining?]
Community and connection: [Do you work with people who share your values?]

Spiritual energy status: [Is misalignment a problem? Lack of progress? Isolation?]

RECOVERY STRUCTURE
Daily recovery (need 1-2 green/yellow activities, 0-1 red):
- Morning: [Your morning routine and what activities]
- Midday: [Recovery opportunity between activities]
- Evening: [How do you recover from the day?]
- Before bed: [Transition from work to rest]

Weekly recovery (need 1-2 days that are mostly green/yellow):
- Weekday routine: [Pattern across the week]
- Weekend structure: [Which days are recovery-focused?]

Gaps in recovery: [Where is energy being spent faster than it's recovered?]

FOUNDATION PRIORITY
Most critical to fix: [Physical/Emotional/Mental/Spiritual?]
Specific action: [Sleep one more hour? Resolve a conflict? Add 30 min exercise? Change roles?]
Timeline: [Start when? How long to see impact?]

Example

Person: Jordan, Software Engineering Director at CloudScale (managing 8 engineers)

=== ENERGY AUDIT ===

ENERGY PROFILE
Current overall energy level: LOW (feels exhausted by Thursday)
Burnout risk: MODERATE-HIGH (working 55+ hours, no recovery)

ACTIVITY ENERGY AUDIT
Activity | Color | Notes
---------|-------|-------
Code review and architecture design | Green | I love this work, feel sharp and creative. But only doing 3 hours/week.
1-on-1s with engineers | Green | Coaching and career conversations energize me. But often cut short due to meetings.
Status update meetings | Yellow | Necessary, but don't require energy. Could be async.
Executive visibility meetings | Red | Performance anxiety, lots of context-switching, no clear outcomes. 3-4 per week.
Email/Slack | Yellow | Mental drain from constant context-switching, but necessary.
Writing specs and RFCs | Green | Deep, satisfying work. No time for this. Need 4-6 hours/week minimum.
Sleep | Red | 6-6.5 hours/night. Should be 8.
Exercise | Red | 1x per week (should be 4-5x). Stopped running due to time pressure.
Team social events | Green | Love my team, these energize. But often cancel due to calendar pressure.
Travel to customer sites | Red | Exhausting, away from family, lots of unstructured time in airports/hotels.

Proportion:
- Green: 15% (should be 35-40%)
- Yellow: 40% (acceptable)
- Red: 45% (should be 20-25%)

PHYSICAL ENERGY ASSESSMENT
Sleep: 6-6.5 hours/night (Target: 8). This is the #1 priority. Consequence: irritable, slower decision-making, feels like running on fumes.
Exercise: 1x per week, 20 min (should be 150+ min/week). Stopped running due to time crunch.
Nutrition: Eating meals, but often skipping lunch or eating at desk during meetings. Coffee at 3pm to push through afternoon slump.
Sunlight/movement: Desk-bound, indoor most of the day. Occasional walks but not daily.

Physical energy status: CRITICAL. Sleep deficit is compounding. Need to add 1.5-2 hours sleep/night and restore exercise routine. This will unlock other improvements.

EMOTIONAL ENERGY ASSESSMENT
Unresolved conflicts: Team is stressed about deadlines. One engineer is underperforming and I haven't had the direct conversation. Tension with product team about scope.
Unclear expectations: Company's growth expectations feel vague. Am I supposed to ship faster? Hire more? Improve quality? Conflicting messages from leadership.
Energy-draining relationships: Product manager (frequent reprioritization, unclear why). Executive (constant performance check-ins).
Positive relationships: 1-on-1s with engineers, peer manager friends, partner (even though I'm too tired to be present).

Emotional energy status: HIGH. Unresolved team tension and unclear expectations are creating constant low-level stress. Conversation with underperforming engineer is urgent.

MENTAL ENERGY ASSESSMENT
Peak hours: 8am-11am (before email and meetings). By 2pm, decision quality drops.
Context-switching: Managing 8 engineers + responding to exec requests + customer escalations + product priorities. Jumping between 6+ contexts per day.
Decisions: 30+ daily decisions (code review feedback, hiring, prioritization, conflicts, approvals). Batching only email/Slack decisions.
Flow: Haven't had a 2-hour uninterrupted block in 3 weeks. Last deep design work was 2 months ago.

Mental energy status: HIGH. The executive visibility meetings and constant context-switching are preventing deep work. Mental energy is fragmented. Need protected deep work time.

SPIRITUAL ENERGY ASSESSMENT
Alignment: 60%. I love the engineering work and my team. But the execution/pressure/metrics/political context doesn't align with my belief that engineering should be deliberate and thoughtful.
Purpose: Company's mission is good (making developer experience better), which aligns with my values. But I'm not doing the work (not engineering), I'm managing it.
Progress on meaningful goals: Have a goal to ship the new SDK. But progress is slow due to context-switching and scope creep. Demoralizing.
Community: Team is great. But I'm isolated in the director role. No peer group of directors I trust. Peer manager friends live in different cities.

Spiritual energy status: MODERATE. Misalignment between my identity (engineer/builder) and my job (manager/firefighter) is creating drift. Missing the deep technical work that used to ground my sense of purpose.

RECOVERY STRUCTURE

Daily recovery (current):
- Morning: 6am wake-up, 20 min shower, coffee. Immediately check email (bad). No exercise.
- Work: 8:30am-6pm. Lunch at desk. No breaks or walks. Afternoon slump at 3pm.
- Evening: 6:30pm home, dinner with family (distracted by Slack). 10pm try to sleep, too wired.
- Before bed: Scroll news/Slack until 11pm.

Issues: No green activities during day. No recovery between work and personal time. Sleep is late and insufficient.

Weekly recovery (current):
- Weekdays: Mostly work, no breaks
- Weekend: Saturday morning cancelled for urgent work call. Sunday trying to recover but anxious about Monday.
- Missing: Exercise, deep work, friend time, sport I used to love (cycling)

FOUNDATION PRIORITY
Most critical to fix: PHYSICAL energy. Sleep debt is undermining everything else.

Action plan:
1. Immediate: bedtime to 10pm (vs 11pm), wake at 6:30am (target 8 hours). No Slack after 8pm.
2. Week 2: Add exercise back: 3x per week, 30 min (running, cycling, gym). Best time: 6am before work or noon lunch break.
3. Outcome: Better sleep should improve mood, decision-making, patience with team, and create space for recovery.

SECONDARY PRIORITIES
Once sleep/exercise foundation is restored:

Emotional energy: Have the conversation with underperforming engineer this week. Get clarity on company expectations from leadership. Block 30 min on Friday retro to celebrate wins (positive emotion).

Mental energy: Protect Tuesday-Thursday 9am-12pm for code review and design work (deep work). This is where green energy is. Need to defend these blocks.

Spiritual energy: Carve out 4 hours/week for technical work I love (architecture, design, mentoring). This is the work that grounds my purpose. Can't let this go below 4 hours/week.

Recovery restructure:
- Daily: 30-min exercise (green energy, not a chore). Solo lunch 1x/week. Slack cutoff at 8pm.
- Weekly: Friday afternoon "win" meeting with team (30 min, celebrate progress, positive emotion). One evening/weekend for cycling or running I used to love.

Timeline: Sleep/exercise changes can happen immediately (this week). Mental energy restructure (protected deep work) happens next week. Emotional energy (difficult conversations) this week also.

Edge Cases

• Structural misalignment that sleep won't fix: If your role fundamentally contradicts your values, better sleep won't solve it. You might need a role change. Sleep and exercise buy you time to figure out the right move, but they're not a permanent solution.

• Physical limitations: Some people have sleep disorders, chronic conditions, or physical limitations that make the "sleep 8 hours" advice incomplete. Work with what your body needs and focus on other energy sources.

• High-stress seasons are inevitable: Some roles (sales, fundraising, product launches) have high-intensity seasons. You can't always have balanced energy. Plan recovery for after the season, not during. Accept the temporary imbalance.

• Recovery isn't always alone: Some people recover through connection (time with friends, team events). Introverts recover alone. Know yourself and design recovery accordingly.

• Giving without receiving: If you're a giver and everyone else is taking energy from you, recovery activities alone won't solve it. Set boundaries on how much you're available.

• Grief and life transitions: Burnout from grief, loss, or major life change (moving, divorce, health crisis) isn't just about optimizing recovery. You might need professional support, not just sleep and exercise.