Productivity is the key to high performance, and this depends heavily on your energy levels; and sometimes your energy levels can be affected seriously by energy vampires.
Every animal has its fair share of parasites…including human beings.
Whales for example, accumulate algae and barnacles around various areas on their rubbery skin. These parasites live off the whale, and if it weren’t for smaller fish that feast of these parasites, the whale would eventually get covered by them.
We may not have barnacles, or algae growing on our bodies, but people are plagued by their own parasite. In a given day, you only get so much energy.
And “energy vampires” that act like parasites draining our energy and this absolutely destroys your productivity.
To make things worse, we don’t have any “smaller fish” that come along to remove these parasites. If we were whales and our energy vampires were barnacles and algae, we’d literally look like a humongous swimming coral reef.
Your Lack of Productivity Is Not Because You Have No Energy.
In many cases, it’s not that you have no energy to get through your day – you’d be astounded at how much energy you have available for productive use.
It’s just that you may have to feed so many energy vampires, that you have none left for yourself when they’ve had their fill.
In this article, I’m going to introduce some of the most common vampires that suck your daily supply of energy away, and what to about it.
Energy Vampires #1
I call it the First Hour Thief. The most critical part of your day (as far as energy and productivity goes), is your first waking hour after a night’s rest.
Most people roll out of bed, moan and groan about how they don’t want to go to work, and then IMMEDIATELY check their email, where they get forced into solving OTHER people’s problems all day.
By the time all is said and done, you’ve already established a negative, unproductive tone for the day.
Instead, start the day with a powerful morning ritual so that you frame the context of your day in a positive way.
When I wake up, I DON’T check email. Instead, I put on my headphones and start listening to something uplifting IMMEDIATELY.
Often, it’s a list of prerecorded affirmations.
I start slow, and I work my way up gradually to something more intense… I might pick up the pace with the Youtube video “I am a champion speech.”
Then perhaps some killer pump up music…
I did this every day for about 7 weeks over summer, and by the time I got to the music, I’d be so pumped up that I’d usually go for a spontaneous run outside… sometimes I’d still have pajamas on… sometimes barefoot!
And this coming from the most grumpy morning guy in the world… stands testament to the power of controlling your thoughts right from the start of your day!
Energy Vampires # 2
Inner conflictis one of the BIGGEST “gas-guzzling” mental activities; it can rob you of an incredible amount of energy and productivity. Inner conflict happens when you have mixed feelings about something – anything.
If you’re thinking about breaking up with your former sweetheart, but you’re too scared to do it, know that there’s an added cost to your indecision: you’re burning a massive amount of energy every day, and it’s hurting your productivity.
I promise.
Really inner conflict can come from virtually anything, but one of the big characteristics of inner conflict, is that it drains your energy, and distracts you from your main goal, and you can’t help it…
The key to overcoming inner conflict (and increasing your focus and productivity), is to strive for inner peace daily.
Yoga, exercise, and breath work, are great places to start.
PS. What’s the fastest way to create more inner conflict and thus destroy your productivity?
By LYING.
Keep that in mind the next time you start keeping secrets.
Energy Vampires #3
We evolved on wild open plains and vast jungles, and today, clutter has become a huge obstacle to our productivity.
Humans are very territorial animals. We get more strongly attached to things than you might ever suspect, and every physical possession that you own occupies it’s own peace of real estate in your mind.
Have you ever seen or heard of a really rich person who simply miserable because of the stress they have to endure just to keep track of all of their “stuff”?
When you detach from your physical possessions it frees up an incredible amount of space in your mind for more productivity.
A great way to do this is to get rid of half your stuff!
Every time I move, I try to give away half my stuff. This is hard to explain without trying it yourself, but the benefits for productivity?
AMAZING.
What are your thoughts about energy vampires? Leave a comment in the box below.
Nice one, Logan.
“Instead, start the day with a powerful morning ritual so that you frame the context of your day in a positive way”
Picking out these critical junctures in your day and deciding whether you need to crank up the inspiration or rest and recover is such an important, and as you point out, overlooked part of managing your daily energy.
I started to play with the afternoon lull. Figuring out what kind of activities I needed to do to make my best work happen towards the end of the day was really satisfying too. Adding in just the right amount of physical activity between 3 and 5pm usually sets me up for a more enjoyable evening — even if I have to keep working.
Good stuff!
Dan
Its a great research Logan, and you have came with so simple and perfect solution for all of these energy vampires !
I never knew this but personally I am a victim of energy vampire 1, I check my mails in mornings and screw up whole planning of my own.
I would sure try music and cheering speech stuff to get over it.
Thank you so much !!!
Wow, this is a great article1 I often get told I have so much energy but it seems like my day is not as productive as I’d like it to be. I like the Energy Vampire #1, I gotta start my day better. Thanks for the info.
I love the term ‘First Hour Thief’. It’s all too easy to sit down in the morning and think you’ll kick off your day with a bit of light web browsing, knock out a few e-mails or pick off a few small rocks from your todo list – and before you know it, you’ve spent the your prime time achieving little to nothing.
Fortunately, it’s only a bad habit, and those can be corrected with a bit of patience and a few tricks – uplifting music is one, writing down what you’ll start the next day with at the end of the previous one is another trick. Also, it might be clever to single out the three most important items on your todo list and don’t even go near the full one until you’ve checked off at least two of them
/Jørgen
I’ve been in a rut lately at work and came by this website while looking for good tips to try and jump start my work life. I think I really like the idea of moving stuff out of reach, tip #3.
I also found another great post that sort of chimes of the same type of message, if anyone is interested. It takes the approach of breaking habits and routines that suck the life out of your day.
http://wewearkhakis.com/2011/11/23/end-the-routine-%E2%80%93-become-awesome/
Nice – I’m sure there are a dozen more minor energy leaks, but this is a great start.
Clutter is probably my weakest link. Gotta fix that 😉
I have been de-cluttering our house slowly, and each time I get rid of something I feel an incredible sense of lightness and accomplishment. I don’t think of myself as a “stuff” person, but once I started looking at everything in our house with an eye to what I really needed to be happy, I realized that I’ve been keeping a lot around just because I’m used to having it. Giving it away or selling it provides me with so much more satisfaction than keeping it ever did. I just need to get my husband and son on board–and get my family (who are all “stuff” people) to stop giving us more stuff.
Wow, nice post.
So true, and you don’t even realize that all those “energy vampires” exist, unless you really think about them, or read about them (like i did in this post).
Really great.
Whenever I take my time in the morning, I am so so happy and productive for the rest of the day.
When I don’t, I actually waste A LOT more time being annoyed. ha.
If I simply started later, after my morning ritual, I’d be productive for a lot more hours, instead of zombying out pissed off.
Thanks for the reminder.