Be Awesomely Effective Part 1: Embodied cognition
Be Awesomely Effective Part 2: Decision points
Be Awesomely Effective Part 4: Stop fighting distractions
Be Awesomely Effective Part 5: Mind-body connection
Be Awesomely Effective Part 6: Workspace
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 45 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Be Awesomely Effective Part 3: Mental Energy
— From Two Awesome Hours: Science-Based Strategies to Harness Your Best Time and Get Your Most Important Work Done by Josh Davis, Ph.D.
In yesterday’s post, Josh Davis, Ph.D. taught us the importance of being aware and seizing decision points. Today, the author of 2 Awesome Hours will share with us how to manage our mental energy as part of creating those two hours of peak performance on a daily basis.
Time management and productivity experts tell us that we should tackle the biggest priority first as there may not be time later on to get to it. Experts are partly right, says Davis. However, “Their advice misses an important element. Our mental energy is the fuel that drives us—or fails to drive us.”
Davis goes on to explain: “every task takes a mental toll on us; some even fatigue our minds. And perhaps every task elicits emotions that make that task and the ones that follow either harder or easier to do. While it would be nice to bring our A game to every task we tackle, there’s only so much of the right mental energy to go around… we’re much better off choosing what’s worth giving the right mental energy to and putting off, in strategic ways, those tasks on our to-do lists that get in the way.”
Decision making, planning, holding on to thoughts for a short time (while we need them), staying focused and self-control are among the mental activities that generate the most mental fatigue. This, in turn, reduces our ability to perform at our best.
The simple task of answering email, turns out, is quite taxing because it “involves making decisions, and sometimes complex ones: Should I reply? Do I have to respond now? If I write it this way instead of that way, will the person react well to my e-mail or be offended by it? Should I delete it or file it for future reference? Should I write a short response or forward it to someone else?” Argh! No wonder we get mentally exhausted if we spend hours on it. These seemingly small and inconsequential decisions do pile on.
There are several fascinating studies that have found out that willpower (self-control) is like a muscle. It starts fresh every morning, and after resisting many temptations—big and small—it fatigues throughout the day. That’s why most diets are broken in the evening, because the dieter’s self-control is fatigued from resisting yummy temptations all day long and finally gives in.
To ensure our brains are ready to perform at their best when we need them, we must understand the emotions that our tasks generate on us, and the effect this will have on the subsequent tasks. We must plan accordingly. “Being ‘on’ at the right moment matters so much [that] saying no to tasks that will get in the way of that is key to deciding what should get our attention.”
Since most tasks involve decision-making and self-control, we are bound to experience some mental fatigue. “The key to limiting mental fatigue is recognizing the work that is most likely to deplete your resources in a substantial way and, when you have any say in the matter, to simply not engage in that work before you want to be at your best.”
There are some activities that unavoidably will deplete us (dealing with a difficult client, repeated insistence from someone for us to do something, a dreaded and stressful meeting, confrontation, etc.), and some that fatigue us to a certain degree (switching tasks often, networking and small talk, sitting still for long periods, making cold calls, looking for errors and correcting them, planning, scheduling, deadlines), but avoiding them is not always possible, much less practical.
The good news is we don’t have to avoid them. “If we strategically choose the order in which we complete the various tasks on our to-do lists, we can carve out two awesome hours when our brains are not as fatigued and get some amazing things done.”
ACTION
TODAY & FUTURE: The author suggests four simple things you can try to avoid mental fatigue:
1. Complete your most important work first thing in the morning (before your brain has been depleted by hundreds of small decisions).
2. Label the tasks on your day “Important,” “Creative,” or “Other.” Schedule time later in the day to tackle the “Other” category, Knowing you’ve set aside time for this will ease your mind, and you won’t be stressed to tackle them early in the day when your mental reserves are full.
3. Try checking email for just one hour in the afternoon (to me, the mere idea of this, at first gave me hives! Now I love it). Not every day will allow for this. Try it once and see if this approach helps improve your focus on tasks that require problem solving or creativity during the rest of the day. For all you know, you may be pleasantly surprised with this solution, and you might be able to do this occasionally or even frequently. Tim Ferriss, life hacking guru and author of The 4-hour Workweek, checks his personal email once daily and his business email once every 7-10 days! His secret? Autoresponders. (Here’s a complementary post.)
4. Make a few decisions the night before a big day. Big or small, avoid making them on your big day as much as possible. By eliminating choice, you’ll be eliminating fatigue and you can focus your energy on what really matters that day.
Lastly, what to do if you are fatigued or overly emotional and need to recharge? Davis suggests breathing deeply and slowly, having a good laugh and/or taking a short nap.
Know someone who is constantly mentally exhausted? Please share this miniseries with that person! You can do so via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!