Energy Management

“Your energy is currency. Spend it well. Invest it wisely. Use it Intentionally, consistently, and by your own design.” — Adrienne Bosh

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= 能量管理 = 精力管理 (比 時間管理 更重要!)

David Hawkins’ Levels of Consciousness (情緒能量表)

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There’s no such thing as working too hard. There’s just being under rested. — Don’t focus on energy output (working too hard). Focus on energy production (recharging activities).

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Willpower is not a Limited Resource & Ego-depletion is a Myth

• After a particularly grueling day, I’d sit on the couch and veg for hours, doing my version of “Netflix and chill,” which meant keeping company with a pint of ice cream. Even though I knew that eating ice cream and sitting for a long time were probably bad ideas, I told myself that relaxation was my well-deserved reward for working so hard.
• Psychological researchers have a name for this phenomenon: it’s called “Ego Depletion.” The theory is that willpower is connected to a limited reserve of mental energy, and once you run out of that energy, you’re more likely to lose self-control.
• However, recent studies suggest we’ve misunderstood willpower, debunking the theory of ego depletion.
  • [@jobEgoDepletionIt2010]
    • People who viewed the capacity for self-control as not limited did not show diminished self-control after a depleting experience.
    • …reduced self-control after a depleting task or during demanding periods may reflect people’s beliefs about the availability of willpower rather than true resource depletion.
  • [@jobBeliefsWillpowerDetermine2013]
    • …following a demanding task, only people who view willpower as limited and easily depleted (a limited resource theory) exhibited improved self-control after sugar consumption. In contrast, people who view willpower as plentiful (a non-limited resource theory) showed no benefits from glucose—they exhibited high levels of self-control performance with or without sugar boosts.
• Here’s the key point: Simply believing that we’re “spent” or mentally drained can create a sense of fatigue, a phenomenon linked to the nocebo effect. detrimental, making us more likely to lose self-control and make poor decisions. In reality, ego depletion is driven by self-defeating thoughts, rather than any biological limitation. It’s not the sugar in the lemonade that sustains mental stamina—it’s the placebo effect in action. ¹
• Moreover, willpower functions like an emotion. Just as we don’t “run out” of joy or anger, willpower rises and falls depending on what’s happening to us and how we feel.
  • If mental energy behaves like an emotion rather than fuel in a tank, it can be managed and harnessed accordingly: When faced with a difficult task, it’s more productive and healthy to view a lack of motivation as temporary, rather than assuming we’re spent/drained and need a break.

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The Energy Razor

• If you don’t schedule actions that produce energy, assume they’ll never happen.
• If you don’t monitor actions that drain energy, assume they’ll keep expanding.

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Don’t follow your passion, follow your energy.

Don’t manage your time, manage your energy.

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My ability to do any serious mathematics fluctuates greatly from day to day; sometimes I can think hard on a problem for an hour, other times I feel ready to type up the full details of a sketch that I or my coauthors already wrote, and other times I only feel qualified to respond to email and do errands, or just to take a walk or even a nap. I find it very helpful to organise my time to match this fluctuation: for instance, if I have a free afternoon, and feel inspired to do so, I might close my office door, shut off the internet, and begin typing on a languishing paper; or if not, I go and work on a week’s worth of email, referee a paper, write a blog article, or whatever else seems suited to my current levels of energy and enthusiasm.

Footnotes

1. Studies show that our brain does not consume more blood sugar when working on difficult tasks. The brain is an organ, not a muscle. It does not burn extra calories but maintains a steady energy consumption with increased effort. Whether you’re solving calculus problems or watching cat videos, your brain burns roughly the same number of calories per waking minute. ↩