Spending All Your Energy

It is so easy to give to others. You went into healthcare because you wanted to help others. You felt this desire to make the lives of others better. Whether you are a physician, nurse, social worker, respiratory therapist, speech therapist, or dietician. You care. And that is amazing! You want to see others get better and live a healthy life.

What no one every told you is that you end up spending all of your energy helping others and usually have none left to give to yourself or your loved ones. You come home spent, dried up and worn out. Instead of having that deep conversation with your significant other, you turn to social media or television to “unwind” and “recharge.”

Guess what. You spent all your energy on others and left none for your closest relationships. However, it does not have to continue to be this way. You are not meant to spend all your energy at work and leave none for yourself or your closest relationships. Let’s look at how to manage your energy better.

What is Energy?

The first place to start is to explain what I mean by energy. I am not referring to ethereal stuff like auras and crystals. Rather, think in terms of gasoline for an automobile or the charge on your mobile device. Without fuel you are not going to get very far in your car. With a full charge on your phone, you are not likely to make it through the day.

Before you go on a trip, you have to evaluate the amount of fuel you have in your car. I live in the Atlanta area and I drive 47 miles one way to work every day. Before I start my drive, I always look at my fuel and determine if I have enough fuel to make it to work. If I do not, then I add into my route a fuel stop to fill up. There have been times that I did not evaluate the amount of fuel I had and ended up running on fumes, fearing I would not make it to the gas station to refuel.

I take a similar viewpoint with my mobile device. In my role I am in a lot of meetings, but need to be available to my team throughout the day. So, I will from time to time check the charge on my phone and plug in my phone to ensure I have enough charge throughout the day.

Our Energy

Just like the phone and the automobile, you only have so much fuel or charge. You are not like the Energizer Bunny that keeps “going, and going, and going.” You set yourself up for failure if you plan on getting up in the morning and going nonstop until you put your head on the pillow at night.

Taking time to refuel or recharge is vital to make sure you have enough energy to make it through the day. Better yet, we need refueling/recharging to ensure we have energy to give our best to our closest relationships. Unfortunately, too often we spend all of our energy at work giving to patients and coworkers that we come home on fumes or with a charge of less than 5%. Then all we want to do is chill out and recharge. However, the dishes need to be done, dinner needs to be made and the children need to do their homework. Our significant other wants to talk to us about a crucial conversation they had at work and all we can manage is “uh huh”, “yes”, etc. and then they get upset we are not giving them attention. Sound familiar?

Refuel and Recharge

I want to challenge you to look for ways to recharge and refuel throughout the day. That was you have the energy/fuel you want at the end of the day to give to yourself and your most important relationships.

While it is true your job requires so much energy, stop and ask yourself this question:

What am I doing to recharge or refuel during the day?

Are you working through lunch to “get ahead”? Do you sit at your desk all day instead of getting outside and getting a little bit of sun or fresh air? Are you moving from one task to another without every getting up and moving around? Are you going from meeting to meeting without a break in between?

If any of that sounds familiar, then you are spending all of your energy and never giving yourself a chance to refuel. We all need time to refuel and we must be purposeful about creating that time. Personally, I like to use the Pomodoro Technique. I am certainly not perfect with it and I am still learning to use it consistently, but I recommend you try it.

Basically, you set a timer for 25 minutes and work undisturbed during that time. Then you take a 5 minute break. Get up from your desk. Take a short walk. If convenient, walk outside just to smell fresh air and see the sun. Do not look at your phone. Do not check your email. Let your brain rest. At the end of 5 minutes, start the timer again and do work for another 25 minutes. Repeat this several times and then give yourself a longer break. I recommend the longer break after 3 cycles.

Yes, I know this does not work for many people. My wife, for example, is a nurse and so is unable to live by a timer and she is certainly not able to leave the ICU for 5 minutes just to get fresh air. However, nurses can take 5 minutes as well. Go to the bathroom and just shut the door and give yourself 5 minutes to practice a breathing exercise. Or go to the break room and just chill for 5 minutes.

The point is that we need to take small breaks throughout the day to recharge and refresh. It allows us to generate more energy. It it allows us to create a little bit of space in our lives. A side benefit is that the small break gives us new insight into what we are working on and we can come back with even more focus.

Ultimately, you are working to conserve and create energy for your most important times and relationships - marriage, children, significant other, friends, etc. Keep that in mind as you take breaks to reenergize yourself.

Take Aways

We generate energy. As with an automobile or a mobile phone, we use up that energy as we go about our day completing our tasks. Too often we allow ourselves to spend all of our energy and then at the end of the day we have nothing left to give to ourselves and to our most important relationships. However, we can take time throughout the day to create and conserve our energy so that we can then give our best to our important relationships and to ourselves. Create space throughout your day to recharge. Own your calendar. Do not let your calendar own you.

I hope you found this article helpful and came away with a few tips to help you manage your personal energy better throughout the day. If any way you need to help in this area, reach out to me and I will be glad to assist you on your journey.