Sunday Roundup: Managing Your Energy and Taking Care of Yourself
Finding more ways to be your best self
This week, I shared on LinkedIn that I had a Substack and I was writing in it. Thank you to all of you who have been following along and a big welcome to those of you that joined. I’m still trying to figure out where this is going to take me, but I’m hopeful this is insightful, interesting, and helpful to you as your try to thrive at work and in life (and maybe even a little entertaining) for you along the way.)
I’d love any feedback, thoughts, questions, or hot takes, so feel free to comment or email me directly. And if you feel compelled, I’d be grateful if you would share this with a friend or share it in your social media networks!
Greetings, and Happy Sunday! I’m actually writing this on Thursday because today I am on vacation. This is the first real vacation I’ve taken in over a year and something that I’ve been looking forward to.
Like many of you, I struggled to take time off during 2020. Since we were working from home, it was hard for me to see the separation from work and non-work, and while I did take PTO, it often meant just not opening up my work laptop and phone due to the restrictions in place at the time. In hindsight, this was a miss on my part, and led to suboptimal outcomes down the road, including my own challenges with burnout and exhaustion. This is also why since leaving my corporate job this summer I’ve tried to do a much better job of both taking prolonged breaks (like this week) as well as doing things daily and weekly to better manage my own well-being.
I wrote a few weeks ago about the importance of recognizing our burnout as well as how to manage our well-being, and I’m trying to put that into practice not just with our vacation but for how I live my life each day. Just like many other things in life, managing your own well-being and energy is not something that comes in fits and spurts or in big pockets like a big trip to Hawaii (although those are perfectly normal and great things to do and often lead to many short term benefits) but through the actions and habits we put forth each day.
I’ve actually written down a document of behaviors and actions that I want to try to refer to in order to make sure that I am taking care of myself, and in a position to do my best work, and take care of myself and my well-being. Oftentimes, this means finding ways to recharge, or rest. I’ve also reflected upon the times when I felt that I didn’t have a good sense of work-life balance and what was causing it. At the core, for me, was always this tension of whether or not I was “doing enough” or a desire to get “more” of something, usually in the means of a promotion, raise, or title, and if in the absence of choosing to take on this work, if it would make me seen as “less than” in the eyes of others.
Now that I am on my own and working independently, I’ve had much more agency and control over my time and my day to day schedule. I also don’t have a corporate ladder to climb, and have thus eliminated a good portion of the fears of being seen as “less than” (although certainly those fears do creep up but just in other ways) This is freeing in many ways, as it allows me to focus on the things that I find most impactful and important.
A few weeks ago I ended up going over to my sister’s place, and spending the entire afternoon hanging with my 12 week old niece. Last week, I got the chance to meet up with a friend I met on the internet (it's much less sketchy than it sounds, I promise) for coffee and we chatted about his business and my business and how we could help each other. Two weeks ago I spent a whole week in DC where in addition to getting work done, I got to celebrate my Father’s award, spend time with his college roommate, and meet up with a few friends (Hey Jessi and Kerry!) In all of these cases, the traditional lines of “work and non work” were blurred, but what felt so refreshing was having the agency to start with what’s most important to me in my life, and then to work backward and design the day (and work) that needed to be done around that. In some cases (like spending time with my niece) I got no work done, but in other cases (writing on a Thursday early morning) I was able to be incredibly productive.
One principle I want to leave you with is this idea of being able to manage your energy (shoutout to Meredith, who I know likes this principle) versus managing your time. Yes, having a good and up to date calendar is super important, but the real principle here is being able to understand
What give and takes away energy
When and how you can replenish your energy
How can you structure your day to manage your energy
One tactic that Meredith told me she uses which I’ve since tried to apply in my own life is that whenever I have to take on an activity that is energy depleting, I try to pair it with an activity that is energy giving, that way I can keep a healthy balance around my energy.
Now, I should add, there is some inherent privilege in writing this, especially knowing that I don’t have nearly the responsibilities on my plate as some of my friends, colleagues and readers of this newsletter who have parents or are caring for elder family. Those are difficult complexities that often make it extremely difficult, and when you also have to think about managing the energy of others, it gets difficult. That said, I leave you with the classic quote you hear from airline flight attendants: “put your mask on before helping others.” Showing up with energy and maximizing your best use of energy ensures you can take care of those around you. So with that, I’m going to recharge for a bit so I can come back stronger next week.
And with that, thanks for reading!
What I’ve Read
The best round up of what I’ve read this week
Rethinking Back to Work (HBR) - HBR put out a great serie of articles on the whole “Back to Work” topic
The 10 Commandments of Salary Negotiation (Lenny’s Newsletter) - If you are trying to negotiate a job (or have to negotiate in life, so basically everyone!) This is a must read and one to save for future reference.
A Profession is Not a Personality (The Atlantic) - The discourse and discussion on how we as whole humans are more than their work is nicely articulated in this article.
Who is The Bad Art Friend? (NY Times) - This is a pretty wild story and unfolding of events. Warning: if you want 30 minutes of your life that you’ll never get back, or if you just are out of things to read then feel free to give this a read. And if you don’t, then read the explainer via Vogue. And if you have thoughts on who comes out looking the worst on this or any other hot takes on this story, please send them my way.
Flexibility is The New Buzzword (Where’s Your Ed At) - Ed Zittron runs his own PR firm and has been working remotely for years. He’s also a writer and has been going hard in the paint against the anti-remote work sentiment, lack of due diligence of writers covering the return to work, and managers. This piece highlights how the word “flexibility” is causing consternation in the office vs remote work debate, and how it’s being framed as a worker problem versus a problem of organizational structure, management, or leadership.
What I’ve Listened To
Podcasts that I’ve listened to that I recommend you check out
Brene with Charles Feltman on Trust: So much of being able to be vulnerable (Brene’s forte) is tied to having a sense of trust with those around you. In this episode, Brene talks with Charles Feltman, who has done nearly three decades of research on Trust.
Touchy Feeley: You may have heard of the infamous Stanford GSB Class “Touchy Feely.” This episode talks to the instructor of that class who have taken their decades of teaching this class and turned it into a book about building meaningful relationships in work and life
The Shadow Side of Solopreneurship (Reimagine Work)I’ve been a big fan of Paul Millerd, a MIT Sloan Alum Ex McKinsey Consultant who left the corporate world to be a digital nomad. Paul’s podcast examines the future of work and brings on guests who have craft their own unique path in life that bucks the traditional norm. This episode features Darren Joe, whose path to solopreneurship and the nomad lifestyle happened in the early 2000s.
What I’m Reading
Things I’m spending some time reading and researching
Managing Urgency: The Hot Sauce Principle (Brandon Smith) - Shoutout to Blake K for the recommendation on this one
Educational Equity: The College Payoff: More Education Doesn’t Always Mean More Earnings (Georgetown Center on Education And The Workforce)
The Work From Home Battle: Here’s Why Working From Home is Making You Feel Burned Out (Business Insider, Paywall)
The Future of Work: DAOs and The Future of Work (Annika Wright)
Community Shoutouts
New Ways of Hiring - Nick de Wilde, Product Marketing Principal at Guild and Editor behind The Jungle Gym has launched the Talent Collective. If you are looking to work at a high-growth tech company check out what Nick is doing to find better, more efficient and more seamless ways of connecting talent to opportunities, sign up today
Breaking Into Product Management - Shyvee Shi is doing her second experiment with creating on LinkedIn, and has been publishing daily content on breaking into Product Management.
Podcast Famous - My friend and WSJ Best-Selling Author Erica Dhawan was interviewed on Whitney Johnson’s podcast. Erica is also hiring a Chief of Staff if you are looking for a new role, check it out
Innovating in Career Education - Daniel Liu, Managing Director of Career Education at Texas McCombs and his colleagues and staff announced a partnership with Archer Careers to provide relevant and mobile-friendly career resources for their students. If you want to know what the future of career education powered by technology could look like, watch what Daniel and his team are doing down in Austin, Texas.
Al