April 30, 2025

The Energy Equation: Why Time Management is Really Energy Management

The Energy Equation: Why Time Management is Really Energy Management

Ever had one of those days when your calendar is wide open but you still feel like a balloon with a slow leak? You've got the hours, you've got the plan, but somehow you're dragging yourself through tasks like you're competing in the slow-motion Olympics. 

The problem isn't your motivation or discipline—it's energy management. While most of us have been trained to slice our lives into neat time blocks and fill each one to the brim, we've overlooked something critical: time is fixed, but energy is fluid. Even with perfect calendar blocking, your brain follows natural 90-minute cycles of peak performance and necessary recovery. When we ignore these ultradian rhythms, we create the perfect conditions for what I call the productivity paradox—doing more but accomplishing less.

Science shows that most adults can only sustain deep focus for about 90 minutes before needing a break—it's not a personal failure, it's biology. Time management alone makes you busy; energy management makes you brilliant. The key is identifying your natural high-energy windows and protecting them for your most important work, while strategically using tools like AI to handle low-energy tasks during your natural dips. Start treating your day like an athlete would approach competition—pacing yourself for peak performance rather than sprinting at the starting line.

Ready to stop planning perfect days without considering your mental gas tank? This episode reveals practical strategies for working with your energy cycles instead of against them. Because when you stop obsessing over minutes and start honoring momentum, you don't just survive your week—you lead it. Follow now for weekly insights on working smarter, living better, and staying human in a world that never slows down.

00:00 - The Productivity Paradox

02:34 - Brain Boost Trivia: Focus Duration

03:37 - Time vs Energy Management Explained

05:31 - Practical Energy Assessment Check-in

06:40 - Smart AI Hacks for Low-Energy Tasks

08:29 - The Brilliant Energy Management Mindshift

WEBVTT

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You ever have one of those days when your calendar is wide open, a whole golden block of uninterrupted time, and yet somehow you still feel like a balloon with a slow leak.

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You've got the hours, you've got the plan, you've had your five-hour energy and still you're dragging yourself across the start line like you're competing in the slow motion Olympics.

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It's not a motivation problem, it's not a laziness problem and, despite what hustle culture says, it's not because you didn't quote, want it bad enough.

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It's an energy problem.

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Today, we're pulling back the curtain on why managing your time isn't enough anymore and why your real superpower lies in managing your energy anymore, and why your real superpower lies in managing your energy.

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This is your midweek mind shift lies in managing your energy.

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This is your midweek mind shift.

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Welcome to the midweek my chip, the podcast for people who want to work smarter, live better and stay human in a world that never slows down.

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Every Wednesday, we break down one sharp, actionable shift to help you rethink how you work, live and lead without losing your mind or your humanity in the process.

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I'm your host, bill McManaman, and I'm glad you're here.

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Let's get into it.

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Picture this you built the perfect day Calendar, blocked lunch, prepped noise, canceling headphones on.

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You sit down at 9 am, fully caffeinated, fully committed, and by 9.17, you're alphabetizing your desktop folders, checking LinkedIn for just a second and Googling whether it's normal for your cat to stare at you while you work.

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Sound familiar?

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If it does, you're not broken.

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You're not lazy, you're not undisciplined.

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You're simply running on an empty tank trying to sprint through a marathon with no fuel.

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Here's the shift.

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Time management is a helpful tool, but without energy it's just window dressing.

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All the blocked time in the world won't matter if your brain is stuck in the low power mode.

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So today we're flipping the script from managing hours to managing energy.

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But before we dig into the why and the how, let's warm up that brain of yours with a little trivia.

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Here's your Brain Boost trivia for today.

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Question Roughly how long can the average adult brain sustain deep focus before it naturally needs a break?

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Is it A 25 minutes focus before it naturally needs a break?

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Is it A 25 minutes, b 90 minutes, c 3 hours?

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No-transcript Got it.

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The correct answer is B 90 minutes.

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Most adults cycle through what's known as ultradian rhythms natural peaks and dips in energy that last about 90 minutes.

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After that, our cognitive sharpness drops off, you might feel groggy, distracted, irritable or like you suddenly forgot what you're doing.

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It's not burnout, it's biology.

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And if we ignore that biology and try to push through, that's when we start working longer but producing less.

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That's the productivity paradox doing more, achieving less.

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Let's talk about how we got here and how to get out.

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Let's go back.

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Most of us were trained to value one thing above all else time.

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From school bells to hourly wages, to Outlook calendars.

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We learned to slice our lives into neat little chunks and fill each one to the brim.

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Plan better, batch your tasks, make every minute count.

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And when that didn't work, we blamed ourselves.

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We downloaded another planner, we watched time management YouTube gurus, we berated ourselves for not being disciplined enough.

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Here's the truth you don't manage time.

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Time moves no matter what you do.

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What you manage, if you're wise, is your energy, because time is fixed, but energy is fluid.

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It's affected by your sleep, your stress levels, your nutrition, your hormones, your workload and, yes, even that fight you had this morning, or the weird dream you can't shake.

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Let me give you a real world example.

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A few weeks ago, I had a unicorn moment A full open Saturday afternoon.

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I was pumped.

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I had big plans.

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I was going to crush my quarterly podcast strategy, maybe even get ahead for once.

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Know what I did instead?

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I color-coded podcast cables.

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I spent 20 minutes debating if I needed new shelving for my equipment closet.

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I then opened my email, stared at it blankly and closed it again.

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It wasn't procrastination, it wasn't a lack of structure.

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It was a complete mismatch between my available time and my available energy.

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That's the problem with focusing on minutes over momentum.

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Imagine trying to plan a cross-country road trip and completely ignoring gas stations.

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You map out the whole route perfectly and then break down in the middle of nowhere eating gas station beef jerky for dinner.

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Time is your itinerary, energy is your fuel.

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Let's pause here for a quick practical check-in.

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Take 30 seconds and mentally answer these three questions.

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When during your day do you feel most focused or clear-headed?

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What tends to drain you the fastest?

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Emails, meetings, decision-making, social interaction?

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What small shift could you make to protect your peak energy window?

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Start treating your day like an athlete would treat a game.

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You wouldn't start a marathon at mile one in a sprint and you wouldn't schedule a championship performance right after an all-nighter Plan around your energy not, despite it, quick pit stop.

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If this episode's hitting home.

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Do yourself a favor and tap follow so you don't miss the next big shift.

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New episodes drop every Wednesday, built to help you work smarter, live better and dodge burnout like a pro.

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And if someone you know is running on fumes a colleague, a friend, maybe even your boss send this their way Because, let's be real, we're not short on hours, we're short on energy.

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All right, deep breath, now let's get back into it.

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Now you might be thinking, okay, bill, I get it Energy first, but there's still a mountain of stuff I have to do every day.

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That's fair.

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Here's where smart use of tech, specifically AI, can save your best energy for where it matters.

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Simple AI hack of the week Use AI to clear low-energy tasks off your plate when you're naturally dragging.

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For example, let ChatGPT draft that rough client email when your creative tank is running on fumes.

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Or summarize that monster two-hour Zoom call so you don't have to relive it in real time or schedule it to pull reports, build templates or generate outlines Things that don't need your best stuff, just a first draft.

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Ai doesn't replace your brilliance.

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It protects your brilliance by giving you back your best energy when it counts.

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And if you think about it isn't that the smarter way to work.

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Let's be honest If most workplaces actually tracked energy management instead of time management, our daily status updates would sound a lot different.

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Instead of I sent 47 emails today, we'd hear I used my brain's peak window to solve three real problems and didn't spiral into an existential snack eating at 2.30 pm.

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Imagine the performance reviews Outstanding use of early afternoon, emotional resilience under caffeine deficient conditions.

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Honestly, I'd frame that award.

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So here's the big mind shift for today Managing your time makes you busy.

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So here's the big mind shift for today Managing your time makes you busy.

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Managing your energy makes you brilliant.

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Time is just the canvas.

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Energy is the art.

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This week, try one tiny shift Identify your next natural high energy window.

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Block it, protect it for something that actually moves your needle, not busy work, and let smart tech handle the stuff you don't need to waste your best energy on, because when you stop obsessing over minutes and start honoring momentum, you just don't survive the week you start leading it.

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I'm Bill McMenamin and I appreciate you bringing me into your world.

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Cheers till next time.