The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

1. You should focus on managing your energy rather than your time.
2. Energy follows a rhythm, and the key to maximum production is to understand that rhythm & use it.
3. There are 4 category sources of health that dictate how much energy you have: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual.

Power of Full Engagement

• Most people focus on managing time. Managing energy may actually be more important for performance.
• Quantity of hours in a day is fixed. Quality of those hours is not.
• Performance, health, and happiness are grounded in the skillful management of energy.
• There are 4 sources of energy: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual

Exercise analogy:

• Energy stores deplete with use. We must balance energy expenditure with energy renewal, in a rhythm.
• In the use of energy, it is better to be a sprinter than a marathon runner
• Energy capacity can diminish with constant overuse (overtraining) & underuse (atrophy)
• Energy capacity can increase with training (progressive overload + intentional recovery)
• Positive energy rituals that recover you are key for full engagement and sustained performance
• A ritual is different from a task.
• You’re pulled to a ritual e.g. brushing your teeth vs. pushed to a task. Ritual is autopilot, doesn’t take willpower. You know you’ll feel better after.

Health in each of the 4 category sources is what dictates capacity. Renewal ritual examples below. Rituals can be highly personal.

• Physical: How’s your body doing? How is your nutrition, sleep and exercise?
• Morning jog, eating vegetables, good sleep hygiene

• Emotional: Do you feel positive emotions often? Are you emotionally resilient? Or do negative emotions run the show?
• Watching the game with friends, taking cooking classes, reading a book for pleasure

• Mental: Are you able to focus for sustained periods of time? Think creatively? Or are you distracted, scattered etc
• Meditation, deep breathing, walking outside

• Spiritual: Do you have a purpose & clear set of values that drive your actions, beyond self-interest?
• Writing out statements and review, update regularly, listening to inspirational teacher

• The quantity of energy we have to spend is a reflection of physical capacity. Our motivation to spend what we have is largely a spiritual issue.
• Spiritual energy is the most powerful source of our motivation, perseverance and direction.
• Example: company loses half it’s staff to 9/11. CEO announces 25% of all profits for next 5 years go to families of coworkers who died. Unified the remaining team with a profound sense of purpose, providing tarspiritual energy.
• Time should be spent either being productive or recharging. Avoid half-working. It drains you without being very useful or renewing you.
• Exercising self control, willpower measurably depletes energy. This is well-studied.

NOTE: There is an ongoing replication crisis in psychology that has thrown these studies into question. Jocko Willink has also famously called bullshit on them. In my own experience, I have found that I can focus for a finite period of time on some given work, but that exercising other forms of self control (like choosing to avoid sweets or TV) actually expands my willpower to keep making good decisions.

• We have almost infinite capacity to fool ourselves, so being critical about health and alignment of the 4 categories is important.
• Example of guy who believes his wife & kids are most important to him (values), but he is overweight & smokes which hurts his physical energy and ability to play with kids. He is overworked which strains him emotionally in his marriage on top of harming his mental performance at his job.
• Track your energy levels in a journal to understand your natural rhythms, then use them to your advantage (i.e. work during high points, focus on recovering during natural lows).

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