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The Power of Pacing

An article based on the book

The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal

by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

One of the major challenges of modern life is that it is impossible to take advantage of the overwhelming number of options presented to us.Yet our media messages and marketing campaigns work on the idea that we can never have enough, do enough, or be enough.

Are you enough?

In the breakthrough book, The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz posit that the biggest area in which we can make changeis how we view the way that we manage our energy. How many of us have thought that we had issues with time? Probably most of us. We have Blackberrys, Palm Pilots, and day planners galore, not to mention the computer programs that help us to keep track of where we are supposed to be at any given time. Feeling overwhelmed or stressed has become a badge of courage. We try to do more and more, skimming the surface of many activities and subjects, never becoming experts in any one area of life. We skim the surface and are exhausted by the effort of our 24/7 society.

Many of us are left feeling breathless by the end of the day. Even with our best efforts, there is no way for us to squeeze more into our days. So, maybe there is another way. . .

According to Loehr and Schwartz, managing time is like rolling a boulder uphill. There is no way for us to respond to the amount of work that we feel needs to be done. “We’re wired up but we’re melting down.” (pp. 3) What is the solution?

First of all we need to understand that the issue is energy as opposed to time.There are two principles that are the keys to managing energy. Seeing our work much as we see our workouts, performed in small intervals rather than huge chunks, is the first key to managing our energy. Secondly, visualization, a technique that is used by many professional and Olympic athletes, allows us to clearly think through and plan our time creating intentionality around how we live our lives.

Working in the form of an interval is a way to reset our energy level to avoid the afternoon slump that many of us face. If you knew that by taking small breaks throughout the day that you’d have better energy during the entire day, and therefore be happier, more relaxed and more productive, would you be interested? You may be saying that you don’t have time to take a break, that your efficiency will slump. Not necessarily. What if the opposite is true, that for every rest interval you experience, your efficiency will increase.

Here is the general idea. Instead of working straight through until five o’clock and feeling exhausted, Loehr and Schwartz suggest doing what athletes do-- take a break between plays. Think of tennis players. They play intensely for several minutes, then take a small break while they get ready to either serve or receive. Interval up, then interval down. The same is true for many sports. Football, baseball and basketball all feature intense activity, followed by a brief rest period between plays or points. The rest period and the efficiency with which the athletes recover allow them to play for a long time.

Work can be structured the same way. Try working for a little time, and then take a 5-10 minute break and take a short walk, get some water, or eat a small snack. When you return to your work, you will find that you are better able to focus. Intervals can also be used to address areas in our lives that we aren’t paying attention to, such as Stress Mastery, Relationships and Exercise and Fitness.

Visualization is another area where Loehr and Schwartz suggest that we can emulate professional athletes. Have you ever watched the Olympic downhill skiers before their run as they sit on the floor with their eyes closed, their bodies swaying as they see themselves running down the course? Our days are just the same. Whether you visualize a successful day the night before, in the morning, or before a big meeting, visualization helps you to reset your intention for how you can live your day. Visualization helps us to see what is possible and to define what success means to us before we ever get there. In addition, visualization on a daily basis is much like the Circle of Life process of defining an intention and pre-planning for the challenges.

Here are some questions to help you incorporate intervals and visualization into your day:

Are there self-care practices that will assist you in recovering between clients, meetings or while working on a long project? What are some of your favorites? What do you find nourishing as a way to renew yourself?
Other than taking a lunch break, are there other times during the day that a break would be helpful?
When you have worked for too long without a break, what have you noticed? Are you fatigued, have a short temper, feel spacey or edgy? How does your body feel? At what point during the day does your energy flag?
Much as a skier plans his or her run down the mountain, if you saw your day the same way, what could you visualize in order to make it around the barriers with as little disturbance as possible? Would you feel comfortable visualizing your day the night before, or would it feel better to think about it that morning?

Karen Kalis, Wellness Specialist, Lutheran Chaplaincy Service

References:

Loehr, Jim and Schwartz, Tony. The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. New York: Free Press Paperbacks, 2003.