{"id":18038,"date":"2026-01-14T10:15:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T18:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=18038"},"modified":"2026-01-14T10:15:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T18:15:32","slug":"manage-energy-not-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every now and then I get an email from a student preparing for a hard exam. They have their schedule planned out for how they\u2019re going to study, and they end the email with a nervous \u201cWhat do you think?\u201d<\/p>\n

Invariably, my answer disappoints: \u201cWell, it depends \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

There are some obvious reasons: I don\u2019t know the exam. I don\u2019t know their ability level. I don\u2019t know what they already know.<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a deeper reason for my ambivalence: I don\u2019t know if they can stick to the schedule they\u2019ve set for themselves.<\/p>\n

Setting up a schedule is easy. Sticking to it\u2014especially when the work involved is cognitively demanding\u2014is incredibly hard.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The Myth of Time Management<\/h2>\n

A few years ago, I started working on a deep, research-based essay on the history of productivity, akin to my other Complete Guides<\/a>. I eventually pivoted away from the project to work on my second book<\/a>, but I can still recall reading many 19th century books about the emerging science of productivity.<\/p>\n

Early thinking on productivity was dominated by factory work. Time management was understood by the second, not the hour, with theorists like Frederick Winslow Taylor<\/a> literally timing worker\u2019s movements with a stopwatch in hand, attempting to squeeze ever-more efficiency out of the laborers who happened to be under his gaze.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

This focus on time continued, even as \u201cwork\u201d increasingly moved from manufacturing parts to manipulating symbols. Peter Drucker<\/a>, the management guru who coined the term \u201cknowledge worker\u201d also put the problem of productivity squarely in the realm of managing one\u2019s time<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Effective executives, in my observation, do not start with their tasks. They start with their time. And they do not start out with planning. They start by finding out where their time actually goes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To Drucker\u2019s executives, work was an unceasing flow of tasks, interruptions, appointments and meetings. The issue they faced was trying to assert control over the torrent of demands on their time, rather than the endurance required to stick to a studying schedule described in so many of the plaintive student emails I\u2019ve received.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

However, based on both my own experience and my correspondence with readers over the decades, I feel like most of us don\u2019t resemble either the simple \u201chuman machines\u201d studied by Taylor and his ilk, nor the captains of industry advised by Drucker. Instead, most of us are more like the students in my inbox: we want to manage our time, but actually sticking to a schedule is much harder than planning it out.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve faced this problem myself. Whether it\u2019s doing research and writing all day or trying to stick to the pace I set for myself during projects like the MIT Challenge<\/a>, scheduling things isn\u2019t hard\u2014but actually doing the work is.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Energy is the Missing Key<\/h2>\n

One of my first popular essays I wrote nearly two decades ago was a review<\/a> of The Power of Full Engagement<\/a>, an excellent book that helps explain the gap so many of us feel between what we feel we ought to be able to accomplish given our available time and how much we actually accomplish on a routine basis.<\/p>\n

The authors, Tony Schwartz and Jim Loehr, argue that high-productivity work is similar to athletics, where cycles of intense effort followed by recovery produce training gains, and both non-stop work and non-stop rest result in poorer outcomes.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Schwartz and Loehr found that their typical client is overworked mentally and underworked physically. They work long hours, but sleep and exercise little. As a result, their capacity for productive work falls, and as they slip further from their \u201ctheoretical\u201d productivity goals, as defined by time management, they resolve to work ever harder to make up the gap\u2014further entrenching their exhaustion and decreasing their capacity.<\/p>\n

I think the prevalence of this type of productivity trap helps to explain why so much productivity advice rubs people the wrong way. When we hear \u201cproductivity\u201d, the first thing to come to mind is usually a push to work even harder. Reflecting on our own busyness and mounting exhaustion, our subconscious recoils at the thought of added pressure.<\/p>\n

But, if you reflect on it, our most productive moments aren\u2019t actually like that. Instead, when we\u2019re at our most productive, the work has a certain lightness. Focus is easy, the work is interesting, and even if we feel tired at the end, it doesn\u2019t feel exhausting.<\/p>\n

When your energy\u2014rather than your time\u2014is managed well, work doesn\u2019t feel all that hard. It can even be joyful.<\/p>\n

One of the things people find strange when I\u2019m retelling the stories of some of my intensive learning projects is that they were, on the whole, not so effortful. While studying 60+ hours per week required focus, I felt pretty content most days when doing those challenges.<\/p>\n

That wasn\u2019t because I\u2019m always extremely productive (I\u2019m not). I\u2019ve had plenty of projects that were slogs to complete, where getting even an hour or two of work done felt like pulling my fingernails out.<\/p>\n

Productivity advice, if it is to be helpful, should be a road map explaining how to make work more like those joyful projects and less like the slogs. It should teach you how to create more situations where, even if you\u2019re working incredibly hard, the work itself feels easy.<\/p>\n

Energy is More Than a Fuel<\/h2>\n

Unfortunately, there is no secret to easy productivity. Energy itself may be a somewhat misleading metaphor. \u201cFuel\u201d implies that what\u2019s constrained is some internal resource that can be deployed against any task with equal efficacy.<\/p>\n

Instead, the ease (or lack thereof) with which we stick to the schedules and plans we make varies according to a complicated mess of factors both biological and psychological.<\/p>\n

These factors are what I\u2019m going to explore over the coming weeks in a series of essays. I\u2019m looking at what the best-available research says about how to think about this problem. I\u2019m also sharing what strategies I\u2019ve found work best, from my own experiments in the nearly two decades since I first wrote about this topic.<\/p>\n

Right now, I\u2019d like to end with a thought experiment: What would you work on if doing the work was easy?<\/strong> This ideal may not be entirely achievable in all cases, but it at least exposes us to the gap between the things we\u2019d like to achieve and what we feel we have the energy to accomplish. Write your answer in the comments!<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What would you work on if doing the work felt easy?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-personal-development","7":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nManage Your Energy, Not Your Time - Scott H Young<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time - Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What would you work on if doing the work felt easy?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AuthorScottYoung\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-14T18:15:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Energy-management-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scott Young\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@scotthyoung\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@scotthyoung\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scott Young\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Scott Young\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9904804296dddc70b5fdedde997fd92e\"},\"headline\":\"Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-14T18:15:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/\"},\"wordCount\":1112,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Energy-management-1.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"General\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/\",\"name\":\"Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time - Scott H Young\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Energy-management-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-14T18:15:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9904804296dddc70b5fdedde997fd92e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Energy-management-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Energy-management-1.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Scott H Young\",\"description\":\"Learn faster, achieve more\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9904804296dddc70b5fdedde997fd92e\",\"name\":\"Scott Young\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca5b31d9b26a01360fe494ba6c936b8e0c27dd00453bc606c4ad946850239bf7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca5b31d9b26a01360fe494ba6c936b8e0c27dd00453bc606c4ad946850239bf7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca5b31d9b26a01360fe494ba6c936b8e0c27dd00453bc606c4ad946850239bf7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Scott Young\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/author\/vatadmin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time - Scott H Young","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time - Scott H Young","og_description":"What would you work on if doing the work felt easy?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/","og_site_name":"Scott H Young","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AuthorScottYoung\/","article_published_time":"2026-01-14T18:15:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Energy-management-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Scott Young","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@scotthyoung","twitter_site":"@scotthyoung","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scott Young","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/"},"author":{"name":"Scott Young","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9904804296dddc70b5fdedde997fd92e"},"headline":"Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time","datePublished":"2026-01-14T18:15:32+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/"},"wordCount":1112,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Energy-management-1.jpg","articleSection":["General"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/","url":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/","name":"Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time - Scott H Young","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Energy-management-1.jpg","datePublished":"2026-01-14T18:15:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9904804296dddc70b5fdedde997fd92e"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Energy-management-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Energy-management-1.jpg","width":800,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/14\/manage-energy-not-time\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/","name":"Scott H Young","description":"Learn faster, achieve more","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9904804296dddc70b5fdedde997fd92e","name":"Scott Young","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca5b31d9b26a01360fe494ba6c936b8e0c27dd00453bc606c4ad946850239bf7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca5b31d9b26a01360fe494ba6c936b8e0c27dd00453bc606c4ad946850239bf7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca5b31d9b26a01360fe494ba6c936b8e0c27dd00453bc606c4ad946850239bf7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Scott Young"},"url":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/author\/vatadmin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18038"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18059,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18038\/revisions\/18059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}