👋 Hi, it’s Dipti ! Welcome to my weekly newsletter, where I share insights to help you find more clarity, build confidence, and grow in your career—all while living with a greater sense of joy and purpose.
Recently I asked a client of mine to conduct an energy audit on her work calendar. She shared she was feeling stuck, overwhelmed with endless projects and finding it hard to actually do her work well. It didn’t help that she was a high-performer, making it a perfect recipe for increasing her dissatisfaction with her work.
“What is an energy audit ?” she asked.
It is a great exercise for someone looking for clarity on how they’re spending their energy. Think of it as your financial budget, only this is with your precious time doing work. We think we have limited time, but we really have limited energy through the day to get our work done. Being mindful of what increases our energy or drains it leads to higher self-awareness. And who doesn’t want more self-awareness.
The concept of an energy audit has been shared by Diana Chapman of the conscious leadership group. It has also been shared by Matt Mochary of the Mochary Method.
It is fairly simple and insightful. And I wish it was more popularly known.
When does it make sense to do this ?
A job can sometimes become all consuming, no matter how much you enjoy certain aspects of it, and it can eventually become energy draining if you’re not mindful of how you’re spending your time.
When you normalize operating from a place of “barely staying above water", you are not doing the organization a favor and definitely harming yourself in the long run.
Here’s how energy draining activities make you feel - exhausted, drained, unfulfilled, tense, anxious, dissatisfied, emotionally heavy, weighed down, lethargic, sluggish, inauthentic, irritable, restless and many more words that I probably won’t be able to capture here.
It is like driving the car on “Empty” for way too long and hoping it doesn’t stop, making only stops to refill for gas 1 mile ahead. Imagine how many times you have to make a stop if you’re making a 2 hour journey to your destination. And how you’ll be wasting time just looking for the next gas station every few mins, vs enjoying the drive.
Similarly, a repeat of energy draining activities leads to negatively impacting your well-being in some way or other. The good news is once energy draining activities are identified, its easier to eliminate or change them.
What is the benefit of doing this audit ?
When you spend time identifying the energizing activities in your daily life, you end up doing more of what makes you feel good. It may help you identify your flow activities, find more joy, more meaning, feel like you’re contributing to a larger purpose and building something of value.
High energy activities also lead to eventually identifying your “zone of genius”. Aim for doing at least 70 to 80% energy creating activities through the day.
In the book The Big Leap, Gay Hendricks identifies four zones that describe how we operate:
The Zone of Incompetence: Activities we’re not good at or skilled at, and others can do better. Example: For me it would be fixing an appliance that stopped working at home.
The Zone of Competence: Tasks you're ok at but that don't set you apart; they feel routine and uninspiring. Example: cleaning my home and washing my car.
The Zone of Excellence: Things you’re excellent at and that make you highly successful but you don’t always love them. This is where most people who’re working in a corporate job live at. I was really good at gathering a team of people to execute on tasks. But I didn’t always enjoy doing it. There is value for others in you doing what you’re great at, but you may not necessarily enjoy doing it.
The Zone of Genius: This is something you are uniquely great at. The sweet spot where your innate talents and passions intersect, creating joy, flow, and your highest contribution. Unfortunately, we rarely explore this side of us. Something I’m giving myself more time to explore.
The key is to recognize and gradually shift more of your time into your zone of genius to unlock your full potential, the zone where you want to live in.
How to do an Energy Audit ?
Here’s a 3 step simple process to conduct this energy audit. Look for a typical 2 week work calendar coming up. You can either print out your calendar, or make notes for this exercise in an excel file similar to how I like doing it.
The focus is your working time from 8am through 6pm (adjust to what suits you best).
Step 1: At the end of every hour write the task you just completed. If you’re just looking at the calendar, review what you just worked on.
Step 2: Next mark your calendar as either red (energy draining), yellow (neural) or green (energizing). If you are writing this you can also mark it as (-), (=), (+) respectively. I like to change the color of the cell in excel where I wrote the task.
Step 3: If your energy went down or stayed neutral, define an action step to eliminate that activity, delegate (outsource it to someone) or focus on making it exquisite. Write that task next to that activity.
Ask these questions for your energy draining or neutral activities :
Does this actually need to happen ? yes/no
Do I need to be the one doing it ? yes/no
What would make this energy raising or exquisite ? (ex: how to make a meeting I must attend an amazing meeting. Possibly having a pre-agenda, highlights shared ahead or defining on agreements on how to have an amazing meeting.)
Categorize all your red and yellow blocks (energy draining) activities together. Review and identify the patterns. What can you do to eliminate or delegate them or make them better?
Now, categorize all your green blocks - the energy raising activities. The aim is to get these to be eventually 70- 80% of your work week. What insights have you gained from these activities ? The more you do these activities, the more you’re likely moving towards your zone of genius.
Here’s a sample if you’d like to know what it would like:
*Comments can be blank. Added them to capture insights.
Actionable Step:
Do this energy audit activity once a month. You’ll be surprised by some of your insights.
Share this exercise with a friend or a coworker, and decide to conduct this exercise together. You’re more likely to stay on track for those 2 weeks. Lastly, share your insights and ahas with each other. Decide how you will increase your green blocks so you can have more energy through your work week.
I’d love to hear your about your insights that come out of this exercise for you. If you have more questions, send those in as well.
My Weekly Recommendation:
To learn more about conquering your fears, and living your life in the zone of genius, check out the bestselling book The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks.
P.S. - I’ll be doing a book summary on The Big Leap in a few weeks. If you’re not planning on reading the book, remember to subscribe to the newsletter so you don’t miss it!
P.P.S - If you’re feeling your energy at work is off, download my free 10 question guide - designed to validate whether its time for transition or not. Click here to download it.
I’m very interested in this. Love the concept of an energy audit.