Latest / Work-Life Balance with Fexingo: Boundaries, Time Management, and Avoiding Career Overload / How a Quarterly Energy Audit Prevents Career Overload
Transcript
- Lucas: So the other day I found my old time audit spreadsheet — the one where I tracked every fifteen-minute block for a week — and I realized I'd been so focused on where my hours went that I never asked the more obvious question. Luna: Which is? Lucas: Which parts of that time left me completely wiped out, and which ones actually gave me a second wind. I mean, two hours in a client presentation can fly by, but forty minutes in a status meeting can feel like an eternity. Luna: Right. So you're talking about an energy audit — not just a time audit. That's actually the basis of episode 153, the one we're recording right now. Lucas: Exactly. And I think it's a really underused tool. We've done episodes on time audits, on responsibility budgets, on office hours — but the energy layer is different. It's not about how long something takes; it's about what it does to you. Luna: And I think that distinction matters because two people can have the exact same schedule and one comes home drained while the other feels energized. Lucas: Yeah. So for anyone listening who wants to try this, the basic idea is simple: you pick a week — ideally a fairly typical week, not the one before a big deadline — and you jot down your energy level at regular points during the day. Maybe three or four times: mid-morning, after lunch, late afternoon, end of day. You rate it on a scale of one to ten. Luna: And you also note what you were doing. That's key. Did you just come out of a long meeting? Were you deep in writing? Were you on a call with a client? Lucas: Right. After a week, you lay it all out and you start to see patterns. Maybe you realize that every Tuesday afternoon you have back to back meetings and every Tuesday evening you crash. Or that you're actually sharper at nine a.m. than you thought, so you should save your hardest work for that slot. Luna: I've actually seen a really concrete example of this. A friend of mine — she's a product manager — she did an energy audit and she was shocked to find that her one-on-one meetings with certain team members were more draining than any other part of her week. Lucas: That's interesting. And did she act on it? Luna: She did. She realized it wasn't the people themselves — it was that she was always rushing in without a clear agenda, and the conversations would meander. So she started scheduling them for late afternoon instead of right after lunch, and she set a loose structure: 'Here's what I want to cover, what do you need from me?' It made a huge difference. Lucas: I love that because it shows the energy audit isn't just about cutting things — it's about rearranging. You can sometimes change the context, the timing, or the format and completely flip the energy cost. Luna: Exactly. And that's the part that feels more actionable than just saying 'quit your job' or 'say no to everything.' Lucas: Here's another angle. Sometimes the drain isn't the task itself — it's the switching. You know, the cost of context switching is real. An energy audit can reveal that you're not tired because of the work, but because you're bouncing between five different projects in a single afternoon. Luna: That's a great point. I've read that some researchers think it can take up to twenty-three minutes to fully refocus after a distraction. So if you're checking Slack every ten minutes, you're basically never getting into a deep flow state. Lucas: Yeah. And that's why I think the energy audit is the perfect complement to all the time-management tactics we've talked about on this show. It tells you not just where your minutes go, but where your aliveness goes. Luna: That's a nice way to put it. So, what's the actual process? Walk us through it, because I think people might think it's a big project. Lucas: It's not. You just need a notebook or a notes app. The key is to keep it low-friction, or you won't stick with it. I literally set three alarms on my phone: one at ten-thirty, one at two-thirty, and one at four-thirty. When the alarm goes off, I take ten seconds to rate my energy and jot down what I was doing. Luna: And you don't need special software or a fancy app. Lucas: No, a simple table works. Date, time, energy score, activity, and maybe a note on whether it felt like a drain or a boost. After a week, you have a mini-map of your energy landscape. Luna: So once you have that map, what's the next step? I assume you don't just stare at it. Lucas: No. You look for the biggest insights. Maybe you notice that your energy is consistently highest in the morning — say, a seven or eight — and then it dips to a three or four right after lunch. That's a signal: schedule your highest cognitive work tasks for the morning, and save routine stuff for the afternoon slump. Luna: And for the truly draining activities — the ones that score a two every time — what then? You can't always just drop them. Lucas: Right. That's when you get into the deeper work of understanding why they drain you. Is it the task itself, or is it that you're doing it without context? Or maybe it's the volume — three hours of it back to back. Sometimes you can break it up. Luna: I think there's also an emotional component. Some tasks drain us because they trigger imposter syndrome or because they're tied to an insecure boss. Lucas: Yeah. And that's where the energy audit becomes a career audit in disguise. If you're consistently drained by work that's outside your core strengths, that's a signal to have a conversation with your manager about your role. Luna: That's actually a really good segue to something I want to talk about. And I think it's worth pausing here for a second, because our show is ad-free and listener-supported. We've been doing this for a while now, and we're grateful for the people who chip in through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That literally funds our recording time and keeps the ad-free promise. Lucas: Yeah, it's true. We don't have sponsors, so it's just listeners like you who keep us going. We appreciate every single one. Luna: Alright, back to the audit. So once you've identified your biggest drains, you need a plan. But I think the hard part is actually acting on it, because you can't just say 'I'm not going to do this anymore' if it's a core part of your job. Lucas: Exactly. And that's where you have to be strategic. First, you can try to change the conditions. Like my friend with the one-on-ones — she didn't stop meeting with her team, she just changed the structure. Second, you can try to cluster the drains. If you have to write status reports, block an hour on Friday and do them all at once, instead of letting them hang over your head every day. Luna: Clustering is a great tactic. I've also heard of people color-coding their calendar — red for high-drain, green for high-energy — just to visually see the balance. Lucas: That's a good visual. And the goal is to get to a point where your typical week has more greens than reds. You might not get all the way there, but even a small shift can change how you feel on Sunday night. Luna: So, what about the emotional side? I feel like sometimes we stay in draining situations because we feel obligated, or we're afraid of what people will think. Lucas: That's real. And I think that's why the quarterly aspect matters. If you do this audit every three months, you're giving yourself permission to adjust. You're not making a permanent decision; you're just saying, 'For the next quarter, I'm going to try to shift these two things.' Luna: I like that. It's less risky. And you can also experiment with different shifts and see what actually moves the needle. Lucas: Exactly. For example, maybe you decide to move one recurring meeting to a different time. You try it for two weeks. If it doesn't help, you move it back. It's a low-stakes A/B test for your own workday. Luna: That's a great mindset. I want to also mention that this isn't just about reducing drains — it's also about increasing boosts. You might discover that you get a huge energy lift from mentoring a junior colleague. So you might try to do a little more of that. Lucas: Yes, exactly. The audit works both ways. And I think that's where it becomes a real career strategy rather than just a productivity hack. It's about aligning your work with your natural energy and using that to grow. Luna: And that can have a real impact on your performance, not just your happiness. When you're in a state of flow, you produce better work, you're more creative, and you're more likely to get noticed for the right things. Lucas: Totally. So, if you're listening and you're skeptical, I'd say just try it for one week. You don't have to commit to a whole quarter. Just track your energy for seven days and see what patterns show up. I bet you'll learn something. Luna: And if you do, we'd love to hear about it. You can find us on social media. But for now, I think we've covered a lot of ground. Do you have any final thoughts? Lucas: Just that your energy is a renewable resource, but only if you manage it. A time audit tells you where your hours went; an energy audit tells you where your life went. And that's worth paying attention to. Luna: That's a great closing line. I think we'll leave it there.