Energy Over Time: Managing Capacity Like Capital
Energy Over Time: Managing Capacity Like Capital
The Unfiltered Leader
No spin. No fluff. Just what actually works.
Most leaders still treat time as the main constraint. Calendars look full, so they assume capacity is maxed. The reality is simpler and more brutal. Time is allocated on paper... stay with me on this one. Energy decides what actually happens. Data shows that UK employees are productive only 2 hours and 53 minutes out of an 8-hour workday [1]. Over half of UK workers' time is spent on busywork, with 4 hours per week in unnecessary meetings - double the rate since 2019 [2]. The hours are finite. What you need is focused, sustainable energy in the right places. This issue builds a simple system for weekly energy accounting that you can run for yourself and your team. Here's the download...
Why your calendar is lying
Your calendar tracks bookings. It doesn't track what those bookings cost. Leaders sit in back-to-back meetings and then notice strategic work slipping into nights and weekends. Hybrid work has blurred transitions. Recovery sits at the bottom of the list. The net result is arguably predictable: tasks get ticked off, meaningful work stalls.
Think about your last week. How many high-concentration hours did you actually have? How many decisions did you make when you were already fried? How often did you pretend to listen while quietly planning the next thing?
That gap between scheduled time and usable energy is where execution breaks.
Research shows that employees who excel at energy management are 50% more engaged and 21% more productive [3]. Meanwhile, 64% of professionals experience work-related stress due to poor energy management [4].
Most organisations already run capital reviews, pipeline reviews, and risk reviews. Very few run energy reviews. Yet energy behaves like capital. It has inflows and drains. It needs allocation rules. It compounds when invested well and disappears when sprayed everywhere [5]. Harvard Business Review research found that a group at Wachovia Bank that went through energy management training outperformed a control group on key financial metrics and reported substantially improved customer relationships, productivity, and personal satisfaction [6].
If you don't measure energy, you'll keep overspending it.
Stop pretending you're a machine
Leadership culture still romanticises the leader who can "push through anything": long hours, back-to-back calls, always available. The quiet cost is that you're solving important problems at the point in the day when you're least resourced to do it.
Energy has quality bands. Deep focus for complex thinking. Steady attention for management, coaching, and decisions. Low energy for admin, updates, and simple tasks [7]. Most workers reach their peak energy a few hours after starting the workday, followed by a decline, hitting a low around 3pm [8].
When you put high-complexity work into low-quality energy slots, you pay twice.
You work more slowly, and you drain yourself further. This isn't about becoming precious. It's about accepting that your nervous system sets some rules, whether you like it or not. Research on ultradian rhythms shows we move through 90-120 minute cycles from high-energy states to energy dips [9]. You can either design around those rules or keep pretending they don't exist.
The leaders who are winning aren't grinding longer. They're allocating energy like capital and protecting the periods when their judgement is worth the most.
Yourself first
Run this as a 5-minute Sunday or Monday reset.
Step 1: Map last week in 3 columns
Draw a simple table with three columns:
Column 1: Activities that gave you energy
Column 2: Activities that drained you
Column 3: Activities that were neutral
Use actual examples: board prep, one-to-ones, strategy work, investor calls, performance reviews, ops meetings. You're not judging the work. You're tracking its effect on your system [10].
Step 2: Track the patterns, not your feelings
Circle:
Anything in column 1 that has an outsized impact on outcomes
Anything in column 2 that reappears every week
Anything in column 3 that could move to async or be delegated
What you're looking for are structural patterns. For example, high-value thinking always scheduled after a heavy meeting block, the same standing meeting appears in "drains" every week, or coaching time appears in "gives energy" but gets squeezed.
Step 3: Set one rule for this week
Examples:
No decision of consequence after 4 pm (yes, it can and should wait until tomorrow)
Two 90-minute deep work blocks protected in the diary
One standing meeting cut or moved to async
One energy-giving activity locked in (walk, training, reading, reflection)
Keep it boring and enforceable. You're not redesigning your life, you're nudging your system.
Matching energy type to task type
Once you see the pattern, you match energy type to task type [7]:
High energy: Strategy, design, framing, writing, difficult conversations
Medium energy: One-to-ones, coaching, team reviews, decision meetings
Low energy: Approvals, email, updates, admin
Now look at your week. Are your most important tasks sitting in your highest energy windows? Or are those windows full of other people's priorities?
If your best energy is spent on low-leverage work, nothing else will fix performance. Not a new tool. Not another offsite. Not a time management hack. You don't need colour-coded perfection. Aim for one or two key blocks in the week where the high-stakes work gets your best attention, not the scraps.
The team energy map: Where the system leaks
Your team's energy profile matters as much as your own. Silent exhaustion in one layer of the system drags everyone else down [11].
Run a simple team exercise in your next meeting. Ask everyone to write down (privately):
One activity that consistently drains them
One activity that consistently gives them energy
One area where they feel their energy is wasted
Collect themes anonymously. You'll usually see the same meeting or report listed as a drain by several people, specific work that lights people up but receives little time, and rework and unclear ownership showing up as major leaks.
Your job is to remove pointless drains that add no value and to move people closer to work where their natural energy actually supports outcomes. This is capacity management in practice.
Monthly rebalance: Combine energy signals with your operating rhythm
You already have quarterly priorities and a Q4 operating rhythm. Now you add energy signals. Once a month, ask three questions:
Where did we see the highest energy and strongest progress align?
Where did we see energy collapse without corresponding results?
What one process, meeting, or project will we stop or shrink this month?
Then act. Reallocate at least some work from low-energy, low-impact areas, move high-impact work into better slots in the week, and adjust one team norm that's clearly draining capacity (for example, late-night responses, constant rescheduling, or overlapping projects).
Consider this as monthly micro-corrections that keep energy and priorities aligned. No major moves here.
Here's the brief
Energy management isn't a wellness trend. It's operational discipline.
When you treat energy like capital - tracking it, allocating it deliberately, and protecting your reserves - you stop bleeding capacity on work that doesn't matter.
The leaders who finish Q4 strong won't be the ones who scheduled the most meetings. They'll be the ones who matched their best energy to their most important work.
20-Second Energy Check
Answer yes or no:
I can point to at least two protected high-energy blocks in my week
I know which tasks give me energy and which drain it
My calendar reflects that knowledge at least some of the time
My team has a way to surface energy drains without fear
We stop or shrink at least one low-value activity every month
Three or more yes answers suggest you're starting to manage energy like capital. Fewer than three means you're still letting the calendar run the system. Start with the weekly ledger.
The Numbers
2 hours 53 minutes of productive work out of an 8-hour UK workday [1]
4 hours/week in unnecessary meetings for UK workers (doubled since 2019) [2]
50% more engaged employees who excel at energy management [3]
21% more productive with effective energy management [3]
64% of professionals experience stress from poor energy management [4]
3 pm typical energy low point after lunch [8]
90-120 minutes ultradian rhythm cycles (high energy to drain) [9]
68% positive impact on client relationships from energy management [12]
71% saw productivity gains from energy management training [12]
References
Vouchercloud. "How Many Productive Hours in a Work Day? Just 2 Hours, 23 Minutes..." 2017.
Personnel Today. "Over Half of UK Workers' Time Spent on Busywork." September 2024.
Africa People Advisory. "Beyond Time Management: The Energy Advantage." June 2024.
American Psychological Association. "Work-Related Stress and Energy Management." 2024.
Loehr, J. & Schwartz, T. "The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time." Free Press, 2003.
Harvard Business Review. "Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time." October 2007.
Acacia Learning. "Elevating Productivity: Energy Management vs. Time Management." 2024.
DeskTime. "Managing Time vs. Energy: Can Both Work Together to Boost Productivity?" April 2023.
Training Industry. "From Hours to Energy: The Power of Energy Management and Micro-Breaks." April 2025.
National Center for Biotechnology Information. "Energy Management of People in Organizations: A Review." PMC, 2011.
Harvard Business School Working Knowledge. "How Workplace Wellness Programs Can Give Employees the Energy Boost They Need." August 2023.
Atlassian. "4 Ways to Manage Your Energy and Have a Balanced, Productive Workday." October 2021.
