Use your energy smartly

Our energy is difficult to measure or to express in hard units. Nevertheless, at a certain point everyone can feel whether they have a lot or little energy. Although some are very good at suppressing or denying that feeling. Everyone has his or her own energy balance and deals with it in a different way.

It can help to ask yourself the following questions:

* At which times of the day do I have the most energy? If possible, plan tasks that cost you the most energy at those moments.

* Which tasks are clearly energy guzzlers and energy guzzlers to me? Then alternate these with each other, but make sure that the energy givers are always present in abundance.

Everyone has his or her own biorhythm: some people only feel able to do mountains of work at the end of the day, others function best early in the morning. All patterns or biorhythms are good. There is no such thing as right or wrong. If you can organise your (working) day in such a way that you make use of your natural energy cycle, then everything goes just a little easier. For example, plan activities that cost you energy at times when you know you have the most energy and therefore work most efficiently.

Also take your 'dips' into account: learn to recognise which tasks cost you energy and which tasks actually produce energy. Then cleverly alternate these with each other. Does a meeting cost you a lot of energy, but do you get energy from a walk? If so, plan these immediately after each other and do not put two long meetings in your schedule one after the other. Make clever use of your available energy. If there are people around you who are draining your energy, keep in mind at what point you can recover and recharge it.

In this way you make sure that your energy level remains at the same level and that you don't flop down on the couch in the evening and no longer have anything to do with your evening.

Author: Demi van Mulken & Nina de Rooij, PSV lifestyle coaches