Why Energy Management Beats Time Management

Hi there,

I was at a mandatory corporate wellness training recently.

The kind that makes you question whether HR is a support department or a government psyop.

There was a PowerPoint. There was breathing exercise. Someone said “circle back to self-care” with a straight face one too many times.

By the end of it, I wanted to shove my planner in a Vitamix and drink it like a green juice just to feel something.

But somewhere between the forced team-building and the burnout buzzwords, one of the speakers told a story that gets told a lot in business circles, but it landed differently this time.

The Fisherman and the Businessman

A wealthy businessman is vacationing in a small coastal village when he meets a fisherman bringing in his catch for the day.

The businessman is impressed. “How long did it take to catch all those fish?”

“Just a short while,” the fisherman says.

The businessman, baffled, asks why he doesn’t stay out longer to catch more. The fisherman shrugs: “This is enough for me and my family.”

Curious, the businessman presses on. “So what do you do with the rest of your day?”

The fisherman smiles. “I fish a little, nap in the afternoon, play with my kids. In the evening, I have a drink with friends, play guitar, sing and dance.”

The businessman can’t help himself. He launches into a five-year growth plan.

“You could start working longer hours. Buy a bigger boat. Build a fleet. Open a factory. Move to the city. Go public. Make millions.”

The fisherman pauses. “And then what?”

“Then,” the businessman beams, “you can retire to a quiet fishing village… wake up early, catch a few fish, nap in the afternoon, play with your kids, and dance at night.”

The fisherman stares. “But that’s what I do now.”

We’ve Been Managing the Wrong Thing

That story hit me like a splash of cold water in a sea of hustle porn.

Because if you're reading this, you're probably not trying to catch fish, you're trying to catch up. Catch up on your inbox. Your goals. Your timeline for being wildly successful yesterday.

We live in a culture that worships productivity and pathologizes rest. If you have a free hour and don’t use it to “get ahead”? You’re lazy. Weak. Undisciplined.

Never mind that your nervous system is cooked, your soul is parched, and your to-do list is longer than a CVS receipt.

We’ve been taught that if we’re not squeezing enough out of each day, we just need to… manage our time better.

But the truth is we don’t have a time problem. You have an energy management problem.

Time Is Fixed. Energy Is Fluid.

Time scarcity is a top complaint these days. We all say we want more time. If we just had more time, we could see our friends and family more, exercise regularly, plan the trip, write the book, prep the healthy meals, catch up on sleep, switch jobs, or start the business.

But the harsh truth is we’re not starved for time. Somehow, we found an hour for trash TV and a late-night scroll through Instagram. What we’re really missing isn’t time. It’s the energy to do it.

But here’s the thing to remember:

• Time is democratic — everyone gets 24 hours.

• Energy is personal — and it fluctuates wildly depending on your inputs.

You’ve felt this before:

✅ Two hours of flow state > Eight hours of zombie mode.
✅ A 10-minute convo with an energy vampire = full body shutdown.
✅ A spontaneous walk with someone you love = instant renewal.

Still, most high achievers keep trying to solve for time:

• Block your calendar

• Tighten your routine

• Add another productivity app

Meanwhile, your battery is flashing red and you’re wondering why nothing’s clicking.

Reframe Productivity As Alignment (Not Discipline)

Tony Schwartz, co-author of The Power of Full Engagement, breaks energy into four dimensions:

• Physical - your body’s battery

• Emotional - your internal climate

• Mental - your capacity to focus)

• Spiritual - your connection to a sense of purpose or meaning

When one is drained, the others suffer.

Low emotional energy? Small decisions feel like calculus.
Mentally drained? A 10-minute task becomes an hour-long slog.
Spiritually depleted? Even hitting your goals feels hollow.

Trying to brute-force your day with time blocks and willpower is like blaming your car’s GPS when you’re out of gas. The right question isn’t “How can I optimize my calendar?” It’s: “Where am I leaking energy?”

Why Netflix & Chill Doesn’t Work (…sorry)

When we don't focus on energy management, by the end of the day, we're so knotted up with unprocessed clumps of feelings and little mental ailments of every sort that we couldn't possibly begin to untangle them.

So we figure the best we can hope for is a little "me time," which bears an eerie resemblance to numbing and avoidance (because it is numbing and avoidance).

But doom-scrolling in soft pants while your inner critic whispers “you should be doing more,” that’s not rest. That’s shame marinated in blue light.

Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith calls this the wrong kind of rest. In her book Sacred Rest, she outlines seven types of rest:

1. Physical

2. Mental

3. Emotional

4. Spiritual

5. Sensory

6. Social

7. Creative

If sleep isn’t solving your burnout, maybe sleep isn’t what you need. Maybe you need emotional rest i.e. permission not to perform.

Or creative rest i.e. time to not be productive.

Or sensory rest i.e. a break from pixels, pings, and people.

Rest isn’t optional. It’s a system restore.

But it only works if you know what system’s glitching and you attend to it.

READER POLL

Final Thought

I wrote this because of a conversation I had recently with someone I deeply admire. She’s sharp, capable, the kind of person who runs circles around most people before 10 a.m.

But that day, she looked… dimmed.

“I just feel so lazy,” she said. “Like I’m falling behind and can’t get myself to do anything.”

I knew exactly what she meant. She is not lazy. Not broken. Just misaligned.

Because here’s what we don’t say out loud: most high achievers aren’t exhausted from doing too little. They’re exhausted from spending their energy in the wrong places, on the wrong timelines, for the wrong reasons.

We think burnout is a failure of discipline.
It’s not. It’s a failure of design.

So here’s your reminder for this week:

You don’t need more time.
You need better energy stewardship.

Stop treating time like your boss and start treating energy like your compass.

Play the right game.

Shakila

P.S. Here’s the results of last week’s poll.