Blog

#1 Having more energy for the things I like doing

First of all I want to make a disclaimer that this is what worked for me, it may not work for you.

I'm introverted, spending time with people makes me feel tired. The less I know them the worse it is, even though I enjoy hanging out with my friends a lot. This also means going to work is a particularly exhausting experience, more so when I start in a new place. Well, I've been trying stuff to better manage this problem for years and I want to share how I do it.

First of all I divide all activities I do in 3 categories:

• Drains Energy: Chores, social events, big proyects at work, writing, designing, composing, creating, reading, hard videogames.
• Energy Neutral: Scrolling on social media, binging youtube, easy videogames.
• Recovers Energy: Rest, mechanical tasks, journaling, meditation.

I used to do mainly the first two categories. In part because the first one is necessary, I have to do chores and work. The second one because its easy to start them and keep doing them.

This year though I started identifying activities in the third category and doing them more and more. Both journaling and meditation have become a part of my life and it has helped so much.

You may have noticed that a lot of the more fun stuff drains energy. Well the problem is that if you drain all your energy doing chores and work, then you won't have any left to do the things you love. Even though the most effective way to solve this is to develop a good work/life balance, energy recovery activities can also help you.

What is Journaling?

Journaling is having and maintaining a journal. When something bothers you, or you feel tired or stressed you can write your feelings in a journal. It's not only a great way to vent, but it also can help you better process things from your day to day life and make improvements. The best part is that journaling also recovers a little bit of energy, so after you're done you may have enough energy to do fun stuff you enjoy.

Though, journaling its not the most efficient way to recover energy I know. That title goes to:

Meditation

First of all forget all stereotypes you have about meditation. Wikipedia's definition of meditation is: "Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state."

As you may have guessed one of the benefits of meditation is that its an activity that recovers energy. And that is the benefit I'm going to focus on. I'm going to explain my way of meditation and use cases.

I meditate by looking at an imperfection in my wall. I sit down, try to feel comfy and try to focus all my attention in looking at the imperfection. When my mind goes somewhere else and I stop looking at it I try to return my attention to the imperfection.

While I'm meditating I hide all clocks and things that may trigger my peripheral vision. Its important to note, when I meditate I don't know how much time it will take, I just do it until I have the energy I need. Usually takes between 10-40 minutes for any of the activities I listed that drain energy (but I just trust in the process).

When do I meditate?

• When I have to do an overwhelming task
• During public transport or when I'm waiting in line

In the first case, overwhelming task means anything you can't bring yourself to start doing. It may be for work or for fun, I sometimes feel too tired to start doing something. In those cases its better to meditate or do other energy recovering activities instead of something neutral. You won't have more energy after scrolling in social media for an hour, you'll just feel more preassure.

The second case is interesting, you may have noticed that as long as you are giving something your full attention then you are meditating. That means you can do so when you have nothing else to do. You can meditate during times you wait and have more energy for later (this doesn't replace sleep though so don't use it as such.)

An important thing about meditation though its that it HELPS you have more energy in your day to day life. It is not an excuse to start adopting a lifestyle that demands more energy. As always the best way to have more energy is to do less draining stuff.

Finally I want to talk about Mechanical Tasks.

Mechanical Tasks

Mechanical tasks are things you can usually do at the same time as doing some other thing. Something where you don't need to make decisions on the fly. Like knitting or tracing, things people usually do while watching a show or listening to a podcast.

These activities are great for recovering energy. Of course doing so without doing something else would recover more energy, but do what's fun for you. Last month I discovered that cutting stickers with a precision knife worked for me and I've been doing it every now and then. It's been fun.

Anyways

Thank you for reading, I always wanted to share a little bit of my journey of self discovery and improvement. I hope some of the things here are useful to you.

Have a wonderful rest of your day.