Log energy (1-5) three times daily with sleep, meals…

When This Fires

• When you want to optimize energy allocation but don't know your actual energy predictors
• Before designing energy-aware scheduling (Annotate time blocks with required energy state…) — you need the data first
• When energy feels unpredictable and you want to identify the controllable upstream factors
• Complements When feedback is slower than behavior frequency, the brain… (temporal credit assignment for delayed feedback) with the energy-specific data collection

Common Failure Mode

Intuition-based energy theory: "I know I'm an afternoon person." Maybe — or maybe your "afternoon energy" correlates with the specific lunch you eat on days you feel good in the afternoon. Without data, you're optimizing on narrative rather than pattern.

The Protocol

(1) For two weeks, log three times daily (morning, midday, evening): Energy: 1-5 scale (1=depleted, 5=peak). Sleep: hours last night, quality 1-5. Meals: what and when (last meal before measurement). Exercise: type and duration today. Emotional state: 1-5 (1=distressed, 5=thriving), brief note on dominant emotion. (2) Keep logging simple — 30 seconds per entry. Use a spreadsheet, app, or simple note. (3) After two weeks: analyze (or feed to AI): which upstream factors most strongly predict high-energy readings? Which predict low-energy readings? (4) Use the findings to design energy-aware scheduling (Annotate time blocks with required energy state…): schedule high-demand tasks during conditions that predict high energy.