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How to ThinkIn the Age of AI

Question

What is schedule for energy not just time?

intermediate

Quick Answer

Deliberately schedule activities that generate energy not just activities that require it.

Example: A product manager reviews her weekly calendar on Sunday evening and sees forty-two hours of scheduled commitments — standups, sprint planning, stakeholder reviews, one-on-ones, document reviews, and two blocks labeled "strategic thinking." Every item on the calendar is something that requires energy. Not a single item is there because it generates energy. She consults her energy audit data (Energy auditing) and identifies three activities that consistently elevate her scores across all four dimensions: a thirty-minute morning sketch session, a walking conversation with a specific colleague, and an hour of exploratory reading in an adjacent field. She schedules all three into the coming week — the sketch session at 7 AM before her first meeting, the walking conversation on Wednesday replacing a sit-down one-on-one, and the reading block on Friday afternoon when her audit data shows she enters a reliable trough. By Thursday she notices that her afternoon energy scores have risen by nearly two points on average. She has not reduced her obligations. She has funded them.

This concept is part of Energy Management in the How to Think curriculum.

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