Next Decade · Short Workshop 05

The Energy Audit

Where your energy really goes — and where to stop the leaks.

Plus the Energy Audit worksheet Grounded in research · some examples are composites

We manage our time obsessively and our energy almost not at all. Yet two people with identical diaries can end the same week in completely different states — one drained, one lit up. The difference isn't the hours. It's what the hours did to them.

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, who studied performance under pressure, argued that energy, not time, is the real currency. This workshop helps you audit yours: name the kinds, find the leaks, and make one swap that pays off every single day.

In this workshop

Four steps, about fifteen minutes.

1
Four kinds of energyNot one tank — four, and they refill differently.
2
Leaks and sourcesWhat quietly drains you, and what tops you up.
3
The curve of your dayYou have peaks and troughs. Stop ignoring them.
4
The one swapRemove one leak, protect one peak. That's the week changed.
Step 1

Four kinds of energy

“I'm exhausted” is almost never the whole truth. Exhausted how? You can be physically fine but mentally fried, or rested and bored witless. Loehr and Schwartz name four distinct tanks — and the cruel trick is that the fix for one does nothing for another. A nap won't cure a loss of purpose.

Four tanks, not one

The kinds of energy

Physical

Sleep, movement, food, recovery. The base the other three stand on.

“Am I rested, or running on fumes?”

Emotional

Mood, relationships, the weather inside you. Drained by conflict, topped up by warmth.

“What's the emotional tone of my days?”

Mental

Focus, attention, the capacity for hard thinking. Shredded by fragmentation.

“Can I still think, or just react?”

Spiritual

Purpose — the sense that it's all for something. The deepest tank, and the slowest to notice when it empties.

“Does any of this still matter to me?”
Pause

When you last felt “wiped out,” which tank was actually empty? Most people discover it wasn't the physical one — which is why sleep didn't fix it.

Step 2

Leaks and sources

Every life has energy leaks — the standing commitments, relationships, and habits that drain a tank for no return — and energy sources that quietly refill it. The audit is simply this: notice which is which, honestly, and stop pretending the leaks are obligations you can't touch. At this stage of life, remarkably few of them are.

The audit, in two columns

Leaks vs sources

Most people can fill both columns in two minutes — and are startled by how much of the week sits on the left.

Leaks — drain, no return

What empties the tank

  • The meeting you attend out of habit, not use
  • The relationship that's all taking
  • Doomscrolling that leaves you flatter
  • Saying yes to protect an old identity
  • Admin you could hand off but don't
Sources — refill the tank

What tops it up

  • Time with the people who leave you lighter
  • Movement, daylight, a proper night's sleep
  • Work that uses your real strengths
  • Making or learning something with your hands
  • A clear sense of who it's all for
You don't have to earn the right to close a leak. You just have to notice it's a leak.
Step 3

The curve of your day

Energy isn't flat — it rises and falls on a daily rhythm, and most of us schedule in complete defiance of it. We spend our sharpest hour clearing email and save the hard, meaningful work for the afternoon trough, when there's nothing left to give it. Match the task to the tide and you get more from less.

Your daily rhythm

Peaks, troughs, and a second wind

A typical curve. The exact shape is personal — the point is that it has a shape, and your diary should respect it.

ENERGY Peak protect this Trough Second wind morningearly afternoonlate afternoon
Hard, meaningful work on the peak. Admin and easy wins in the trough. Never the other way round.
Step 4

The one swap

Don't redesign your whole life. Make one swap. Close the single biggest leak you named, and move your most important activity onto your peak hour and defend it like an appointment. One leak out, one peak protected — that's not a tweak, that's a different week, and it compounds.

A worked example

A recently retired head teacher kept saying she was “just tired.” Her audit told a different story: her physical tank was full, but a weekly volunteer committee she'd outgrown was draining her emotional one, and she'd handed her mornings — her clear peak — to errands.

She left the committee and moved her writing to 8am. Same hours in the day. A completely different woman by Friday.

“
Manage your energy, not just your time. Two people can share a diary and end the week in opposite states.
The through-line of this workshop
Key takeaways
1

You have four energy tanks — physical, emotional, mental, spiritual — and each refills differently.

2

Audit your leaks and sources honestly; few leaks are as compulsory as they feel.

3

Your energy follows a daily curve — match hard work to your peak.

4

Make one swap: close the biggest leak, protect the biggest peak.

Before you go

Run your Energy Audit.

Rate your four tanks, list your leaks and sources, sketch your daily curve, then commit to one swap this week.

1.Score each of the four tanks out of ten, today.
2.List your three biggest leaks and three biggest sources.
3.Name your one swap in The Energy Audit thread — and report back Friday.
Next Decade · Short Workshop 05

The Energy Audit

Four tanks, the leaks, and one swap.
Physical / Emotional / Mental / Spiritual — /10
My three biggest leaks
My three biggest sources
My one swap this week:
Download the worksheet (PDF)
✓

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