energy audit

i just participated in another wonderful chat about mental health and social media. the topic this time was stress. one of the things i mentioned is that i have been inspired by tony schwartz to do a daily energy audit at work. two people asked if i could post about it so here it is.

in the summer my energy dropped somewhere into the basement, and when i was assaulted by a bad back for the first time in my life, i knew i had to do something. so i sat down and asked myself what impinges on my energy, and what feels important for my energy. here are the questions i came up with:

– how hopeful am i that i will get through the day?
– are there any resentments or other gremlins crowding my mind?
– what’s my physical energy like?
– what’s my emotional energy like?
– how “buzzy” do i feel? (feeling ungrounded, or “buzzy” zaps my energy)

i put the whole thing on a spreadsheet and assign a number to each question. 1 means i feel lousy, 10 means i feel great. i also make little comments that explain some of the numbers. and because i like statistics, i like to pour over the numbers the way a tea leaf reader pours over a cup of darjeeling and glean some wisdom. for example, i’ve noticed that on some questions, i fluctuate a lot and on others only a little.

here is a screenshot of a recreated spreadsheet. what do you think? would this be useful for you? what questions would make sense to you?

a spreadsheet to measure the energy level throughout the day

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