It’s 5pm, you’ve just finished work, and you feel like you’ve run a marathon, yet you have hardly moved from your desk all day. Why is this job so draining, you ask? Is it the constant ping of emails in your inbox, the too-frequent complaints of your colleague Negative Nelly, or back-to-back meetings that seem to achieve nothing? Maybe it’s something harder to pinpoint?
Here we look at how to identify why you’re feeling drained and give you real solutions to help you cope with those energy-sucking tasks (and people).
What Are Energy Drains at Work?
Energy drains are not just an occupational phenomenon. Feeling worn out and exhausted by people, situations and activities that diminish your physical well-being, emotional or mental health is also common in everyday life. For example, we’ll all come across ‘Energy Vampires’ in our day-to-day lives. They are those friends or acquaintances who thrive on negative self-talk, drama and emotional manipulation.
In the workplace, toxic colleagues, excessive workloads and a poor work-life balance can drain your energy levels. But in this article, we’re going to teach you how to overcome challenging tasks, people and situations to renew your energy reserves sustainably.
Why Addressing Energy Drains Matters
Failing to act in the face of an energy drain can leave you feeling, well, drained. If you don’t address these energy zappers, your productivity will decrease, and you may suffer from low morale, and exhaustion can spill over into your personal life, potentially causing health problems.
Chronic workplace stress is known as burnout. While it isn’t a medical condition as such, it is included in the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases due to its severe mental and physical health impacts.
If you can effectively address the issues that are leaving you feeling depleted and reduce the likelihood of feeling burnt out, you’ll feel more focused and creative, save time, and achieve a healthy work-life balance.
Conducting Your Energy Audit
Now to finding the source of constant energy drains. You can do this with a simple energy audit where you track each of your activities and rate their impact on your energy levels.
You may prefer to use a physical journal to record your activities or an online spreadsheet if you find that easier to manage. Remember that although this will require a small amount of your time each day, you’ll only need to do this for 3-5 days to get an idea of how your productive hours are being spent. The aim is to reduce stress, help you set boundaries and regain control of your day, so it’s worth the investment of a few minutes each day.
Rate each activity you perform during the day as either an energy giver or an energy taker, looking for patterns and triggers as you go along.
Here’s an example of an energy audit
On Monday, you had a heavy workload, so you ate lunch at your desk. Because you hadn’t had a proper break, your productivity was actually reduced in the afternoon because you were tired and found it hard to stay focused. On Tuesday, you still had a heavy workload and ate at your desk, but you decided to have a 15-minute break after lunch to take a walk around the block. This exercise made you feel energised and more productive during the afternoon.
In the above examples, not stepping away from your work zone to eat would be considered an energy taker, but physically moving your body is an energy giver.
The takeaway
Knowing what boosts and causes dips in your energy levels means that you can try to reduce draining activities and prioritise energy givers. In the very least, you may be able to organise your day so that your energy reserves are high before you begin to tackle those tasks that drain you.
Common Energy Drains & How to Tackle Them
Energy drains come in many forms, from toxic environments to toxic people. Here are the most common and practical solutions that will help you to overcome them.
Digital Distractions
Digital distractions are a relatively new concept for modern workplaces, with emails, social media and instant messaging all interfering with our capacity to concentrate. They can stem from external triggers, like notifications, and from the internal urge to constantly check one’s phone.
A recent study found that more than 75% of employees find notifications from workplace digital tools a distraction, but there are ways to minimise the distraction or change our behaviours in response.
- Try email batching. Use set times to send and respond to emails rather than as they come in.
- Protect work time. Silence notifications using the ‘do not disturb’ feature on your computer and phone.
- Schedule focus blocks. Structure your day to include deep work time and stick to it.
- Resist the urge. Anxiety and self-doubt can fuel the urge to check your phone every few moments. Ask yourself why you need to keep checking, and put your phone in a drawer and it will soon be a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’.
Unproductive or Too Many Meetings
Many of us have left a meeting thinking, ‘Couldn’t that have been said in an email!’. And, in fact, studies have found that most workers find meetings are an unproductive way to communicate, leading to increased stress.
Before you create a meeting time, ask yourself if there is a better way to communicate, and, if there isn’t, be clear about the agenda. You might also like to allocate specific times for meetings to take place or set ‘no-meeting’ hours.
Energy Vampires
Nothing turns a workplace toxic faster than someone who’s self-absorbed and has something negative to say about everything. Their behaviour can affect the mood and productivity of everyone around them, but there are ways to stop them from taking the wind out of your sails.
While it’s still important to have good relationships with those you work with, try to limit the time and attention you give these energy-draining people. Set boundaries, communicate assertively with statements such as ‘I respect your opinion, but I disagree’, and focus on finding solutions.
Poor Workspace & Ergonomics
From cluttered desks to air conditioning that’s too cold, an uncomfortable work environment can have a greater effect on your output than you might realise.
While you might not have the ability to clear up your colleague’s messy workspace or make the entire building warmer, you can ensure your own space is set up for maximum efficiency.
Start by investing in an ergonomic chair or standing desk to prevent neck strain and backache, position your monitor to reduce eyestrain, move your desk away from high-traffic areas, use desk organisers to keep everything in its place, and tidy your space each Friday afternoon.
Role & Task Ambiguity
Not having a clear direction or understanding of your duties and what’s expected of you is a constant energy drain that can lead to reduced motivation, increased levels of stress and self-doubt and poor mental health.
If necessary, seek support from management by communicating your assumptions and clarifying information. You could also try focusing your energy by optimising your to-do list using a priority matrix where tasks are ranked according to urgency and importance. Alternatively, try implementing a daily stand-up.
This is a short meeting, taken standing up, where team members discuss what they did yesterday, what they will work on today and what issues they are facing.
Personal Energy Habits
When you’re busy, it can be easy to overlook the importance of self-care. But regular exercise, getting enough sleep, eating well and drinking enough water can help you get through those long hours at work with a better mood and a more positive outlook.
Try increasing your capacity to deal with stress and the demands of your job by using Pomodoro breaks, where you work for 25 minutes, then take a 5-minute break. You repeat this cycle 4 times before taking a longer 20-30 minute break to prevent fatigue and improve your focus. Set a stretch alarm on your phone, set up an email alert to take frequent breaks, or drink water from a small cup instead of a water bottle so that you’re forced to stretch your legs. Find what works for you and stick with it.
Implementing Strategies & Tracking Progress
Following your energy audit, you can implement some of the techniques above, or whatever you find works for you, and set measurable goals for what you’d like to achieve.
For example, if you’re a manager in a busy office who responds to tasks reactively, you may be feeling stressed by constantly jumping between tasks like making phone calls and responding to emails. After your energy audit identified that you have the most focus in mornings, but this time was wasted on emails. You created a schedule for your daily tasks that looked like this:
- Email batching in the early morning and at the end of the day
- 5-minute breaks between tasks
- Morning block for high-focus work
- 30-minute lunch break each day at 12pm
Meetings only taken at certain times, for example, after lunch, with 10-minute breaks between to recharge
After a couple of weeks, you’ll begin to get a sense of what’s working and what’s not. Now is a good time to conduct another audit so that you can fine-tune your routine.
Bonus: Building Workplace Systems for Long-Term Energy
Many of the solutions to energy drains are sustainable in the long-term, but here are some extra ways you can work smarter, not harder:
- Advocate for energy-supporting structures such as flexible work agreements.
- Leaders should practice active listening and have regular check-ins with employees.
- Foster a culture of positivity and support.
- Automate repetitive tasks.
- Establish ‘focus zones’ where a set area or time is dedicated to deep work.
- Promote self-care and well-being practices that can be applied at work and at home.
- Make standards clear by rewarding positive behaviours and results.
Let Us Teach You How To Keep Your Tank Full
While an energy audit is the most effective way to identify and eliminate those dreaded energy drains, I bet you can probably think of one or two off the top of your head. Why not take our advice and make one small change that will help you ‘fill up your tank’ today?
For a more in-depth look at how energy management can help you sustain positive momentum, consider an Energy Management course with Priority Management. Visit our website to learn more.