Some Days Are Low Energy

An Insight from In the Room

“My mood influences my day and my productivity, and I need to get that right.”

Some days are sludgy. Sludgy days are low mood, low energy and slow thinking days.

Using caffeine can be a short-term fix, but using stimulants to solve a mind problem rarely ends well.

And our feelings are useful.

Using low moods to burn ideas and projects is helpful. If an idea or project feels good on a sludge day, it is often worth pursuing.

Elevated mood days can be dangerous. When every idea or project seems awesome, how do we see the flaws and dead ends? Using elevated mood days to set up the plan, the systems and the processes that endure is often a better strategy than committing to decisions with a sometimes irrational mind. Because inspiration is not a good long-term strategy.

Prioritising a healthy, calm mind is critical to performance.

The first steps are making sure the basics are sorted:

1. Get enough sleep.
2. Eat a high-protein, low-processed diet.
3. Deliberate, vigorous movement.

Wisdom from Out the Room

“When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

“When our physical energy slumps, so does the quality of our decisions. Any decisions we can routinise or automate help us conserve energy and stay sharp.” - Michael Hyatt