Find Your Rhythm; Set The Pace!
Are you a machine? The way we work these days, most of us seem to think we are (or should be). We act as if we can switch ourselves on at the start of the day (with a strong coffee), and proceed to multi-task like a computer until it's time to go home, late, for some snatched conversations on the margins of life.
But the way we're working isn't working. At least, not according to the leadership expert Tony Schwartz, in his recently published book with that title. Schwartz argues that we should remember how - and who - we were created to be. We are 'oscillatory' beings, he says, not linear: we work in waves, rhythms, seasons and cycles. None of us can simply keep going.
As such, we must manage energy, not time, he says, by becoming aware of two things: the way we spend our personal energy, and the way we renew it (and by energy, he means 'our capacity to work'). It's a profoundly simple way of charting a course through each day. (He then divides 'energy' into four: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.)
Intriguingly, we have 'awake cycles', just like 'sleep cycles', which last for about 90 minutes. So Schwartz has created rituals for himself, to focus his physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy into 'sprints'; after which, he switches focus entirely, in order to restore his energies by going for a walk or a run, or meditating, or shutting his computer off and reading, or by having a proper meal.
In this way, he argues, he oscillates naturally and positively between the 'active' and 'passive' parts of his day, creating a virtuous circle through which he achieves more, by doing less. It's the opposite of what many of us do, which is to keep going no matter what: remaining 'active' by trying, artificially, to stimulate ourselves with caffeine, pills or adrenaline...
After spending too long in a negatively 'active' state, we descend into a passive state of burnout - which is surely not how we'd like to live our lives, nor how we should lead by example, as Christians.
'Take my yoke upon you,' said Jesus. 'For ... my burden is light.' Or as Eugene Peterson paraphrases it, 'Walk with me, work with me... And learn from me the unforced rhythms of grace.'
How much we have to learn.
Brian Draper
Visit http://www.spiritualintelligence.co.uk to buy Brian Draper's ground-breaking book Spiritual Intelligence: A New Way of Being, or his latest work Labyrinth: Illuminating the Inner Path. You can also find out more about his unique enterprise Echosounder, which helps anyone, Christian or otherwise, to develop their spiritual intelligence and live at a deeper level of meaning.
The Way We're Working Isn't Working was published in July 2010 by Simon & Schuster.
Links
Ideas for action and contemplation
Take a personal energy audit - devised by Tony Schwartz and free on his website...
Take back your lunch! Schwartz has started a campaign to start with the very basics, by reclaiming your lunch hour. You can join the movement here...
Create a diary of the way you spend your energy and the way you renew or restore it. Ask yourself how often you stay in a positive zone - flowing when you are spending energy, and healthily restoring when you are at rest. Notice how much you rely upon artificial stimulants when you creep into a more negative zone, first when active, then also when passive (seeking to renew or just escape through TV, alcohol, distractions, etc).
Try to create new rituals in your day, which will help you to oscillate more effectively between positively spending energy and positively renewing it.
For a distilled version of his thesis, read the excellent 'Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time' by Tony Schwartz here...
Comments
This assumes that, above much else, we are meant to be 'productive'. What about leisure?
This is all very well for people who are able to set their own agenda and dictate how their time is allocated. I am employed by the NHS and have two small children at home, so often do not have the flexibility to schedule my activities around when I am at my most productive. What's fantastic is that God's grace is sufficient, so we may be "hard-pressed on every side, but not crushed." (2 Cor 4v8). Setting time aside to bask in His grace and love, and draw on His strength through prayer and meditation on the Scriptures, is of more importance to me than auditing my energy levels. It is also rather more practical, as God - by His mercy - meets with me whether I am feeling productive or not!
Date:
2010-09-20 09:45:26
Author:
Heather Williams