Well said by Jim Loehr, author of The Power Of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is The Key To High Performance And Personal Renewal, in a recent interview:
Time only has value when it intersects with energy. We’ve been deluded into believing that if we’re home for dinner or present on a conference call, we’ve created value. But if you’re present but disengaged, you’re doing the exact opposite of your intention. If the first thing you do at a meeting is flip open your computer and work on e-mail, all of your energy is somewhere else, and you’re not giving it to the meeting.
But how do you shift from managing just time to managing energy?
It’s not how many hours you put in with a client or on a project. It’s the quantity and quality of your energy — your focus and force — that determine whether that time is valuable. We call that “full engagement.” It’s the acquired ability to intentionally invest your full and best energy right here and now.
Does multitasking help?
There’s no such thing as multitasking. If you have 15 balls in the air, 14 of them are in free fall. That’s why there are so many accidents when someone is texting while driving. It dumbs you down more than alcohol or marijuana. If your life is literally going from e-mail to Twitter to the next signal from cyberspace, you lose efficiency and sense of direction. But if you contain them, those things can add to your productivity. You do that by building barriers around them. Make calls at a certain time; check e-mail at a certain time.