Energy Multipliers & Digging for Gold
Finding the activities which bring us the most return on investment in energy. Plus, digging for gold when faced with hard tasks.
It was 6pm on Friday, I’d had a long day of meetings and I’d skipped the last “writing focus” block I had scheduled pre-workday in my calendar because I was feeling uninspired and had no idea what to write. Also, I knew that the next task on my list was to exercise and I really wanted to skip that too. Ugh.
And then I went and exercised anyway… and something changed.
I had energy. I had ideas!
This is a phenomenon that has been on my mind a lot this week after reading the incredible article “Energy makes time” from Mandy Brown.
There are certain activities in our lives that seem to act as “energy multipliers” — activities where you feel that you need to invest a great deal of energy as input, but somehow you get even more energy as output. The trick is that there is no trick, and no amount of fiddling with your calendar and “productivity hacks” and “time saving” techniques are going to actually give you the amount of energy and time that doing certain things do.
I’m writing the first draft of this article immediately after a workout (the one I described in the beginning), because I’ve just figured out that for me, exercise is one of those energy-multiplying tasks. It seems that exercise is exactly what my brain needs in order to come up with ideas that excite me and put me in the writing mood.
The ideas that pop-up in that moment may not be worth anything, but the jolt of energy and motivation to sit down and write is invaluable. Once I start writing, the creative act itself generates more creative energy. One workout later, I have moved from “I have nothing” to “I have four more articles sitting in my drafts” and a feeling of genuine excitement to continue refining my ideas.
This is why I identify with Mandy’s article so much. There are activities which seem to cost us more by neglecting them rather than embracing them — and once we do, the gains are massive.
For me, I’m noticing that movement is the best catalyst for creativity. Going for a walk, jumping on the bike, even getting up and stretching for ten minutes. Nothing works better than movement. Probably because turning my attention to my body and letting my brain go into idle-mode is all I need to finally let the ideas surface and help my thoughts to stop spinning so much.
If I want to write, I have to move.
It does feel like a bit of a paradox though. There are some activities that can feel like an impossible investment of energy and effort even when you know they’re good for you. It’s like convincing yourself to dive into a cold pool. Once you’re actually in, you’re fine (and even enjoying it) but it still took some convincing to get in. (Is this why ice baths are so trendy at the minute?)
Digging for Gold
My partner recently started reading Atomic Habits (one of my top ten favourite books of all time) and it’s put me on another James Clear binge. One thing that surfaced in my highlights this week is relevant to this weeks topic: when you’re doing a hard task, it’s important to “dig out the gold” and focus on the fun parts.
I want to be careful here not to cross into the realm of “toxic positivity”. Some tasks do just suck. But especially if you have an activity that you care about doing on a recurring basis, you’ll find much more success if you focus on the parts you enjoy.
I reject the idea that it’s all about “grit” and “discipline”. You don’t need to lament the hard parts and push through. Find the fun and focus on that. If you can’t, maybe it’s a sign to drop whatever it is and find something you can enjoy.
For me this has enabled me to reframe exercise from a gruelling task to something I can look forward to, because I am focusing on the excitement of the creative energy and ideas which appear from the nether every time I jump on my bike, rather than how out of breath I am or how many miles I still have to go or how much my legs are burning.
This is now my second article within a month where exercise has been a central theme, which was not intentional at all! I do believe these are questions worth asking yourself though: what are your energy multipliers? What gold can you dig out of those hard but worthwhile tasks?
See you next week.
-Mike.
P.s. I’ve put the full quote from James below.
✍️ Quote of the Week
When you're doing something hard, focus on the fun part.
Many people make a subtle mistake, which is they emphasize how difficult it is to do something. They tell themselves writing is hard or running is hard or math is hard. And so on. The dominant thought in their mind is that this is hard to do.
And it is true these things (and many others in life) can be challenging.
Meanwhile, people who thrive in a given area are often emphasizing a completely different aspect of the experience. They are thinking about how it feels good to move their body rather than telling themselves exercise is hard. Or, perhaps, they aren't really thinking much at all. They may slip into a trance during their run, a meditative rhythm.
But what they are almost certainly not doing is repeating a mental story about how hard it is to do the thing. Their dominant thought is about some element of the experience they enjoy. They are working hard, but with the fun part in mind.
― James Clear
🏆 Highlights around the web this week
📚 Article: “Energy makes time” by Mandy Brown - the article I mentioned at the start of this post. Mandy’s blog Everything Changes is lovely and well worth subscribing to. It’s a great collection of original articles, plus other interesting reads around the web.
🗞 Newsletter: James Clear’s newsletter 3-2-1 is a great resource for weekly inspiration, and also the source of the quote I shared this week.
📧 Tool: Modern Serial - read classic books split into email newsletters so that you can work through them by investing 10 minutes a day. Love the simplicity of this tool from indie hacker Andrew Edstrom.