Energy Bandwidth - What's Yours?
Energy bandwidth should be considered when managing time in romantic relationships - and life.
Time is a limited resource. We juggle work, household errands and chores, commitments to family and friends, travel time, and the list goes on and on. Many folks who have only one partner struggle to manage their time and important things like sleep(!) fall to the wayside.
Feeling overwhelmed about everything we need to accomplish in a day is a norm, and there are many folks who are experiencing burnout. If you have more than one partner, juggling everything might seem like an impossibility. It isn't impossible, but you do need certain skills to succeed. One of those skills is the ability to recognize your own energy bandwidth.
In the conversation around time management, we often think of ourselves as energizer bunnies: we schedule ourselves from morning alarm to bed time and we must complete all the tasks. There is no humanity in this approach.
Your energy bandwidth is literally the amount of energy you have to do what you want to do in a day. Instead of considering our actual energy levels, we push with caffeine and ignore our body's signals that we are in need of rest. And then we go on dates and wonder why quality time with our partners is not feeling quite "quality."
In order to learn about your energy bandwidth, I encourage you to start with observing yourself. Take a few weeks and make notes throughout your days about how you are feeling. I do this on a 1 - 10 scale, one being "I need to sleep or be alone NOW" and ten being "I would kill it at a networking event right now" (Networking events take a ton of energy for me - please create your own scale, applicable to your life). Next to the number, list the time of day and what you are doing.
Then, consider your energy levels the next time you sit down to outline your schedule (if you don't do this, please consider registering for the workshop linked below!). If you consistently have zero energy at the end of your workdays but have full evenings, can you schedule something restorative for yourself for a half an hour as you transition?
Your energy bandwidth is also something you can talk to your partners about - being proactive by letting others know your energy levels can set you up for success when choosing activities with your partners.
I will be offering a Managing Time in Relationships Workshop in April 18th - register below to join me and learn more about how you can navigate your schedule for relational success.
