Episode 20 - Toolkit #2 Stop Managing Time - Start Managing Energy

Last episode, we challenged the myth that neurodivergent people simply need to "try harder." Now it's time to explore what actually helps.

In this Summer Series Toolkit episode, Steph introduces three practical strategies to help you protect your energy at work:

•  🥄 A neurodivergent-friendly take on Spoon Theory 
•  🚦 The Red, Amber and Green task method 
•  💬 How to communicate your capacity without guilt 

If you've ever reached the end of the day wondering where all your energy went, this episode is for you.

This week's listener challenge: Choose ONE task today and label it Red, Amber or Green. Notice how thinking about your energy—not just your time—changes the way you approach your day.

Because thriving at work isn't about doing more—it's about using your energy wisely.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Hello, I'm Steph and welcome back to Send It Brains at Work and this is our summer series toolkit.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

So in the last episode, we were busting the myth that if you're new and divergent, you just need to try harder. But we know something is missing if we stop there. It's one thing to know that the myth isn't true, it's another thing to know what to do instead. So for every myth we're going to tackle this summer, we're also going to give you a little bit of a practical toolkit and a simple strategy you can try at home, in your own life, and obviously in your workplace. So today's toolkit is all about protecting your energy instead of constantly pushing through it because you can't keep trying harder. And let's be honest, most of us have spent years and years trying to outrun the burnout, and it rarely ends well for us. So last time we talked about not pushing through, you know, making sure that you realise that you're not lazy. So today we're going to look at the fact that energy isn't unlimited because many people think of energy like a battery. So you're going to wake up with 100%, and obviously we use it throughout the day, and then we recharge it overnight. But obviously, for many of us neurodivergent people, this isn't true and it doesn't work like that. Some days, you know, you wake up with 80%, some days it's 40%, some days you don't even have enough charge to get things started, and that's okay. You know, we're all very, very different. It all depends on what we've got going on, what kind of night's sleep we had, even the heat. I know that Claire and I have discussed previously that the heat can really, really throw off your game. So this goal isn't to pretend that we're the same every day, the goal is to think about learning on how we can work with the energy that we actually have. So the first theory I kind of want to go into is the spoon theory, but I'm gonna mix this with a little bit of a twist. So many of you may have heard of the spoon theory, some people may not, and it was originally created to explain living with chronic illness, but it's become a really, really helpful way I feel of thinking about energy for many neurodivergent people, too. So for this theory, you imagine that you are gonna start the day with a limited number of spoons, and every task is going to cost one or several spoons. So that might be answering an email, attending a meeting, making decisions, masking, sensory overload, remembering to eat, and this goes on and on and on. And obviously, some tasks, like we said, take more spoons than others, and it goes until they're gone. And once they're gone, they're gone. So instead of asking how much can I squeeze in today, let's try thinking about what is going to be realistic. What can I afford today? Because, like we're saying, some days we're gonna wake up with 10 spoons, some days we're gonna wake up with five, and it's not about lowering our expectations, it's gonna be about planning what is sustainable for us. So yesterday I woke up and it had been another hot night, I didn't feel great, the kids hadn't had a very good night. I knew my range, my battery, if I had to put it, would have been probably about 60%. So I'm gonna go with six spoons. I had a really, really busy day, kids had clubs, it was prioritizing what was gonna work for me, and I'm not gonna lie, cooking tea was not gonna work for us, so we did actually order in, and that was a big weight off my mind. Luckily, my kids helped me with a few of the jobs, they did the dishwasher, but I didn't vacuum the house. I chose what I was spending my spoons on, and that really helped me with my energy. Um, another great one I want to look at is the red amber green method, so our traffic light system, and this one I feel really really helps as well. It's going to help with our to-do list and colour code it for exactly what we want. So, green tasks are gonna be low energy. These are things we can do without too much effort. Maybe it's just replying to an email, making sure that's things done, updating a document, filing some paperwork, listening to a podcast while you're organizing your desk. Amber tasks, they're gonna take a little bit more focus, problem solving, planning the week, writing a report, and then we're finally gonna sign it off with our red tasks. These are the ones that are really, really big energy drains. These are the ones that we have to think about and make sure we feel confident enough that we can do them. We might only get one done, we might get two. Who knows? You know, it could be having that difficult conversation, a long meeting, a presentation, a network event, anything that involves that decision making, masking, or emotional energy. Now, the important thing to remember is do not schedule five red tasks on the same day because it is not gonna happen. Your brain probably doesn't have the capacity for this. Let's try pairing a red task with a couple of ambers and a few greens. Let's merge them all together. This is gonna be managing your energy, not your time. Because yes, you can plan in those five red tasks because you have the time to do them, but do you physically have the capability to commit to them? So have a little think. Plan this day by day on the morning, plan it the night before, plan your week, do what works for you, but think about your energy levels and what's going to work. The next one we're going to think about is communicating your capacity. So we've thought about the energy, we've thought about what you're physically able to do. Let's think about the communication. And it's not something we talk enough about. And I know that Claire's just done her podcast on this. So people can't support you if they don't know what you're working with, if they don't know what capacity your brain's at. This doesn't mean you have to tell everybody your diagnosis and everybody how you're feeling, it's simply being honest about what's going to help you work. So you might say, Do you know what? I'm not feeling my best today. I've got capacity for one major task this morning, or actually, can we move this to this afternoon? Because I might be able to contribute so much better there. This is making sure that you're communicating, it isn't making excuses, it's setting yourself up to succeed. Do you know what you can even say, actually, I can absolutely do this, but I need a little bit more time. It's good for you, it's good for your team, and obviously it's breaking things up into those smaller, manageable steps. So think about what you're going to do to make yourself succeed this week. You know, use those steps, use the energy, use the communication. Think about can you use a timer to help you? Would body doubling help? Join us, we've got a body doubling episode where we're more than happy to work with you and help you get through these tasks, make them more manageable. And as I said last week, think about what you can do to remove one unnecessary barrier. So we've only picked three little sections that are going to help you for this week. Pick one, label it. What are you gonna go with? Red, amber, green, what you're gonna think about communication, think about your own battery, think about your own well-being. You know, don't think of this as being guilty. You know, notice what changes when you start to think about the energy. Notice how your body gets better, your mind is sharper and stronger. And please, please, please remember that you don't need to earn rest, you don't need to prove that you're trying hard enough so your energy is a resource worth protecting because when we fight to stop our brains, we usually find that we're giving a chance to do our best. So I thank you so much for joining me this week at Brains at Work. But we'll be back with another myth next week and another toolkit to help. So I hope you have a fantastic week. Please remember to keep giving us that great feedback. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

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