How to Spend Your Mental Energy Wisely
Don’t just work hard—decide where your attention actually moves the needle.
You’re doing a lot.
Switching between tasks. Sitting on calls. Solving problems.
But by midday—or midweek—you’re fried.
And when you look back, you’re not sure what actually moved.
You worked hard.
But you didn’t work strategically.
Most people treat mental energy like it’s infinite.
They give the same level of effort to high- and low-leverage work
Say yes to things that drain them
Overcommit their best hours to reactive junk
But energy is not free.
Attention is not neutral.
Every hour you spend is a bet on what matters. The only real question is: was it a good one?
This tool helps you get clearer about where your energy actually belongs.
Use this prompt to build the skill:
I’m going to describe a day (or a stretch of time) that left me feeling depleted. Help me analyze how I was allocating my cognitive resources. What work was high-value? What was wasteful or reactive? What could I have deferred, delegated, or dropped?If you use a time-tracking tool or have a transcript of your calendar or task load, drop it in.
Otherwise, a rough reflection is enough to start.
This is how you shift from working by effort to working by design.
Not burnout.
Selective focus.
Cognitive resource scheduling.
→ This post is part of the Phase Transitions “Sharp Under Pressure” Series.
Read the full intro and explore all 15 tools here:
15 Practical Tools for Staying Sharp Under Pressure →