Everyone wants to feel at ease during the workday and to have adequate remaining capacity at the end of the day to put into living their life.
This requires stamina during the workday – endurance to navigate conflict and obstacles, to have the energy to get work done and stay focused, and the ability to withstand predictable and unpredictable changes in circumstance.
To maintain vitality during the workday, some preparation is required outside of work and some action and sustaining activities are necessary during it.
Everything you have to do and want to do in work and in life – big or small, now and maybe someday – is captured. You proactively identify projects, define at a sufficiently granular level your to-dos and the personal energy context they require (e.g., doing an expense report is different from writing a research report), reprioritize as circumstances change, and practice periodic review.
By nature, introverts expend energy during interactions and need some down time to recharge. But beyond that, you don’t expend undue energy on meetings (even frustrating ones), emails, or navigating your day within the context of your organization’s culture, systems, and realities like deadlines and constraints. In fact, you find that you have energy for the work thing you like best – flexing your analytical or technical expertise.
You know the awesome feeling of a clear, fresh headspace that lets you do deep thinking, to find interesting solutions to tricky problems or to get in the zone and find flow. You are adept at recognizing the state of your headspace and employing tools and techniques to that help you re-establish clarity and mental bandwidth when it’s gone missing. Letting go of (p)re-hashing conversations and events is second nature to you. Your inner mental dialog is in check.
It’s not necessarily easy to go from work mode to relaxed mode instantly. But you have adopted a series of activities that gradually ramp you down over time and ultimately do get you to relax at the end of the day, week, or for vacation. You also know how and when you need to actively recharge throughout your day and week.
Knowing that age won’t always be on your side, you’ve entered into a good working relationship with your body. You get enough sleep, eat your vegetables, and get out for some exercise. Oh, and you don’t forgo seeing a health care professional when you are injured, feel off, or for preventative care.