When I heard Dr Amantha Imber, host of the “How I Work” podcast, and author of Time Wise and The Health Habit was looking for volunteers for seven weeks of energy experiments for her new book, I was all in. This is my energy experiments summation.

I was one of 1300 volunteers!

Energy buckets

One of Imber’s hypotheses, was that thinking in terms of physical, mental and emotional energy would be useful, and the early results suggested it was.

Not just for her, but for the participants too – working out exactly what kind of energy we’re lacking, also makes it easier to work out what to do about it.

Energy strategies

Her initial thoughts were just to write about energy strategies, but given the feedback, she’s decided to also include rest and boundary strategies.

Results for the book

The survey results have changed the books a bit, and I for one am looking forward to seeing it.

She’s planning a new section on the first signs of burn out to watch out for. Plus, given the different reasons we lack energy, there could also be some energy archetypes.

The book will be available mid to late 2026, so I’ll link to it when it becomes available.

Summation of my energy experiments

Energy

My main energy experiments were the project pause, and the feelings wheel.

I found the project pause useful, and have included it in my end of day habit.

While the feelings wheel wasn’t as useful for me, I can see that it will be useful for some people in some circumstances. It’s not something I have incorporated.

Rest

My rest strategy was permission slips.

I think this is a great strategy for people recovering from illness, changing to new roles, or with very full/very large plates. It’s something I’ll keep in my back pocket for some times.

Though I have set an alarm to remind me to take lunch (yes, even I think this is hilarious), and then another alarm to get back to work. I’m considering adding other alarms as a way of starting some new habits.

Boundaries

I work for myself, so there aren’t that much in the way of boundaries.

My planning is one way I create boundaries about what I’d like to get done.

At the moment, I’m trying to get more realistic estimates of how long it takes to get the work done, and how much time I really have to do it in. This quarter will be busy with financials, and so I have had to dump many of the tasks I would prefer to do.

And that means a priority list, and a stop list.

Tracking energy

While I did find tracking my energy was useful, the results were variable for me.

I don’t plan to add it to my daily routine, but if I did, I’d use five levels of results instead of three.

What’s not included

Sometimes, what’s not included is just as important as that which is, and in this case, there’s what you eat, how much you exercise, and sleep duration.

We’re normally pretty good at eating well, exercising and sleeping, and with all that’s happened relating to DB’s hospitalisation, I haven’t been eating, exercising and sleeping well. I’ve also put on about 3kg of weight which doesn’t help either.

Having a baseline of wellness made it easier to feel the energy effects of not maintaining that level of wellness. I’ll definitely be working towards recovering that wellness over the next few months.

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You can find more planning, related information, and my monthly on the Life Worth Living page.