The last week of Dr Amantha Imber‘s energy experiments takes the daily energy accounting, and adds a touch of energy gamification.

Energy tracking process recap

At the end of the day, reflect on your overall energy levels across the three dimensions:

1. Physical – body’s vitality and stamina
2. Mental – focus and cognitive clarity
3. Emotional – mood and emotional resilience

Then colour coding them:

• Green: Functioning at your best; able to tackle challenges with ease; feeling balanced and resourceful.
• Orange: Functioning adequately but not at full capacity; managing but not thriving.
• Red: depleted; struggling to function effectively; feeling overwhelmed, foggy, or exhausted.

Energy strategies recap

The energy strategies included; energisers, rest, and boundaries depending on how you feel at the time. So:

• for a short-term boost in alertness, mood or motivation, pick an energiser.
• when you feel like you’ve depleted one or more energy categories and need to properly restore (as opposed to pushing through), use a rest strategy.
• and when your energy leaks “faster than a dodgy tap due to overcommitment,” use a boundary strategy.

There were a selection of nine energisers, three rest, and three boundary strategies to choose from.

Add the energy gamification

The energy gamification literally comes into play by giving yourself a point for every energy strategy you used.

You probably guessed the more the better. Or maybe not, depending on your perspective.

If you’re going to practice the energy gamification, it’s probably best to keep a running count of them so you don’t forget what you did, and can account for the impact properly.

Energy gamification outcome

As I mentioned last week, and previously, my energy fluctuates a great deal.

And like last week, I found tracking my energy was useful, but at the same time, not necessarily practical.

I probably don’t check in with myself often enough, in that I didn’t note using many of the strategies – five.

In the scheme of things, you could check in with yourself regularly; e.g., every hour when you stretch, get a drink and go pee. In which case you might not notice much of a change because you’re taking regular breaks.

Or you might, as I did, finish a task and check in with yourself. Though depending on how big your task block is, you might not check in more than once or twice daily.

But what I can say, is that it was a week when I didn’t rely on salty or chocolately snacks to get me though, and given my recent blood test results, that’s good news.

And like last week, it was good to have different strategies to deploy. I gave myself permission to take a nap, splashed my face with cold water, took input and progress pauses.