The Hidden Reason You’re Always Exhausted (And How to Fix It)
Time management shouldn’t just be about calendars, to-do lists, or squeezing more into your day.
Good time management should focus on managing your energy.
Because, let’s face it, no matter how perfectly you plan your schedule, it won’t matter if you’re too drained to follow through. Or if your schedule leaves you burned out at the end of the day.
Your overall life satisfaction isn’t based on how much you get done but by how you feel while doing it.
If you’re constantly exhausted, overwhelmed, or stretched too thin, even your biggest accomplishments will feel empty. But when your energy is high, you’ll be more focused, motivated, and more fulfilled in your day-to-day.
Protecting your energy allows you to show up fully and truly enjoy your life.
Focus: Fuel for Your Energy and Productivity
A lack of focus makes it hard to put your full energy into any one thing.
For example, how often do you let excitement pull you in too many directions? You’re all in on learning to play the guitar and remodeling your guest room but you also just signed up for a new book club to spend more time with friends all while you’re trying to prepare for a big annual conference for work.
All good intentions…but scattered focus.
This lack of focus can also creep into your workday. You have an inbox full of unread emails, a client proposal due tomorrow, and a midday dentist appointment you’re about to be late for.
They’re all worthy priorities. But pulling you in too many directions.
This lack of focus can leave you constantly feeling like you’re never giving your best to anything. Your energy plummets and you’ll likely start to feel resentful as you jump from task to task.
The hard truth is, you have to choose. You have to focus on one key goal and let everything else become secondary.
Here’s why focus is your secret weapon to protecting your energy and fueling your productivity:
#1. Improved Decision-Making
When your energy is scattered, making even small decisions becomes draining. A clear focus on what you’re trying to accomplish helps streamline choices, reducing decision fatigue and leaving more energy for creativity and strategic thinking.
#2. Increased Efficiency
Every time you switch between unrelated tasks, your brain requires time to refocus—this is called "attention residue." You find yourself thinking about a previous task while you're working on a current one. It can impact your performance and drain your energy. The more focused you are, the less time you waste due to shifting gears.
#3. Reduced Burnout
Scattered energy leads to stress and overwhelm. You can only handle high levels of constant stress and overwhelm before you find yourself in burnout territory–emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted. A focused approach conserves mental resources, helping you stay energized and avoid burnout.
#4. Improving Culture by Example
Your focus can set the tone for your colleagues. When others notice your attention to focus and the amazing results you’re getting (without burning the midnight oil) they’ll want to follow suit. This can create a ripple effect of a culture focused on efficiency and positive work-life harmony in action, not just in talk. That creates a more supportive environment all around.
Remember: Focus can come from big-picture thinking like focusing on tasks that will align to an overarching goal for the coming months or focus can come from more “in the weeds” thinking as you define a goal of what you want to accomplish over the next hour.
Common Energy Draining Mistakes
If you feel stretched thin and mentally exhausted, you’re likely lacking focus. Watch out for these common focus mistakes that will quickly drain your energy.
#1. Chasing Too Many Goals
Having multiple priorities dilutes your energy. Instead of making progress on one major initiative, you end up making minor moves in too many directions. This leaves you feeling busy but ultimately unproductive, with little measurable impact.
#2. Multitasking
If you’re already wearing a lot of hats, multitasking feels necessary. It even feels productive. However, research shows multitasking lowers the quality of your work and increases mistakes. When you’re trying to “multitask” you’re actually “switch-tasking”, jumping your attention back and forth. Your brain isn’t designed to operate this way. This switch-tasking quickly leads to inefficiency and mental fatigue.
#3. Lack of Prioritization
Without clear priorities, you’re more likely to react to what’s urgent instead of what’s important. You jump onto the latest IM or email without pausing to understand how those lost minutes will truly impact your day or schedule, pulling you away from what you ideally want your day to look like.
#4. Constant Notifications
Emails, IMs, and app alerts constantly break your concentration. Even brief interruptions can derail your flow and consume more time and energy than you realize as you try to regain focus. (Just think of the last time you spent the full day jumping to and from these notifications. Did you feel motivated and ready to take on the next big project? Or exhausted and drained and ready to fall into bed…?) The constant context-switching from notification overload is sure to lead to a drain on your energy.
#5. Overcommitting
Saying "yes" to every opportunity spreads your attention too thin. making real progress in a few key areas, you end up underperforming across the board—leaving you disheartened, tasks unfinished, and probably working late into the evening on projects you don’t even care about. Turning things down might feel disappointing at first (for you or others), but in the long run, it allows you to focus on what truly matters—leading to better results and more meaningful work.
#6. Lack of Boundaries
Without setting (and enforcing) boundaries around your time—such as specific work hours or designated time for deep focus, you risk allowing interruptions and unimportant tasks to take over your schedule. This will cause your energy tol be pulled to anything but where you feel your best.
The Energy Reset: Simple Strategies to Take Back Your Focus
If you’ve found yourself making one or more of the common mistakes above, there are a few easy fixes to get you back in control of your time and your energy.
#1. Set a "Focus Goal"
Pick a single overarching goal for your key life areas for the day, week, month, or quarter. This goal becomes your filter for everything else. If a task doesn’t directly contribute to this goal, it’s either a “no,” or it gets deferred or delegated. It’s not worth your time. (If you’ve read The One Thing by Gary Keller, this will sound familiar.)
For example, if your goal for the day is to leave by 4 PM for dinner with a friend, a last-minute work request at 3:30 PM is going to have to wait or be passed on. Or if your quarterly focus is hitting an ambitious sales target, joining a new committee might be a "not now" situation.
#2. Establish Daily Focus Rituals
Rituals are powerful because they make healthy habits automatic. Create some rituals that help to reinforce your focus. For example:
Focus Time: Choose a regular time each day for focus sessions (60-90 minutes of deep work). Block out your calendar and decline any meeting invites during this time.
Midday Re-Centering Break: Take 10 minutes after lunch to stretch, breathe, or meditate, helping you reset your focus to power through the afternoon.
Reflection: At the end of each week, reflect on what worked and what didn’t. Adjust your goals, routines, and commitments, as needed, to stay aligned with your top priorities.
#3. Limit Your Commitments
One of the hardest but most necessary skills to master is learning when to say "no." Protecting your time and energy means being selective about where you direct your focus. If you’re stretched thin and your energy is low, be ruthless about removing unnecessary obligations from your calendar. Even activities you enjoy can become overwhelming when piled on top of your primary commitments.
This doesn’t mean you should never take on something new or spontaneous. But it does mean being conscious of your bandwidth. Every new commitment is a trade-off, so ensure it’s one that’s truly worth your time.
#4. Set Clear Boundaries
Boundaries are essential for protecting your time, energy, and focus. Without them, distractions can seep into your day and derail your progress. Start by defining your work hours or set times for focus. Communicate them clearly with your team via calendar blockers or status notifications on Slack/Teams. Then enforce them accordingly (i.e. don’t respond to or send out late-night IMs if it’s outside of your designated hours.)
Notes: Setting and enforcing boundaries around your time is another great opportunity to improve company and team culture by leading by example.
#5. Use Time-Blocking Techniques
Time-blocking is one of the most effective ways to ensure you stay focused and realistic about what you’re going to spend your time on and what you want your days to look like to keep your energy high. The idea is simple: assign specific blocks of time to the tasks or activities you want to incorporate into your day. This prevents your schedule from becoming a chaotic mishmash of shifting priorities and last-minute obligations.
Time-blocking also helps you avoid overbooking with too many different focuses. You’ll clearly see how much time you realistically have in a day which helps you make smarter decisions about what to take on.
The Bottom Line: Protect Your Energy, Reclaim Your Time
Good time management shouldn’t be packing your schedule with more tasks or scouring the internet for the perfect productivity hack. Your time management goals should be focused on protecting your energy so you can live and work at your best.
When you manage your energy effectively, you’re not just getting things done, you’re getting the right things done in a way that feels sustainable and fulfilling. You’ll approach your priorities with clarity, stay present in the moment, and create room for rest and creativity instead of running on empty.
By prioritizing your energy, you’ll find that productivity flows more naturally and burnout becomes far less likely. Instead of feeling stretched thin, you’ll operate from a place of balance—where you have the capacity to show up fully for your work, your relationships, and yourself.
In the end, time management isn’t about doing more—it’s about doing what matters most, with the energy and focus you need to enjoy the life you’re working so hard to build.
If you liked this post, don’t forget to share so that others can find it, too!
Some of the links in this article are affiliate links.
About Me
Hi, I’m Kara. I’m a former workaholic turned time-management expert. I help women stressed out in their 9-5 get more done, in less time, so they can get back in the driver’s seat and start living a life they love.
