What's Your Thursday Wall? (Productive Flourishing Pulse #477)

Being aware of your energetic rhythms could be what you've been missing

A white-washed wall. By Joe Woods on Unsplash.

I’ve hit my “Thursday wall”.

This is what I said to

Steve Arensberg

yesterday afternoon as I was struggling to find a way to set up this week’s topic around energy management. 

Why don’t you write about that? 

Steve is very familiar with my Thursday wall — that point on any given Thursday when certain types of work require exponentially more energy reserves than I have available. 

It’s not that I can’t function after hitting this metaphorical wall, but more about the type of work that I’m better (or worse) suited to do after the collision. Creative work, especially the type that requires me to put words on a page in some sensical fashion, becomes more or less insurmountable the later into a Thursday I get — and by Friday, forget it. 

By the end of the week I’m better suited for social, admin, and certainly recovery-oriented activities. Writing, for me, fits into none of those categories.

I do try to schedule my week accordingly – but as with all best laid plans, I clearly still end up with bumps and bruises from that Thursday wall. 

Luckily this week I had my pal Steve around to dust me off, give me a pep talk, and help me find the focus that was eluding me.

Being aware of your energetic rhythms and actually scheduling your days and weeks accordingly are two very different things. And the latter continues to be a struggle work in progress for me. 

What about you? Do you have a version of “the Thursday wall”? Or maybe for you it’s less of a stopping point and more a burst of energy — a “Wednesday windup” perhaps? Or have you noticed there’s a specific point in your day where your energy typically spikes or crashes?

Now, the second (and perhaps more difficult) part of the equation. Looking at your schedule, how aligned are your activities with your energy levels over the course of a normal day or week?  

And what can you do to bring them closer together? 

~Maghan

P.S. Keep reading for additional resources on chronotypes and how you can get a better handle on your day-to-day (or even morning-to-evening-to-night) energy fluctuations. 

Related Resources

• How Heat Mapping Your Day Can Make You More Productive —  Our heat mapping worksheet makes a great tool for getting clear on your natural daily (and weekly) rhythms. I suggest tracking yours over the course of a typical week, as this will allow you to get a more accurate benchmark to work from. 

• How to Be a Productive Powerhouse Using Time Blocking — Once you have a clear sense of where your energy levels are throughout your day or week, you can better identify the type of activities that would best align with those times.

• Effectiveness Is All About Managing Your Time, Energy, and Attention — You only have so much Time, Energy and Attention (TEA)  to go around; focus more on using it more effectively, rather than efficiently.

• Mike Vardy: Get the Right Things Done Easier By Focusing On Your Energy (Episode 171) — In this podcast episode

  Charlie Gilkey
  and
  Mike Vardy
  , Founder of Productivityist, talk in depth about the importance of focusing on energy over output, and how doing so can give you more traction. 

• The Power of When by Mike Breus, PhD¹ — This book goes deep into the science behind the different chronotypes and provides practical ways for you to work with your body’s inner clock for maximum health, happiness, and productivity.

Other News & Features

• PF Productivity Coaching: I’m opening two PF Productivity Coaching spots this month. These 1:1 sessions will help boost your productivity so you can live a more thriving life. Because it’s not about getting MORE done, but getting to more of what matters most — your best work. Let’s partner to create a custom plan to help you tame your pile of projects, prioritize according to your values, set and maintain boundaries, build a schedule that works for you, and more. Head here to learn more and book your discovery session.²

• This moment on the internet is weird—and more than a little frustrating for creators, audiences, and everyone in between. Charlie Gilkey joined

  Tara McMullin
  and
  Kate Tyson
  in a catalytic conversation on the meaning of the creator economy, and the ways it might be holding us back. Read or listen to the first part of the discussion. And stay tuned for part two next week.

• Charlie Gilkey
  was featured in a “Best of” episode on The Good Life Project podcast with
  Jonathan Fields
  . Have you noticed how hard it’s become to focus, to know what really matters, and actually finish the stuff that truly is important to you? They dove into why so many of our efforts to be productive fail, and how to rewire our brains and schedules and actions to more easily see beyond distraction, identify what really matters, choose what’s worth finishing, then take immediate action to make it happen. Listen to the full episode here.

• A further element to consider along with your energy for the week, is your relative readiness. A lot of us get snagged on the idea that we’re not quite “ready” yet (for whatever it is). Luckily we have a great piece this week that helpfully breaks this down with “The Difference Between Being Ready and Being Prepared”.

1. Affiliate link. Thanks for supporting us with your purchase!

2. Because I know some of you will ask, Charlie does not deliver PF Productivity Coaching — if you want to work with Charlie you can find out more about his work advising leaders, teams, and organizations here.