At Your Best summary

It’s 2:00 p.m. and you’re trying to focus on your colleague’s presentation but you practically need toothpicks to keep your eyelids open. Sound familiar?

You may have noticed that your energy waxes and wanes throughout the day. This is perfectly normal. It’s true even for doctors. Researchers found that the rate of adverse events among anesthesiologists, for example, increases as the day goes on.

You’ve identified your energy cycle, you know when you’re in your green zone and feeling energized. You also know when the energy starts to curb into your yellow zones. And finally, you know which times of the day you’re struggling through most tasks in your red zones. So, what should you actually do in each zone?

The key message here is: Leverage your energy by doing your best work when you’re at your best.

You settle into your desk and open the calendar. To your complete surprise, it’s completely empty. From 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. not a single appointment. This is perfect, you think. You can finally start that big project you’ve been dreaming about. Maybe write a new blog post. But then . . . there’s a knock at the door.

A colleague just needs five minutes, which turns into 20. Meanwhile, your inbox has filled up and an emergency afternoon meeting is called. When you finally return to your desk, the day is almost over. What happened? You worked all day but accomplished zero goals.

As a child, the author spent a lot of time at his grandma’s. Every day at ten o’clock, her friend Nancy called. Grandma always picked up, but reluctantly because Nancy could talk for hours. Grandma never figured out a polite way to cut the call short, sometimes soliciting her grandson’s help to save her instead.

You’ve learned that all the wrong things usually want your attention, hijacking your focus and priorities. But what about people? Relationships are important and you also don’t want to be mean.

A few years ago the author bought a new SUV and in no time he’d racked up over 300,000 miles. It was still in great shape and people kept asking how he got such great mileage out of it. But there was no great mystery: he simply always took it in for the recommended service.

Fixing something before it breaks is often easier and less costly than after it breaks. We all know that stress is part of life. So is change. And both stress and change can threaten to pull you back into a spiral of stress. So let’s explore some strategies to maintain thriving and prevent breakdown.