I've attended thousands of stand-ups and team meetings over my career.

While we will share blockers or struggles through stories and individual experiences, at the core of many is:

Prioritization

Now, unfortunately, I don't have a magic bullet for you.

I think this is such a universal struggle because we live in a world that asks more of us than we are able to give.

Our culture is one of more.

While we can't individually change that culture, we can shift the way we approach prioritization to ensure we aren't sidelining our needs for others.

I'm sorry if you were hoping for an in-depth analysis about Neo and Keanu Reeves from the title. (I'll add it to the list of things to tie to productivity and burnout prevention 😉)

​On to the topic - which really is about a matrix!

​If you've been around business or productivity for any amount of time, you've heard of the Eisenhower Matrix (also similar to the 4 Ds - Do, Defer, Delegate, or Delete).

​But what neither of these take into consideration is when you are trying to align your tasks with your energy.

​Which is okay, they serve their purpose when you are looking at large scale priorities but they don't really help when you are trying to structure how to tackle things within a single day.

​Instead of focusing on just urgency and importance, let's look at urgency and energy using The Energy-Urgency Matrix.

​This introduces a crucial dimension: the energy required to complete a task.

By considering both urgency and energy requirements, you can better align your tasks with your natural energy rhythms (hello BRAC cycle!) and capacity.

So what does that look like?

1. High Energy, High Urgency. The Focused Sprint is where you're working on tasks that require crucial energy and are committed to deadline-dependent tasks. These tasks are best done during your peak energy hours or power hours when you have the most energy and focus. Unlike the Eisenhower matrix, no single box here is dedicated to delegation because importance is relative. Yes, you don't want to make someone else's urgency YOUR urgency, but if you are a leader, sometimes a client's urgency isn't yours but your team. Don't be afraid to delegate things in this category if needed.

2. High Energy, Low Urgency. Strategic Planning is for those tasks that ask a lot of you but are of high importance. These tasks can often get forgotten in the "defer" bucket of the Eisenhower matrix. Make sure you are setting aside time regularly to work on strategic planning otherwise life (and business) is just happening to you. They should use peak energy hours but placed strategically in your schedule so they don't get forgotten.

3. Low Energy, High Urgency. Quick Action is aptly named for tasks that require low energy but need to be completed throughout the day. These tasks are best suited for when you are working through a rest and recovery dip in your BRAC cycle. Things like important email responses, scheduling time-sensitive meetings, etc.

4. Low Energy, Low Urgency. ​I prefer Routine Maintenance here to delete because there are some things that are low energy and low urgency that we still need to do as humans. Yes, with enough money and documentation they could probably be delegated, but if that's not an option - guess who gets to do them? These are the tasks that I like to schedule into my last energy dip of the day or for those who menstruate, on the weeks when I have less high pressure tasks to accommodate the overall dip an energy during the #lethalluteal and #menialmenstrual phases.

At the end of the day, however you decide to prioritize your tasks is ultimately based on what works best for you.

My goal isn't to know the perfect answer, but to help give you options, perspective, and insight into how you can personalize tools in a way that work best for you.

Let's dive into this week's...

Now that we've explored what the Energy-Urgency Matrix is, let's put it into practice! This exercise will help you gain insight into how your current tasks align with your energy levels and urgency requirements. By mapping your tasks, you'll be able to identify opportunities for better task management and energy alignment:

The goal isn't perfection, but awareness and gradual improvement. Try this exercise weekly to refine your task management approach and better honor your energy rhythms.

This was a line in the book I finished yesterday. It was in the context of mental health and it got me thinking about my burnout anniversary last Tuesday. A day that marked the 3 year anniversary of, what I hope will be, my last re-start to burnout recovery.

​If you've been around these parts for a long time, you know that I've hit burnout 5 times-in my senior year of high school, when I first hit the corporate scene, at 22 when I was in DC "living the dream", at 26 when my lettering career ended, and most recently 5 years ago when health issues hit a crescendo.

​This quote got me thinking about the cycles of burnout.

​I didn't even realize until my early 30s that the crash in high school was a burnout. (Though getting my first ever C, D and F in my final semester should have been a big indicator).

For most of my 20s, I looked at the repeated burnouts as a cycle I was allowing to repeat. It wasn't until the last year, that I was able to see each of those "regressions" as a step closer to "progress".

Even as I was trying to accommodate and support my needs, I was still judging myself for the cycles in my life. Needless to say, it's BEEN A JOURNEY.

​Being able to shift my mindset to see lessons, instead of failures, has really been life-changing.

​My recovery from burnout will never end, but I hope that it will be a gradual lifestyle instead of feeling like I have to start again.

Here's a few ways you can let me know:

Option 1: 💌 Share with a fellow creative or business owner. Community starts with each of us and friends don't let friends chase their dreams at the expense of their mental health! If you know someone seeking more sustainability and harmony in their life and/or business, send this their way.

Option 2: 👋 Say hi! Hit reply and share a sentence or two about anything you enjoyed or hit home for you. I always hope these words find the right people at the right time, but it's always makes my day to hear from you!