The Energy Budget: How to Optimize Your Energy and Prevent Burnout

What is the "Energy Budget" and how it affects our daily lives.

Feb 04, 2022

What is the “Energy Budget”?

There’s a concept called “Earth’s energy budget” which is the balance between the energy that Earth receives from the Sun and the energy the Earth loses back into outer space.

That’s not what I’m talking about here…

The concept that I call “The Energy Budget” is the amount of energy that we have at our disposal for our own everyday life.

Just like a financial budget, our energy budget is a finite resource that we can "spend" on activities and tasks throughout the day.

You can think of it as your bank account or as a budget with a certain amount of money that can be spent for your everyday activities — except that instead of money, you’re using units of energy.

Going throughout our day and life, every activity and thing that we do requires some energy from us and we pay it from our Energy Budget with “Energy points”.

But at the same time, there are also things and activities that give us energy and fill up our energy account.

How does the Energy Budget translate to everyday life?

Energy Budget in Everyday Life

Imagine you start your day with 100 energy points (EPs). As you go through your day, every activity requires of you some energy and you pay it with your energy points. The commute to work might require 5 EP, the whole working day 25 EP, a gym session in the afternoon another 15 EP, and commute back home another 5 EP. So once you come home, you’re left with 50 EPs.

That’s just the energy we spend.

Even though most things, activities and life itself require energy, there are also things that bring us energy and fill up our Energy Budget.

Because the workday was pleasant, you enjoyed what we were doing, you were passionate about it and you felt a sense of purpose, instead of spending 25 EPs, you end up spending just 10 EPs. That’s why you feel like you haven’t been working and we’re left with plenty of energy.

Also because you enjoy working out, the cost of the workout is not 15 EPs but just 10 EPs. On your commute to and from work, you listened to an inspiring podcast, therefore the cost of commuting went from 5 EPs to 2,5 EPs.

So instead of coming home after work with 50 EPs in your Energy Budget, you have 75 EPs. You then spend quality recharging time with your loved ones and go to sleep feeling fulfilled, happy, loved, and you’re able to recharge your energy account overnight to full 100 EPs.

That’s the best-case scenario. But things sometimes go astray…

Imagine that the day described above is much more stressful.

On your commute to work, there might be chaos on the road: a lot of traffic and people being impatient, which makes the commute more “expensive”. Instead of spending 5 EPs for it, you spend double the amount, 10 EPs.

Then your working day is a nightmare: maybe there’s an important deadline coming, and everyone is nervous and is radiating stress and bad negative energy. Maybe you have some arguments with your coworkers. Maybe you’re simply not appreciated or you’re even being exploited. This causes the price of the working day to double to 50 EPs.

Because the workday took up a lot of our energy, you’re exhausted and you don’t go to work out but go straight home. The road is crowded again, which costs us another 10 EPs.

Then instead of relaxing at home, de-stressing, and filling up your Energy Budget, you get into an argument with your partner, which consumes another few EPs. You go to bed exhausted — physically and emotionally — which means you won’t get a good night’s sleep and you won’t be able to fill your budget to the full 100 points, but only 75 or even less, which will cause you to start the next day with a handicap.

We all have different Energy Budget

We all have a different amount of energy at our disposal, depending on various factors: age, sex, general health and well-being, level of physical fitness, level of mental toughness, genetic predisposition, etc.

Some have a huge tank of energy and it seems that they can go on forever, without stopping. Others, on the other hand, have a limited amount of energy and have to be more careful about how, when, where, and how much they use it.

The latter is usually the case for people who have experienced burnout or are suffering from burnout condition.

Energy Budget and Burnout

Imagine something bad happens and your budget is reduced overnight.

Maybe there’s an economic crisis. Maybe your business loses profit. Maybe your wage is cut in half. You now have less money, you can’t spend as much as before, so you have to be more careful how, when, where and how much you spend it.

You also have to learn to economize so you don’t run out of it. And if you want to afford something more expensive, you have to learn to save up for it, otherwise, you might end up with a negative balance, which might threaten your life and survival.

It’s the same with burnout.

When we experience an episode of burnout or we suffer from burnout condition, our energy budget is decreased: we have a limited amount of energy, and we don’t have as much of it to spend as others can.

Because our amount of energy is limited, we have to be careful how, when, where, and how much energy we use. We have to learn to economize with our energy. We have to learn which activities consume a lot of energy and which activities bring us energy. We also have to learn to save it up if we’re planning on a big event that requires expensive energy “demand” — be it something physical (eg. a weekend hiking), mental (demanding week at the work), or fun (eg. a big party).

If you’re suffering from burnout, chances are that you might not start your day with the full tank of energy: instead of 100EPs, you might begin your day with 75EPs, or even less.

If you’ve experienced burnout or you suffer from a burnout condition, you have to learn to live on a smaller Energy Budget.

You have to plan and be aware of where and how much you spend your energy, do less of the things that consume your energy, and integrate into your daily things and practices that give you energy and that reduce the amount of energy spent.

If you’d like to learn about what fills our energy budget and what drains it, what things speed up our energy consumption and things that slow down energy consumption, check out the article below: