How To "Get Back" Your Time

(The above audio is a read-along, the podcast is a more off-the-cuff, relaxed version)

Podcast episode: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/aqilah-pope/episodes/How-To-Get-Your-Time-Back-e2n2ega

Ever feel like there’s never enough time to do it all? You’re not alone. 

The American Psychological Association found that 1 in 5 adults regularly push off tasks, seriously impacting their productivity. 

And here’s something to think about—82% of us don’t have a solid system for managing time…

This leads to over half our day spent on things that don’t really serve us. 

But what if I told you it’s not just about managing your time? 

What if it’s about something else too…

Your energy

This isn’t to say, that time management is not important, of course it is.

I just believe it is lower on the hierarchy of importance.

Time is fixed, but energy is not.

However, with the right strategies, you can get the most out of your time by expanding your perception of it.

What does that mean Aqilah?

Don’t worry I got you, let’s dive in.

I. Energy Management: Finding Balance

The Four Types Of Energy

In “The Power of Full Engagement” by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwarts, they introduce the idea of four types of energy:

1. Physical

   1. Ideal state- feeling physically energized

2. Emotional

   1. Ideal state- feeling emotionally connected

3. Mental

   1. Ideal state- feeling focused and alert

4. Spiritual

   1. Ideal state - feeling spiritually aligned and living in alignment with your values

Sounds similar to the types of rest we discussed recently, right?

Although Dr. Saundra explains how to rest for multiple needs, Loehr and Schwarts give us more information on how we can strengthen these buckets of wellness.

Energy Expenditure and Recovery

An idea I appreciated from this book was the importance of the contraction and expansion of your energy.

They explained energy with an energy expenditure and energy recovery cycle or battery.

If you don’t expend energy…

If you don’t occasionally get into that zone of discomfort, your battery doesn’t grow, it constricts.

However, if you don’t rest, your battery burns out.

For example, if you want to get stronger, lifting heavier weights gives your muscles the capacity to expend more energy.

To expand to that capacity, rest is crucial.

It allows your muscles to grow, prevents injury, and resets your starting point.

We can not inhale unless we exhale.

Tides can not “go out” if they do not “come in”

This idea of expansion and contraction, of yin and yang can be seen nearly everywhere in our natural world, so why don’t we apply it to ourselves?

Energy Dips and Rituals

Our energy oscillates throughout the day, naturally.

Loehr and Schwarts place physical energy as the priority.

I agree, but I think it’s important, especially as muslimahs, that we don’t understand this as “physical health” is more important than spiritual health.

Rather a strong and healthy body gives us the ability to worship in a much more holistic capacity.

If you don’t fuel your body with physical energy (calories and nutrients), your mind will be foggy.

If you don’t move your body, you can become sluggish, constipated, and develop pain.

And how can we stand up in our best form for salah, volunteer, or live in our purpose if we’re in that state?

To make the most of our days, and optimize the limited time we have, we need to develop rituals.

And the best way to do this is by using our natural rhythms.

This includes our circadian, ultradian, and as women, our infradian rhythms.

I know, I’ll break it down 😅.

Our ultradian rhythms are the fluctuations our bodies experience multiple times a day (multiple cycles)

Our circadian rhythms are the fluctuations our bodies experience on a 24-hour cycle (one cycle).

Lastly, our infradian rhythms are cycles that last longer than 24 hours but less than a year, our menstrual cycles for example.

This may sound like a lot of work.

And I’m not gonna lie, on the front end, it is.

But once you track these cycles you have a system that works for quite a while.

Today we’re going to focus on our ultradian and infradian rhythms.

Using our body’s clock to plan

Our bodies tell us many stories, every day, it’s up to us to listen.

After almost 2 years of cycle syncing and intuitive wellness, I feel much more in tune with my body’s signals.

But up until recently, I was powering through those energy dips in my day which, last month, led to pretty nasty burnout, hence last weekend’s trip to Joshua Tree.

Recently I started to dig into Ultradian rythms and I can’t believe it took me this long to take it seriously.

As stated before, ultradian rhythms are cycles that happen multiple times throughout the day, and in terms of energy, these peaks typically last about 90 minutes and then drop off at 20 minutes.

Then around 3-4 pm, most people, tend to have quite a big energy dip.

This is great information to have in your back pocket.

If we dial into our unique peaks and valleys, we can use the high-performance times for expanding our energy and the valleys for honing that energy.

Pair that with honoring where we are in our menstrual cycle, and you can get the perfect routine, tailored for your unique body and energy fluctuations.

How to Track Your Unique Energy

I. Infradian

Get a period tracker.

Whether that’s an app, a notion template, or a journal.

Monitor your symptoms, moods, and energies from week to week.

Typically, women tend to have very low energy during their luteal and menstrual phases and higher energy in their follicular phase.

But everyone’s body is different, and each person’s phase can last slightly different amounts of time.

Learning your clock can help you create systems that set you up for success.

As an example, this is what my infradian schedule looks like:

Menstrual phase- reduced client sessions, cleaning up my desktop, sleeping in, working on my brand voice, lower impact workouts.

Luteal phase- more hiking, spending time in nature, planning content, writing, journaling, and lifting weights 4x a week.

Follicular and Ovulatory phases- filming content, hanging out with friends, loading up client sessions, networking events, cardio 2x a week, and superset lifts 2x a week.

II. Ultradian

To figure out your unique ultradian rhythm you can use a heat map, or simply write down your waking hours in a journal.

Then, for each hour, track your energy fluctuations.

When you have more energy, complete your more energy-intensive tasks like working on a detailed project for work.

Or in my case, moving and packing…

When you have less energy, focus on tasks like emails, laundry, dishes, or other “auto-pilot” tasks.

Also, record which tasks are considerable energy drainers. It may be useful to outsource or delegate these to a loved one or professional service e.g, Instacart, a meal-prep service, laundry service etcetera.

After you plan your tasks for your peaks, be intentional about your rest periods.

Take deliberate rest.

Any of the forms Dr. Saundra discusses are great starting points.

Once you find the type of rest you enjoy, stick with it, as this is where you can expand your time.

2. Mindfulness and The Perception of Time

In a German study, researchers wanted to see if mindfulness had any effect on time perception.

They took a group of 42 meditation practitioners with 10 years of experience and 42 individuals with no meditation experience.

These two groups were matched for age, sex, and educational background.

The researchers discovered that the meditators experienced a slower passage of time and felt that longer time intervals (e.g., a week, a month) had passed more slowly compared to the control group.

This reveals that although we can not literally change the passage of time, those 24 hours are fixed, through energy management we can lengthen our perception of time.

While planning your recharging periods during your day, include things like novelty into your routine.

Experiencing newness is also a proven way to slow down the passage of time, as our brains take longer to process new information.

You can incorporate this newness into your energy expenditure blocks too by learning a new skill.

Scientists believe that one of the key things that contribute to “time flying by” as we age, is the lack of novelty.

This is why ages 5-18 seemed so much longer than 18-28, and even longer in the decades after that.

So if you want your days to be fuller, longer, and more vibrant, introduce some novelty and a mindfulness practice.

You deserve to live a life off of auto-pilot.

There are so many different time-management “hacks”, but I don’t feel like enough of them are customizable.

By turning inwards, and listening to your internal clocks, you can create a routine that’s specific to you.

If you haven’t done any type of energy management before, I’d suggest starting with your ultradian rhythms and being mindful of your infradian rhythm.

Once you get your ultradian routine down, slowly add in the infradian.

The key is to develop systems that make your life easier, not add chaos.

Remember, time may be fixed, but your energy and perception of said time are not.

By learning this balance, insha’Allah, you can achieve more without burning out.

I pray you found this helpful

And as always,

Abundant light and radiant health.

Assalaamualaykum warahmatullahi wabaraktu 💕