I wanted to share my personal strategy for managing my energy and focus, because of a conversation that I had earlier today on Facebook above not knowing how to manage energy properly.

This is a common thing that happens to people who need to go through intense periods of work for prolonged periods of time.

Trust me, I’ve been there Erlinda, and I still make $250,000 a month, so don’t worry about it (first of all). Let me teach you how to make it so you can operate in the flow all day and night, when you need to, and how to feel happy, be healthy, and powerful every minute of the day.

These concepts will help you effectively manage your energy:

1.  What’s happening here is completely normal.  The neurotransmitters in your brain are exhausted from over focusing without enough recuperation.  The best way I can explain it without trying to be a scientist, it’s like you are bench pressing every day, with no breaks, you can’t do it.  You need rest.

2.  Your mind can only focus on a single task with complete clarity for 90 minutes.  After 90 minutes, you need a break if you’re doing any intense kind of mental work, for at least 15-30 minutes.  Most people don’t need to do this, because they work boring, repetitive jobs.  Being an entrepreneur is different – it takes a kind of intense mental and spiritual energy that will exhaust in 90 minutes if you’re doing it right.  There is no way around this.

3.  Mental work needs to be balanced out by physical movement.   If you work all day and don’t exercise, your mind will get burned out, and you’ll click refresh on your screen 100 times a day, space out the whole day, and not get any work done if you’re doing intense mental work like you have to do as an entrepreneur.

4.  You can reset the neurotransmitters in your brain in two ways.  You need 8 hours of sleep, or 15-25 minutes of proper meditation.  I’d choose the meditation, unless you only need to work 90 minutes a day, which especially if you’re new, you probably need a bit more.

5.  If you use these concepts to construct a strategy, you can work hard all day and night when you need to, and work LITERALLY the whole day, like you just woke up from a good night’s sleep.

Here’s my personal energy management strategy:

1.  In the morning, I start the day by getting my most important work done.  I don’t need any kind of meditation when I wake up – my mind is fresh.  I get up, drink a bit of coffee, and hammer out a blog post and some emails – the most productive activities that make you the MOST money (for me) are best completed immediately upon awakening.

2.  I break all of my work into 90 minute segments.  The way I do it, is I have an iPad, I downloaded a free stop watch app.  When I start work, I hit ‘start’ on the stop watch.  When it hits 90 minutes, I stop, no matter what I’m in the middle of.

3.  The first thing I do during my 30 minute break, is something physical for 5-10 minutes.  I like Kung Fu, singing, and dancing.  I’m not good at singing, or dancing, but I sure have gotten a lot better!  You’ll be amazed at how good of shape you’ll get into doing this.

4.  Then I do 20-25 minutes of trancendental meditation.   Trancendental meditation is meditation via rythmic chanting.  I also recommend Holosync, although I don’t feel it can reset you as quickly as transcendental meditation can.

The basic strategy is, sit down with your feet flat on the floor, your back straight and upright (don’t lie down, you’ll fall asleep, and you don’t need it) and then chant something in a rythm for the count of four as you breathe out, and chant it for the count of four as you breathe in.

What you chant doesn’t matter, at all.

Sometimes, Christians and other religious groups have a problem with meditation, like you’re connecting with Satan, or something.  That’s ludicrous.  Jesus never said “thou shalt not meditate”.  I didn’t say to chant the name of Satan – the purpose is to reset your neurotransmitters so you can work more efficiently – if you want, you can take a hebrew phrase from the Bible, and chant that, the only thing that is important is that what you’re chanting isn’t something distracting.

For example, I’ve ran into Christians who also meditate, who chant the hebrew name of Jesus:

“Yeshua Hamashiach”

Or, you could chant the tetragrammation, which is the four hebrew characters that create the name ‘Jehovah’:

“Yod – Hey – Wod – Hey”

( I think)

Or something nonsensical, like:

“Ahem…. Ahem….”

That works.  The word is irrelevant, the rythmic chanting produces an Alpha-Theta state and re-sets your brain.  Something nonsensical will do.  What has been proven, is in 15-20 minutes, your neurotransmitters will re-set like you just got 8 hours of sleep.

(you still need sleep at night)

5.  Work for another 90 minute cycle, and then repeat the pattern.

Anyways, hope that helps!

That’s what I do, even when I don’t work all day and night.  Why?  Because, I always work, even when I  am not working for money.  I’m not rich and free to sit around and be a fat, lazy ass hole.

I’m rich and free, so I can learn cool stuff.  So right now, I’m spending 4-8 hours a day studying spanish, and I do it in 90 minute cycles, using the strategy above.

Ok – I’m off.  In the last 90 minutes, I’ve:

1.  Uploaded a video
2.  Written this blog post
3.  Sent an email to all of my lists
4.  Created a bunch of leads through social media and stirring up some commotion on Facebook.

What did you do?

Ok, my 90 minutes are done.

Now, it’s time for some Kung Fu!

-David Wood
“Just another smelly, homeless man who got rich on the internet…“

Comments:

Rehan9200, November 14, 2012, 1:00 pm

Simply Dear… By The Rest 🙂

Chris Kua, November 14, 2012, 2:00 pm

Freakin great post! My very first meditation was holosync about three years ago. It introduced me to meditation. Meditation is super underrated! Every 90 minutes would definitely keep a person refreshed and in the now. Going to adopt your schedule. Aloha, Chris PS – looking forward to the day when I get to talk Jekyll Island with you.

BilalMalik, November 14, 2012, 3:00 pm

Wow 🙂 That post is really nice and good to read! Thanks for giving us the idea that how we can manage our energy 🙂 http://quotesmint.com/

THEearthtiger, November 14, 2012, 4:00 pm

Awesome article. I knew studying had to be broken into segments so that the brain could recover but I did not know about the 90-minute segment. I do know that taking some honey at the beginning of each segment can increase retention because the brain, being 90% lipids by weight, can only use glucose for energy. The blood-brain barrier keeps anything larger than a glucose molecule from crossing the tight junctures (yes, there are exceptions but most are special purpose or can cause damage) and I have found honey very helpful especially when struggling with obtuse, bleeding-edge mathematics.

dz117, November 14, 2012, 5:00 pm

This is great info! As a Christian, it is important to meditate. Meditation clears the mind and brings about rest. Did you know the meaning of the word meditate in Hebrew means to utter under your breath? You don’t have to do it while at home, it can be done anywhere. Just don’t get caught muttering or chanting under your breath or someone will think you’re crazy…haha! But I love your whole concept. Glad I stumbled on your post.. Much success!

Brian Couch, November 14, 2012, 6:00 pm

Thanks, David. It really can get overwhelming that even though I’ve done so much, I still have so much to do!

VinDiCarlo, November 14, 2012, 7:00 pm

Hi David I have started my new blog and I think I will claim success instantly!! here’s my blog: http://quickmoney365.com

AngelaMCarter, November 14, 2012, 8:00 pm

Great article David. Great tips for breaking up our schedule. It’s so easy to sit and stare at the computer all day and get exhausted but really get nowhere. I learned how to schedule my time so I can still feel refreshed during the day.

IsraelBarba, November 14, 2012, 9:00 pm

Very nice!! Thank you

wardaakhan, November 14, 2012, 10:00 pm

Nice article! http://pakifind.com/

Jennifer Smith, November 15, 2012, 10:00 am

David, this post is fantastic! Your insights always help me push my blog to new heights. Thank you for sharing your wisdom with us.

Michael Brown, November 15, 2012, 10:15 am

I’ve learned so much about keyword research and SEO from this post. It’s incredible how just a few tweaks can drive so much traffic. Thank you, David!

Emma Garcia, November 15, 2012, 10:30 am

David, could you elaborate more on how to effectively use Feedburner for RSS feed promotion? I’m curious about the best practices.

Liam Johnson, November 15, 2012, 10:45 am

While I found the post informative, I think it would be helpful to include some case studies or real-life examples of these strategies in action.

Olivia Davis, November 15, 2012, 11:00 am

Hey David! Long time no see. How have you been? We should catch up sometime soon. Maybe discuss some of these blogging strategies in person?

William Martinez, November 15, 2012, 11:15 am

I struggled with driving traffic to my blog for a long time. Implementing some of the tips you mentioned, especially guest posting, made a huge difference. Thanks for sharing!

Sophia Wilson, November 15, 2012, 11:30 am

I’ve been using Ubersuggest for keyword research and it’s been incredibly helpful. Highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t already.

James Lee, November 15, 2012, 11:45 am

David, this sounds too good to be true. Do you have any evidence or case studies to back up these claims? I’d love to see some proof.