Thoughts on energy management and motivation

(From my original Blogspot)

Lately I have been caught up in thinking about what mechanisms work within us to regulate our energy output.  Why is it that we can have so much energy for one task, and not for another?  Why is it that we can be low on sleep, and yet function well one day, and yet another day having slept well, not function well at all?  Sometimes the answers are obvious if we look at our activities or diet or stressors, but sometimes the answers seem to be a complete mystery.

When I look at my long to-do list, I am forced to make priorities.  The items that are urgent or essential simply must be done first.  And sometimes their urgent status is enough to propel me to action.  But at other times, I am overcome with this need to do something else first, kind of like a ritual that needs to be performed, before I am even capable of dealing with that urgent thing.  The thing I feel compelled to do first might be trivial or simple or not urgent at all, but in doing it, I then gain the stamina to face the bigger task. 

I think these ideas have implications for when we are asking something of someone else.  We may not understand how they are regulating their energy, and what may appear to be dawdling to us may in fact be their way of getting things done.