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Personal Power Outage? Try Managing Your Energy

July 22, 2020 Mark Hammerstrom

Summer here in the Midwest is simply wonderful.  After our long and often tedious (may I say downright demoralizing) winters, hot summer weather is a welcome relief.  Yet, like any season, summer has its downsides.  Really hot, humid weather (not to mention mosquitoes) can drive us inside more than we would like to admit.

And then there is the threat of the inevitable strong storms that raise havoc as well.  I happen to have a wooded area behind my house, and typically each summer we lose power because a tree falls on the power lines behind us.  Usually the outage only lasts a few hours, but occasionally many trees fall and cause major damage.  One hot summer we lost power for a week.  That was quite a rude awakening.

If nothing else losing something we take for granted has the advantage of helping us fully appreciate a modern blessing.  Certainly, losing electric power is nothing in comparison to loss of life or home or property that so many experience.  Yet, going for an extended time without power can be very draining in its own way.

But what about our own personal power?  Our personal supply of energy?

I don’t know about you, but the first part of the year has been particularly draining given the COVID-19 pandemic, racial tensions and the general mayhem of national politics during an election year.  Those of us working from home often feel even more stress because of the uncertainty of the future and the loss of daily interactions with our work teams.  I think the temptation is to simply work longer and try to work harder, which can lead to consequences with our health and wellbeing.  Sometimes that can turn into a vicious circle.

How to get our energy back?

A while ago there was a popular phrase going around that we should “work smarter, not harder” and I think that is a good reminder for today.  Often easier said than done, the consequences of not trying to find that work/life balance can be significant.  We only have twenty-four hours a day and to try and cram everything we feel we need to do into that space without paying attention to our personal health and welfare is at the very least counterproductive. When I have spent that last ounce of energy, my work quality as well as quantity drops noticeably.  I just don’t have the reserves to keep pushing, even though my head tells me I have to complete a task.  The center of that conflict is not a good place to be.

So what to do?

Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy published a study in the Harvard Business Review entitled “Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time” (read it here).  Their study is insightful, but also offers some ideas on ways to manage our own personal energy sources.

One thing they suggest is doing our own “energy audit.”  That is, take an objective look at the current state of our own personal energy.  Not unlike the energy audits the local power companies offer, the idea is to look at and evaluate where our ‘leaks’ are; that is, the state of our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy.  This is hard because often when we look at these areas our first reaction is “I don’t have time” and of course that is the point.  Their study includes a sample audit for us to use to evaluate our own situation.

My guess is that most of us will identify weaknesses in each area and will require some work—yes work—to restructure our lives to regain balance and give ourselves the things we need to live well.

They offer some suggestions for improving in these areas:

  1. Physical Energy: No doubt some of this will be obvious.  Exercise, proper diet, adequate sleep and physical rest breaks need to be incorporated into a healthier lifestyle.  Exercise does not have to be back breaking; it could be a daily walk at lunch or basic stretching and balancing exercises to start.  Proper diet is very important and a key driver of energy.  Junk food at our desks does not help this, nor does excessive sugar, caffeine or alcohol.  Take mandatory rest breaks through the day.  Sometimes just a 10-minute distraction away from the desk can work wonders.  Just make sure you get away from your work for a time.  Finally, of course, adequate sleep is critical.  Getting by on just a few hours each night is neither healthy nor conducive to productivity.

 

  1. Emotional Energy: When I am overworked and tired, one thing that can easily happen is that I can ‘snap’ at other people. Obviously finding ways to restore peace of mind helps relationships and our ability to handle stressful situations.  Schwartz and McCarthy suggest learning to take time to breath. That is, take deep, measured breaths to clear our heads.  I know I have found short periods of meditation to be helpful as well.  There are lots of resources to help us restore our emotional energy, from apps to YouTube videos.  The result should be that we reestablish a positive internal image of ourselves so that image relates well to situations around us.

 

  1. Mental Energy: Multi-tasking appears to be a productivity fantasy, and in fact can really cause more of a mental drain than help us work better.  Having too many tasks coming at us at once reduces our ability to focus appropriately on important tasks as we are always being interrupted by non-critical events we feel we can handle all at once. The suggestion is that we try and focus on our primary and important tasks while turning off our reminders, phones, text-message buzzes and beeps, and other distractions for a fixed period.  For example, shut everything off for an hour, focus on the task at hand, and then take a ten- or fifteen-minute break to focus on those other distractions.  Other things to keep in mind would be to keep our minds fresh through putting them to work on other stimulating things such as reading a book, writing in a journal or other mentally stimulating activities which are not work related.

 

  1. Spiritual Energy: No this is not spiritual in the religious sense, although that certainly can be an element of spiritual energy. This relates to doing things that give us a sense of meaning and purpose.  After doing and reviewing limitless monthly reports, chewing statistics, and dealing with a seemingly unending string of emergency emails and texts, it is easy to lose our sense of what is really meaningful in our lives.  Even though those tasks are important, we need to incorporate those things that do reinforce what gives us purpose.  Whether or not it is making sure we place special focus on our kids, volunteering to help in our community, or just doing kind things for those around us can reinforce that we are living for a larger purpose.  These things which improve and maintain our spiritual condition are perhaps even more important that the other three.

 

I find that after a storm has passed, and the damaged repaired, there is often no greater relief that finding out that ‘power has been restored.’  The same can be said for our personal energy.  If you are feeling that personal power outage, time to reconnect and recharge.

A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners.  Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 15 years.

image provided by: Pixabay.com

Socializing: The Next Big Thing

June 3, 2020 Rick Brammer

The past few months we’ve all experienced quite a few challenges. For many, the next big one will be socializing.  As our world begins to open back up, we will venture out and expand the universe as we have individually known it to be. But what we will be returning to will not be what we left. Are you prepared for that?

A part of our transition back into society will mean more, new rules; wear face masks, limited number of people in a space, directed spacing and movement, etc.  Plus, a lot of waiting!

It has been estimated that we spend 1 -2 years of our lives waiting in lines. These are pre-COVID numbers. What are we in store for now?

Waiting in line generally causes anxiety and irritability. There are rare exceptions. For example, take the masters of the art of waiting in line, Disney. By creating distractions and managing expectations, parents, with kids in tow, will happily wait in line—repeatedly(!)—for an hour or more just for a four-minute ride.  But life is not a Disney theme park ride. We will now be waiting in places we had accessed freely for years.  How will we manage?

Experts recommend several ways to make the time pass quickly (perceived time).  Our smart phones are a great way to pass time: check emails, play a game, read a book, etc. Or how about some good old-fashioned people watching? Especially since much of our new waiting time will take place on a sidewalk. You could even go out on a limb and strike up a conversation with fellow waiters (maintaining proper social distancing of course).

Here’s the thing, we are going to wait more than ever. You can’t control that.  But you can control what you do with that time and how you react once your wait is over.  We need to realize that the employees that we encounter when our wait is over are doing their best in very trying times. Let’s make an extreme effort to treat them with respect, as well as everyone else we encounter.  A friendly smiling face or a kind word can go a long way in making someone’s day better, including our own.

It’s a whole new world out there. Let’s try and make it a better one.

A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners.  Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 15 years.

A Heap O’ Debt: Household Indebtedness Records Broken

March 4, 2020 Mark Hammerstrom

To you, oh faithful readers, I suspect I am beginning to sound like a broken record.  You remember what a broken record sounds like, right?  Perhaps not.  Well, so you know, the ‘needle’ (or stylus) of a record player would sometimes get caught on a scratch on the record and skip back to a previous part of the recording and play over and over and over again. Pretty annoying if you were in the middle of the album versions of “Free Bird” or “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.”

Gosh if that does not make me feel like a ‘man of a certain age…’

At all events, I am beginning to think the repetitive messages of ever increasing, historic levels of household debt may have become a normalized part of everyday life.  That is, this data is no longer a surprise, or a source of alarm.  In fact, I rarely see any alarming headlines about it in the financial press, or if so, the stories fade to the background pretty fast. We may simply have become used to the fact that heaping debt onto our lives is a normal thing and no big deal.

Until it isn’t.

So, here is some data from the last quarter of 2019 courtesy of the New York Federal Reserve (read the press release here):

  • Total household debt increased by $193 billion (1.4%) to $14.15 trillion.
  • This is 22 consecutive quarters with an increase in household debt.
  • This new mark is $1.5 trillion higher than the previous peak of $12.68 trillion in the third quarter of 2008.
  • Mortgage balances rose by $120 billion in Q4.
  • Auto loans increased by $16 billion
  • Credit card debt increased by $46 billion
  • Student loan debt increased by $10 billion.
  • Of particular note is that transitions into delinquency for credit card debt deteriorated again in Q4, a trend that has been ongoing since 2016.
  • The Fed noted in particular a jump in credit card delinquencies owed by younger borrowers.

These numbers are significant, but when we look at the total increase in 2019 the trend is breathtaking:

  • For the year, the aggregate increase in household debt was $601 billion. That is the largest annual gain since 2007!
  • The main component in this increase was a $433 billion increase in mortgage balances.
  • Credit cards and auto loans increase by a $57 billion each.
  • Fortunately, student loan debt showed a smaller rate of growth, but it was still a robust $51 billion.

Often a picture is worth a thousand words (or in this case about 700!).  This is a chart provided by the Fed showing the growth in household debt since 2003:

Really a pretty astounding picture when we look at it like this. Yes, much can be credited to the improving economy beginning in 2013.  As we went back to work, and wages increased, it was only natural that we could take on more debt and pay for it.  Yet this trend simply cannot continue forever.  Economic expansion has its limits, particularly when unemployment is so very low.  Global events can trip things up very quickly, as we have seen recently with the Coronavirus outbreak.

What to do?  As always, we urge our clients to use their best judgement when issuing credit.  When receivables increase, and aging of debt increases, we encourage you to turn your debts over to us at the earliest possible moment to begin the collection process.  Now is the best time to do so as it is tax season and tax refunds are a great source of debt recovery.

And, as always, we are here to help. Let us know how we can help you!

A. Alliance Collection Agency, Inc. is a full service, licensed accounts receivable management and debt collection agency providing highly effective, customized one on one management and recovery solutions for our business partners.  Founded in northern Illinois in 2005, we have been proudly improving the bottom-line on behalf of our business partners in and around Chicagoland for over 15 years.

Image provided by: Nick Ares –  https://www.flickr.com/photos/aresauburnphotos/   

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