The Energy Calendar
Color-code your week to find what lifts you and what drains you.
- Difficulty
- Starter
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 90%
The Energy Calendar is a one-week self-audit that reveals which activities and people energize versus drain you. At the end of each day you color-code every calendar item green (energizing), yellow (neutral), or red (draining). After a week you have a clear map of your energy creators and drainers, which you then gradually reposition your schedule around. Bloom argues energy, not time, is the real finite resource, and leaning into energy creators produces outsized outcomes. Even in a rigid 9-5 you can usually tweak how a task is done to shift its color.
Origin
Bloom first ran the exercise while working an 80-100 hour finance week. He found phone calls and Zoom meetings were his biggest drainers, but discovered that taking them as walking calls turned them energizing, so he converted half his calls and felt dramatically better by week's end.
Core principles
- 01Energy, not time, is the truly finite resource to manage.
- 02The activities that create energy produce the 10x, 100x, 1000x outcomes.
- 03You have more control over your calendar than you think, even in a 9-5.
- 04You can often tweak how you do a draining task to make it energizing.
How to run it
- 1
Review the day
At the end of each weekday, look back over every activity on your calendar.
- 2
Color-code by energy
Mark each item green if it lifted you up, yellow if neutral, red if it physically drained you.
- 3
Repeat for a week
Do the coding every day so you build a full-week picture of the people and activities driving your energy up or down.
- 4
Reposition toward green
Slowly shift your calendar to spend more time on energy creators and less on drainers, or tweak how drainers are done.
Pro tip If you can't cut a draining task, change its format, e.g. take the call on a walk instead of at your desk.
In the wild
As a junior finance associate Bloom couldn't decline calls, but he moved half of them to walking calls where he felt more present and couldn't multitask.
→ He showed up better on the calls, got better outcomes, and felt far more uplifted across the whole week.
Common mistakes
Assuming you have no control
Concluding a 9-5 leaves no room to change your energy ignores that most draining tasks can be reformatted rather than eliminated.
Managing time instead of energy
Optimizing hours while ignoring which activities deplete you misses the real driver of your best outputs.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone who feels depleted by their week and wants a concrete audit of why.
Not ideal for
People with zero calendar autonomy who cannot adjust any activity at all.
From the transcript
“the way that you allocate your energy is what matters.”
“color code your calendar according to whether the activity created energy... market green.”
“doing that same phone call or Zoom while walking was very energy creating for me.”
From the episode
Sahil Bloom: The 5 Types of Wealth You Need to Design Your Dream Life
Sahil Bloom