It is easy to say your job is draining you if you have less energy. Or, if work hasn’t been fulfilling. Before you start looking for a new job, you can investigate whether it is true or not.
One way to assess if your job is draining you is to track your daily tasks for a week. Write down everything you do for a week, and rate it.
- Add a plus sign if you find it energizing
- Add a minus sign if you find it draining.
- Add a circle if it is neutral.
An energy tracking sample:
Monday
- Read a business book +
- Prepped for the mindfulness group meeting –
- Mindfulness meeting +
- Followed up on emails +o
- Reviewed notes for an article +
- Responded to comments on social media +
- Reviewed tomorrow’s meetings O –
Do this all week. I recommend energy tracking all week because some tasks might be draining one day and energizing the next. Those might be mood-dependent tasks, and likely not a reason to quit your job.
Why you should energy track before making a decision
Tracking your energy at work allows you to pinpoint which tasks invigorate or drain you, and which are neutral. When you have this information, you can make a wiser decision about what to change. Your job may not be draining you. It might be your relationship to the job.
Often you are not lost in your career. It’s that the work has become meaningless or your relationship to the work has changed.
Once you know how much of your workday is pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral (we all define this differently), you can choose what to do next.
- You can adapt the job you have towards more fulfilling work
- You can change your relationship to the work
- You can look for a new job
When people feel dissatisfied at work, they often think the only choice is to get a new job. I can help them get that. We work on their stories, their interests, and their values. They land something new. In some cases, that move was an overreaction. Especially when a client lands a new job and a few months later has the same complaints.
It’s worth examining if the unfulfillment is from the situation.
Try tracking your energy over the next week at your job to see how much it is or is not draining you.
In the next article, I’ll share advice on what you might do based on the data you collect.
