Taking care of yourself is a full time job.

No matter how you pay your bills, your well-being requires constant attention. When you have energy, that’s great – you can focus on taking care of your well-being and finding balance.

But sometimes, the demands of life can get in the way — especially work. In 2021, 95% of workers felt stressed due to overwork, and 53% started their day early or stayed late several days a week. It is no coincidence that 52% of workers feel overwhelmed or surrounded by a toxic work culture.

And with so much energy going into the workplace, self-care practices may be at the bottom of your to-do list.

If this sounds familiar, it’s time you learned how to protect your energy. This means setting limits to avoid burnout and anxiety, and guarding against the people and things that drain you.

What does it mean to protect your energy?

Protecting your energy means communicating your needs and setting healthy precedents in both personal and professional settings. When defending your energy, set sustainable limits on what people can expect of you and avoid asking more than you can handle.

Finding ways to reduce negativity in your life, whether it’s ending toxic relationships or building healthy habits, means prioritizing your needs over others.

Avoiding things that drain or frustrate you isn’t always realistic. Difficult situations are often unavoidable. But by setting boundaries and expressing your needs, you can set a precedent and avoid many obstacles before they occur.

Why is it important to protect your energy?

Protecting your energy is an investment in your mental health.

Imagine an hourglass. The sand slowly falls to the bottom as the seconds pass. Eventually, there’s no sand left on top, and you have to flip it over and let it recharge.

Emotional wellness is similar. Every decision removes a few grains of sand. Throughout the day, you use up your mental energy, whether it’s making decisions, completing difficult tasks, or communicating with people who have toxic traits.

Even if we think we can handle everything at once, we don’t have infinite mental energy. As social beings, we are also vulnerable to the feelings of others.

For example, at work, team performance is highly dependent on each member’s mood. People with negative energy—those who feel tired, angry, insecure, and possibly dump you—affect your mood and quickly drain your energy.

As mental energy is depleted, we lose physical stamina, lack motivation, and become more prone to procrastination. When you read the room and notice how other people’s moods affect you, you can practice better self-preservation.

Protecting your energy means saving some sand in the hourglass for your time after work or on the weekends.

How to protect your energy daily

Here are some ways to protect yourself from draining your battery.

Find out what drains you

Identify what attracts negative energy, or in other words, what makes you feel drained. Some people may find sharing a space with a business partner stimulating, while others may feel their social battery is draining.

Take some time to get to know yourself. This is the first step to protection from mental abnormalities.

Give yourself a break

You need to recharge after draining the activities. If meetings are tiring you out, make time to take a walk, grab a coffee, or do something else relaxing to decompress instead of jumping straight into another task.

Listen to how you feel

Responsibilities and pressures fill our days. It’s easy to get lost in the crowd and forget our biggest priority: taking care of ourselves. Emotions influence many of our decisions, so listen to how you feel before making big decisions or expending more energy.

Reduce distractions

Protecting your energy also means avoiding distractions that affect your workflow and mood. And in 2018, 69% of workers agreed that checking their devices interferes with focus. In addition, after an interruption, it takes several minutes to return to working mode.

Here are some ways to reduce distractions:

Turn off notifications: Avoid interruptions from Slack, social media platforms, or workflow apps when you’re trying to focus.

Set limits with your own phone: Ask clients, managers, and co-workers to send you messages through work channels like Slack or email that you can check during business hours.

Put your phone on silent: Even the sight of your phone can be a distraction, so silence it and put it out of sight.

Limit social media use: Prioritize active, intentional sharing over endless scrolling. In addition to being distracting, social media affects mental health. Studies show that social media use is associated with negative subjective well-being.

Take necessary breaks

Many people feel pressured to work continuously. Some are so busy with their work that they feel guilty about spending time sick. And if you’re working on an important project or need to meet a deadline, taking a break can be counterproductive.

Even when you don’t feel like stepping away, the key to staying productive is to take breaks before your mind and body start to shut down. There are several ways to schedule your break time, such as the Pomodoro Technique, which suggests taking 25-minute breaks between focus periods.

Additionally, spending time with yourself every day is vital to physical and mental health. A healthy amount of free time increases well-being, so find things to do in your free time that reduce different types of stress and recharge.

Control your schedule and activities

It’s hard to focus and relax if you’re constantly on the move. Meetings, in particular, take up time that you could use to complete other tasks and can be very stressful if they require travel. Here are some ways to take control:

Schedule meetings to a specific time of day: Have them at the start of your workday, or wrap them up with meetings at the end of the afternoon. Taking longer periods of time not allotted for meetings can increase focus.

Keep it short: 30 minutes into a meeting, your brain gets tired. Take breaks during meetings or plan to keep them short.

Share information in different ways: Resolve non-urgent decisions via email, messaging app, or a short phone call to reduce meeting times.

Clean up your space

The busier the environment, the more it takes your brain to filter it. If you have a task that requires focus, organizing your space can help. Create a work-from-home setup that boosts productivity, or tidy up the office once in a while.

Don’t look for perfection

Perfectionism makes you more prone to burnout and discontent. If you’re constantly editing tasks or feel like you can’t trust anyone else to do them, take a deep breath.

It’s okay to want to do well, but learning how to let things go is part of a healthy mindset. Instead of looking for perfection, look for areas for improvement. Ask for constructive criticism and trust others to work without micromanaging.

Build a positive social circle

Energy is contagious, and paying attention to your own energy isn’t enough. Check in with others. When you are surrounded by stressful people in the workplace who make non-constructive comments, it can affect your feelings.

We mimic other people’s emotions, whether positive or negative, which means that surrounding ourselves with positive energy can help us feel the same way. Find colleagues and friends who make you happy, respect boundaries, and support your success.

Give thanks

People tend to focus more on negative situations and feelings than positive ones. Negative experiences help us grow and learn important lessons, but focusing too much on mistakes can lead to insecurity, fear, anxiety, depression, and lower overall health.

Instead, try to find the things you are grateful for. Practicing gratitude in work and life helps boost positive energy, and identifying the things that bring happiness helps you look for them in the future.

Tips to organize your energy at work

For many Americans, work is particularly draining. Here are some tips to help you focus on the positive and put yourself first in the workplace.

1. Avoid non-upgradable tasks
   Non-promotable tasks are things that help the company but not the individual’s professional growth. These could be tasks that aren’t your job or that someone could easily complete, such as organizing meeting minutes, putting together work events, or filling in for a coworker without compensation.

Saying yes to everything can be a good thing, but your time and energy is better spent elsewhere. You may be sacrificing an opportunity to move up the ladder or improve skills.

Before doing any additional work, weigh the pros and cons. Think about what you’re saying no to when you say yes to this task, whether that means going home early or holding events to foster bonding among team members. It’s okay to set boundaries, say no, and stick to the job you’re assigned to do.

2. Prioritization
   You don’t have to do every task once it reaches your desk. Measure their importance and schedule and find where they fit in your schedule. Trying to tackle everything at once can lead to burnout, so prioritizing is an important step.

Try keeping a calendar or writing a daily or weekly to-do list to distribute tasks and prevent too much from being done.

3. Practice positive affirmations
   Positive affirmations — statements in the present tense that affirm your worth and validate your feelings — help control your mind. Saying it out loud or writing it down helps ward off negative feelings and promotes a healthy mental attitude. Here are some examples of positive affirmations:

I am capable and good at my job.

I’m getting better every day.

I control my own energy.

I am excited and full of good ideas.

Practice affirmations if you’re feeling down, but incorporating them into everyday life, even when you’re already happy, helps keep the positivity flowing. Find positive phrases that you identify with and turn to those quotes to protect your energy. Keep it on your desk or post it in your mirror to be reminded of your worth every day.

4. Help others to some extent
   Teamwork is an important part of any job, but practicing balance is equally vital. Being constantly distracted by other people’s tasks can affect your ability to work efficiently. While it’s a good idea to lend a hand, remember that you were hired to do your job and not someone else’s.

Be aware of whether you are simply helping or taking on too much. Help your team within reason, know your limits, and deliver them. If you’re feeling drained, tell your supervisor, co-workers, or friends so they can better respect your energy.

Create a positive energy field

Negative situations and draining people are unavoidable, so surround yourself with meaningful activities that support you rather than drag you down.

Fatigue is a common phenomenon, and we are all prone to picking up bad energy around us. Through intentional self-care, we can protect our energy, avoid burnout, and set healthy boundaries.