The Cost of Mental Energy

I don’t know about you, but I spend too much mental energy on tasks that should only take a few minutes to complete. (I’d like to think I’m getting better at this.) But if you’re like me, let me be your intervention. Be honest with yourself. How much mental energy do you expend on a task? Does the task really require that amount of worry, or could the task be easily solved given the right tools? Take these examples:

• A phone call that you don’t want to make.
• A legal issue that needs to be resolved.
• A task you aren’t particularly good at.

Basically, anything that drains your mental energy could serve as an example here. One solution is to get rid of the task. Delegate it to someone who is better at the task than you are. Or do something. Pick up the phone, settle that lawsuit. Worrying about these things blurs your focus and decreases your productivity. And that loss of productivity can cost exponentially more than being focused and productive. Here’s what I mean. Consider your hourly bill rate. If you don’t know this, take your income from last year and divide the first number by two. For example:

$30k income/2=$15 $100k income/2=$50.

Now multiply your hourly bill rate by the number of hours you spent worrying about a task. If your hourly rate is $15 and you spend 5 hours worrying about a task, you’ve just spent $75. Worse, you haven’t even completed that phone call, or settled that lawsuit. The truth is you may be spending thousands—if not tens of thousands—of dollars worrying about things that could have been solved for far less money. Need to make a phone call but you’re worried about when and where you’ll fit it into your schedule? Delegate it to an assistant. You could save yourself $70 or more. Does settling a lawsuit leave you clammy? Write a check. Let a lawyer take care of it. Initially, it may seem like you’re losing money on a task you could do yourself. (A $500 check for a lawyer may seem like a lot of money.) But if you consider the amount of time it would take you to complete the task yourself plus the amount of mental energy you’d expend on the task, that initial cost is actually an investment. One that can save you money in the long run. Bottom line: Without a clear mind, you can’t be focused. If you aren’t focused, you can’t be productive. If you aren’t productive, you’re wasting time and not contributing as much to a project—or your life—as you could if you conserved your mental energy. Besides, if you don’t value your own time, no one else will.