60 Days In: Energy Management Over Time Management

Last month, I wrote about how most people ask about my business search, but the real journey is more layered. It's part active mini-retirement, part structured experimentation, and part long-term business acquisition strategy. I had sketched a plan, tracked my time, and found my energy flowing differently than expected (more time with project exploration and less time on personal activities). Although I still focused on tasks to complete, I started understanding how energy can drive outcomes. Radio Chatter, Mountain State Overland, finding businesses to potentially acquire, and spontaneous opportunities like a consulting gig all played a role in this journey. But at the heart of it was clearing mental clutter, testing assumptions, and building aligned momentum.

I had to mentally challenge myself a few times: was I drifting or was this deliberate? In the end, I know that quitting the 9-to-5 job was just step one in designing a life that fits. It has allowed me to say yes to things I never would have imagined, and given me time to explore things I’ve wanted to do for years, like creating an iPhone app for Radio Chatter (It will be on its way to the Apple Store in June!).

Now 60 days in, I didn’t change on paper how I expected to spend my time. But here’s how it actually shaped up:

I added a new category—vacation. Even though it might seem like I’m always on vacation, this was actual time I would have normally taken off: Memorial Day and my son's half-day of school. If I group that with personal, that puts me at ~45% for personal time compared to the planned 55%. So, close to expectations.

One of the main themes this month was managing my energy, which is different from managing my time. I was talking with a client last week and this idea came up—that you can’t really manage time, but you can manage what you do with the time you have.

In April, I managed my days like a task list, even while I was beginning to explore what it meant to follow my energy. I did what I’ve always done: set priorities and assign time to each. Reach out to one potential wholesaler each day for Radio Chatter. Spend a few hours researching potential businesses. Check the tasks off the list. The problem is, not all tasks are equal. If you focus too much on the full to-do list, you can get overwhelmed and lose sight of what really matters, or avoid the hard stuff (which is what often matters).

In May, I flipped the approach. I still knew what had to get done at a high level, but I let my energy guide what I worked on each day without a structured task list. Compared to April, where I often planned my next day each evening, in May I didn’t know what I’d be doing for the day until after I dropped my son off at school. Whatever I had energy for...that’s what I worked on.

And what I found was, once I got started on something with real energy, the inertia carried it forward. The snowball effect. This helped me tackle a few big things I’d been avoiding. The energy to start was the key to getting over the hurdle, and the inertia was key to accomplishing the work.

I also hit "flow" more often. That’s when your intention and your attention are aligned. This came up in another coaching session. My intention was the big rocks that I had to get done. My attention was where I spent my time. In the past, I’d sometimes be working on something (intention) while mentally wishing I was doing something else (attention). That mismatch led to lackluster results and frustration. Ever have the Sunday Scaries? In May, I found that managing my energy synced intention and attention and helped me feel more accomplished.

To make that more concrete, early in May, my business partners and I started making real progress on a potential acquisition, which I mentioned at the end of Clarity in the Climb. I leaned into that. I dove into details: industry, product/service, market trends, competition. I was deep in it for several days because it was new and exciting, and I had the time to really get ahead, knowing that if we continued down the path, the demand on my time would only increase.

Then, after hitting a natural pause in the research, I felt the urge to shift gears. I’d satisfied my curiosity...for now. There’s still work to do, but not urgently. That gave me the mental space to knock out a home project I’d been avoiding for over a year. It had two false starts before, but this time my momentum carried it through in a few days. My energy was ready for it, and my mind was off the acquisition and the “what I should be doing” internal guilt trip.

June is shaping up to be a very different month. We’re moving forward on the business acquisition process, with a signed Letter of Intent. In big business speak, this is a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU): a non-legally binding document that states intention to acquire, with some level of details to be validated during Due Diligence. This month, my son finishes school and starts summer camp, which will change daily routines and drop-off pick-up times. I am not going to lie, not having the 9-5 really makes planning for the change in summer schedule much less anxiety provoking. I also might go on a Mountain State Overland trip mid-month to guide some guests through the beautiful mountains of West Virginia. And we’re heading out on our first big family vacation at the end of the month in the truck to explore Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

It’s an interesting time ahead of me. On one end, it’s exciting to visualize more of what could be after acquiring a business (which would likely happen in September if this one continues to progress, based on typical SBA timelines). But it's also a little nerve-racking to know that my time will slowly start not being fully my own again. At the end of June, the clarity of which path is going to come to fruition—business acquisition or more balanced time for exploration—will become clearer. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the freedom to spend time where I want to spend it, with no one telling me what to do, where to be, or giving me some trivial leadership deadline. It's hard to accepting this newfound freedom could be going away, but I have accomplished so much in two months personally and professionally that it's also also hard to envision needing this level of freedom indefinitely. I suspect that in a few months, if this acquisition actually happens, I will be ready for it and the structure it brings.