energy charting

10 Aug, 2025

~ 3 minutes to read

Yesterday, I wrote this post reflecting on some work process related things, and I had this idea to make a spider chart that could help me evaluate what work I'm feeling the most primed for.

Today, I made this in Canva.

I ended up with these qualities as the things to measure:

• focused
  • high means I'm eager to dig into the nitty gritty of things
  • low means I'm more feeling more big picture
• enthusiasm
  • high means I'm feeling excited and expressive
  • low means I'm feeling more reserved and contemplative
• mental energy
  • high means I'm feeling up for hard decisions and doing more demanding mental tasks
  • low means I'm better off doing lighter work
• visual
  • high means I want to create visually
  • low means I'm leaning more to expression through words
• emotional resilience
  • high means I'm feeling emotionally strong and resilient
  • low means I'm feeling a bit vulnerable
• physical energy
  • high means I've got energy to exude and share
  • low means I'm saving it for myself
• conceptual
  • high means I'm eager to work with ideas and concepts, like brainstorming or planning
  • low means I'm more interested in doing instead of thinking

this morning's chart

Here is one printed and filled out for how I was feeling while writing this.

reference/hypotheses for different types of work

I also made this reference sheet for myself that shows what levels I think are ideal for different types of work. These are all really hypotheses at this point, but I love the thought of having this as a reference. I'm also not super sure I was consistent in my approach. For some, I feel like I picked the minimum level, whereas for others, I picked the ideal level.

One interesting thing I noticed was that the work that I'm familiar and comfortable with (development and writing) take overall less energy than things that I'm not so comfy with, like video editing and recording. I'm curious to see how these charts might shift in a year.

My favorite lil surprise though, was the art chart being in the shape of a heart. <3

comparing current energy vs references

I think there are two approaches for comparing a current energy chart against my references. The first one is to accept where my energy is at and look for work that best aligns with where I'm at. So for this morning, my levels matched the levels for development decently, a well as writing. They were pretty off compared to video editing or art making (specifically in levels for conceptual and visual). So, I could decide to focus on the areas of work that align with where my energy is. That's approach one.

Approach two is to compare my current energy against the work I want to do, and with a better understanding of what I'm needing, I can work to alter my energy. For example, if I really wanted to make some art today, I could focus on warming up my energy for doing visual work somehow, as well as focus on transitioning my conceptual energy into more action-taking energy. Maybe that looks like doing some quick time limited sketches or making multiple collages with the same elements (wait, that sounds fun).

I think with the second approach, I'll need to be mindful of trying to make too big of a shift (going from a 1 to a 10 seems like a lot of work). As well as avoid trying to shift too many energies.

I'm also very curious to see how my energy levels track over time. I predict that my conceptual level will be high frequently. And that my physical energy and enthusiasm will stay on the lower ends. I think visual and focused energies will fluctuate the most.

a template for you

I just realized that the chart I'm using is a pro element, so you do need a paid account to use it ): I think you can still make a copy of the template and edit it with a free account though.

If you have a paid Canva account, here is the template link for the documents using the pro element chart. If you don't have a paid account, you should be able to still copy it and edit it, and maybe replace the charts with something else that could work? I might play around to make something, and will update here when I do.

If you do give it a try, let me know what qualities you evaluate for and how it goes!

oh no

wouldn't this be a really cool app though???? Especially if it made it easy to compare your current energy chart against your reference charts (like by visually layering them) and then you could so easily see what energy you're lacking that you need to do a certain type of work and maybe it'd recommend things you could do to adjust that energy, like if your enthusiasm is low it would suggest an activity that would bump it up????? Hello you little seed of an idea. Feel free to fly away on the internet's breeze and end up in someone's brain that will water and fertilize you. I can't right now, but I think you're beautiful and wish you well.

• Written: 10 Aug, 2025
• Published: 10 Aug, 2025
• Last updated: 3 weeks, 3 days ago
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#creating #energy-charting #fav