In your working life, it’s important that you’re good at your job. It’s important that results are achieved. It might be good if you could just come to work, do what you like and nobody would care about the results – but that’s not the case. Results and progress are important in your career, and if you want to be a great IT worker, you’ll need to stand out from the rest. One of the best ways to do this is to get better results – by managing your energy.
You might notice – I know I do – that your energy levels, both mental and physical – vary throughout the day. You might feel energised and motivated after your morning coffee or after lunch, but the energy may die down at other parts of the day. You may feel you have less energy early in the week, and more energy later in the week. The key is to manage your energy levels in both the long and short term to get the most out of your job – and therefore get better results and get more done.
Recognise Positive and Negative Levels
The first part of managing and improving your overall energy levels is to be able to recognise when you’re in each state. A high energy level is where you feel motivated, focused, and determined to get the job done. You’re not getting distracted by other forces and you feel like you’re “in the zone” with your work. Lower energy levels are the opposite. You find yourself easily distracted, not focused enough, and even getting tired or bored.
The idea of managing your energy at work is to have more of the “high energy levels” in your day and less of the “low energy levels”. First of all, work out what causes you to get into each state. Do you feel motivated first thing in the morning? After your morning coffee? Starting earlier than everyone else? After lunch? After everyone else has gone home?
When do you feel tired or unmotivated? At the end of the day? In the morning? After a long meeting?
Knowing and recognising these points can help you manage the energy levels throughout your day and week and will go a long way to getting better results at work.
Improve Energy Levels
A great way of managing your energy levels is to do things that improve your energy for the work day. There are many things you do to accomplish this:
Sleep well. Probably the most important thing you can do – ensuring you are well rested for each day will give you the mental and physical energy to get through the day.
Eat well. This doesn’t necessarily mean a perfect diet. It just means cutting out things that may not be good for you. I’m no health expert, but if you have takeaway most nights of the week and a block of chocolate after lunch, it may be having a negative effect on your energy.
Exercise – Going for a run or a walk on a regular basis can actually give you more energy. It improves blood flow, and is known for reducing stress. If you do it during your lunch break, it’s also a good way to get out of the office, clear your head and return more refreshed.
Rest when needed – You can’t perform at a full pace every day and expect your body and mind to keep up. They need downtime to rest and recover. Ensure you make time for some relaxation regularly.
Balance Your Life
While it may seem that the more you work the better you get, this isn’t always the case. If you work twelve hour days, six days a week, you will find you’ll get tired quicker, lose energy and therefore your work performance will suffer. It’s important to create a balance in your life so your focus and energy is at its peak during work time.
This means leaving work at work – not working all day, going home and working all night. Of course, there are times that this may be needed, but it should be the exception and not the norm. You should also be making time in your life outside of work for family, friends, hobbies and exercise. Life isn’t all about work, and if you maintain a health work/life balance, both parts will improve because of it! You’ll have more energy at work, perform better, get better results, which will all help your career in IT.
What Are The 3 Principles Involved In Managing Your Energy Costs?
If there was a way to reduce your energy costs would you be interested? The following article describes some measure that you can take, assuming you have the time and inclination, to seriously reduce your energy bills, without reducing the service you receive.
When examining practical ways to reduce your costs, to ensure that they do not impact on your bottom line, there are 3 key factors to consider;
Procurement – Make sure you buy energy at the lowest possible price and avoid unnecessary costs
Management – Put in place the systems and resources to monitor and manage energy on an ongoing basis
Energy Conservation – Identify and implement energy conservation measures that can yield reliable savings with limited management time
On many occasions when an energy supplier knows who you are, they can use this prior knowledge to create an artificially high quote. It can be extremely useful to have an external company go tender on your behalf to preserve your anonymity.
How to reduce your bills
With escalating fuel costs, the only companies sure to benefit are the energy companies, who seem to increase their margin.
- Look through the last 12 months of bills or get an ESB Cost-Consumption report (if ESB is your supplier). Charges vary depending on what tariff you are on, but the Maximum Demand tariffs are the most prone to unnecessary charges.
- If you are incurring Wattless charges, then see if you have power factor correction capacitors at site: these devices are often installed at sites to eliminate wattless charges, but may need tuning. Talk to whoever is responsible for electrical maintenance to resolve.
- See if you are incurring any Excess Capacity Charges. If you are, then you may be consuming more power at peak times than your connection agreement with the ESB allows. This generally occurs at sites that have increased their electricity use over the years. Talk to your electricity supplier to resolve.
- Do you have a connection agreement that allows you to consume more power than you are ever likely to need? This won’t be in the form of a penalty charge, but may result in your Capacity Charges being excessively high. To check, find your Maximum Import Capacity on your bill (expressed in kVA) and multiply it by 0.95.
- Compare this number with your Maximum Demand (expressed in kW). The Maximum Demand should be a little lower, but not much lower. If in doubt, talk to your electricity supplier.
- Check is if you are on the correct tariff: the most common thing here is if you are on a General Purpose (GP) tariff, when it would be more economical to be on a General Purpose Nightsaver tariff. There are slightly higher standing charges associated with the GP Nightsaver tariff, but these are offset by savings on power consumed at night. If you consume more than 10% of your electricity at night (e.g. lots of outside lighting, or considerable server room power), then maybe you should be on a GP Nightsaver tariff. If in doubt about your tariff, then talk to your electricity supplier.
- Every year you should be seeking prices for electricity. Airtricity generally focus on smaller, General Purpose users (butcher, baker, candlestick maker). The other suppliers – Energia, Bord Gais, ESB Independent Energy, and CHPower – compete with ESB Public Electricity Supply for larger sites, generally on one of the Maximum Demand tariffs. It is important to make sure you are on the correct tariff before you procure electricity – you may think you are getting a great deal off your supplier, but they may be simply capitalising on the fact that you are on the incorrect tariff!
When it comes to gas, there is less you can do other than check you are on the correct tariff. Find out what you use per annum (in kWh). Then go to the Bord Gais website and find out which tariff you should be on, depending on which usage category you fall into. Although you are entitled to procure gas competitively, unless you are a very large gas user you are unlikely to find anyone other than Bord Gais that will supply you. If you are not sure if you are a “large” gas user, then chances are that you aren’t!
How to manage and conserve your energy usage
There are many ways of monitoring and managing your energy. This is a specialist area and at Cost Control we have partnered with PowerTherm Solutions Ltd. They are experts at auditing your current usage and in implementing systems to save you massive amounts on future energy requirements.
Together with a suitable cost control company and energy management specialist, you can seriously reduce your energy bills, so that you can focus on growing your bottom line in your own areas of expertise.
If you would like to find out whether or not your company would be in a position to dramatically reduce its energy’s cost and expenses, why not contact us for a no obligation meeting.
All of the above can be quickly established by Cost Control & Management Services’ energy expert. Why not give us a call today.
