On a run last week, I listened to a podcast where the host was walking listeners through doing an energy audit. The episode came out at the beginning of the year (classic timing) and was a tiny bit corny, but I was surprised to find I enjoyed the mental exercise!
After leaving a toxic job at the end of 2023, I put a lot of work into ensuring I was spending my time, energy, and focus on things that I love and that brought me joy. I even established a weekly habit of doing a self check-in to ensure I was staying grounded and not falling back into bad habits.
After my run, I decided to find time to sit down and do my own energy audit. Life has been so good, and has only gotten better since 2023, but it’s easy to fall into routines that don’t serve you. So, during a break in activities on a rainy Saturday this weekend, I decided to jot down my thoughts! In the podcast, the host encouraged people to think about their daily activities and habits and which of these four categories they’d fall into:
- High effort, high joy
- High effort, low joy
- Low effort, high joy
- Low effort, low joy
I decided to challenge myself to think of four habits, activities, tasks, etc. that I do that fall into each of these categories. I was surprised to find that many of my activities change categories depending on why I am doing them, the frequency with which I’m doing them, and the intentionality behind each activity. Trust me, that’ll make more sense in a minute!
Here’s what I had for each:
| High effort, high joy – Training for trail races – Traveling, exploring new places – Staying on top of my finances – Waking up early to do stuff before work | High effort, low joy – Planning overly elaborate gatherings, parties – Saying yes to activities that I am genuinely not interested in – Initiating home improvements – Caring about clothes/fashion |
| Low effort, high joy – Drinking coffee with Patrick in the morning – Going on casual walks – Volunteering with VHTRC – Doing my skincare and taking care of my hair | Low effort, low joy – Going out to eat solely out of laziness – Shopping for the sake of shopping – Staying up late for no real reason – Driving places and sitting in traffic |
Again, because I challenged myself to think of four items for each category, some of these are less legitimate than others. I really struggled to think of anything for the low joy categories, which is why those are less tangible! A great problem to have!
When I say some of these change categories, here are a few examples:
- In the high effort, low joy category: “Planning overly elaborate gatherings, parties”
- I love elaborate gatherings and parties! The problem is, I set my expectations too high and worry about everyone having a good time. When I am doing this with my closest friends and family, it quickly falls into the low effort, high joy category!
- In the low effort, high joy category: “Drinking coffee with Patrick in the morning”
- I love sitting on the couch early in the morning and slowly sipping coffee with Patrick. That said, “Waking up early to do stuff before work” is in the high effort, high joy category. If our morning coffee becomes hours of sitting on the couch doing nothing, this can sometimes slip into a low effort, low joy activity.
See what I mean? It’s all context dependent! It was a good reminder to focus on why I am doing something and to take the time to consider the joy it is bringing me.
I hope you may take the time to jot down your own thoughts for these four categories! Maybe they’ll have more to do with work or relationships or goals – it’s all personal!
Love,
JN
Juliana Moves 
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