The Power of Full Engagement

The Power of Full Engagement is a self-improvement book by James E. Loehr and Tony Schwartz on managing your energy to extract better performance in all aspects of life.

“Energy, not time, is the fundamental currency of high performance.”
― Jim Loehr, The Power of Full Engagement

Snapshot

• Recharge your energy along four dimensions: Physical, Emotional, Mental, Spiritual
• Oscillate between points of exertion and intermittent recovery, rather than sustained linear stress (whether physical or mental)
• Applying systematic stress to engage overcompensation and growth in the recovery phase builds tolerance and increases performance in mental activities as well, not just physical
• Interval training (<60sec of intense training, followed by complete aerobic recovery) results in more performance gain than steady-state training
• Do not neglect strength training
• Eat low glycemic foods 5-6 times throughout the day, keeping the body at a balance between feeling hungry and feeling full
• Eat more towards breakfast time, less towards dinnertime
• Sleep 7-8 hours a day at a regular schedule
• Take a recovery break in whatever you’re doing every 90-120min
• Say when and where you will do something, and it will dramatically increase the likelihood of following through
• It is important to chart your progress
• Make use of rituals to implement lasting behavioural change

Thoughts

This book definitely added a useful framework for self management. Relying solely on willpower to get through things is not only unsustainable, it doesn’t even get you better results (I have stories to tell about trying to implement a polyphasic sleep schedule…).

Alas, we can’t all be shounen protagonists.

Reading this book, I was reminded of the compulsory OBS camping courses back in secondary school. Even though the courses were exhausting and uncomfortable, at the end of it I felt very refreshed and filled with a new vigour for life - so much so that I took the opportunity to join a second course, the Shackleton Journey.

The stress of daily focus on academics was replaced by a fresh concern for basic things like food, water, and sleep - which was actually quite liberating, in its own way. Navigating your way through wild nature with a 20kg backpack definitely focuses the mind wonderfully towards the price of failure. It’s nice to worry about different things once in a while.

One thing the book brought up was that professional athletes’ performances vary more according to how they disengage during recovery time, than how they train. This is intriguing and lends a new perspective on recreation - combining this with the earlier insight, it should be possible to consistently generate high productivity by changing and disengaging completely from different tasks.

(As the pandemic subsides, one hopes that working from home sees more widespread acceptance - I doubt there are many offices that would offer the opportunity to rejuvenate by way of a quick video gaming session during lunch breaks.)

Regarding the importance of recording one’s progress on things in life, I definitely agree. Just by measuring one’s performance, behavioural changes occur. I share an online calendar with a friend, and we mark off the days we’ve put effort towards our goals. I can’t say that we don’t have zero days, but we’re definitely a lot closer than before.

That said, I’m not fully buying into some of the appeals to nature the book likes to make. Saying that we need deep beliefs to weather the buffeting winds of change makes sense (if somewhat unnecessary), sure, but did we really have to bring up literal examples of trees falling over?

The book’s calls for moderation sometimes also seem less actionable than helpful, since it tends to make vague statements around how “too much” of something is bad. Thankfully, the advice around exercise and taking breaks is quite specific.

If you can get past a surprising number of typos, some of the case studies can be fun to read. Would recommend checking it out if you’re in a slump, or feel like you’re being pulled by a multitude of things in life and not really excelling at any of them.