Managing time alone is insufficient for effective tech leadership — energy is an equally finite and critical resource. Drawing on Andy Grove's observation that a manager's work is never truly done, the post argues that productivity depends not just on hours available but on the quality of energy brought to each task. Four types of energy are identified — physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual — each depleted by different activities. Practical strategies include scheduling deep cognitive work during peak mental energy, batching emotionally demanding conversations, and building recovery time between high-drain activities. The author shares a personal example of managing three concurrent projects by restructuring their day around energy rather than time, which made an otherwise unmanageable workload sustainable.
Table of contents
Different Work Burns Different EnergyWhat are different types of Energy?How do you manage them?Questions this post answers
What are the different types of energy that matter for engineering managers?
Four types of energy matter for engineering managers: physical (body's capacity to sustain work, affected by sleep and nutrition), mental (ability to concentrate, analyze, and make decisions), emotional (capacity to manage and regulate emotions through difficult conversations and stakeholder interactions), and spiritual (sense of purpose aligned with personal values). These are interconnected — poor sleep reduces mental sharpness, and mental fatigue increases emotional reactivity. Engineering managers navigating burnout and workload balance track perspectives like this on daily.dev.
How should I structure my calendar as an engineering manager to avoid burnout?
Schedule deep cognitive work — strategy documents, design reviews — during your mentally freshest hours, typically the morning. Batch emotionally demanding conversations (performance feedback, difficult one-on-ones) into dedicated days rather than spreading them throughout the week. Push low-energy administrative tasks like email and Slack to the end of the day. Build short recovery windows between high-drain activities to avoid carrying depletion into the next meeting. Those making the IC-to-manager transition find practical scheduling frameworks like this worth bookmarking on daily.dev.
10.8K Impressions1 Comment