My new book comes out in six days

On Tuesday July 7, my fifth book goes out into the world.

And I’m oscillating between being in denial that two years worth of highly personal work is about to fly out into the world and then feeling sh*t scared. Because “personal”, in this case, means actually personal.

The Energy Game is different to any other book I’ve written.

With Time Wise, I was confident. I’d spent years teaching time management and productivity. I had the research, the systems, the stories. I was presenting a well-organised solution to a well-understood problem.

The Health Habit was more of the same, but this time about health. Science-backed solutions to three areas people struggle with: sleep, nutrition and movement.

But The Energy Game has been different. While having lots of science-backed goodness (the reference list could be its own book), I put so much more of myself into the manuscript.

I had coffee last week with the executive producer of a big podcast who read an early copy and she said to me, “It’s so personal! You share so much.”

And I do. It’s full of stories that I had previously only shared with my husband and a few close friends.

This book came out of a period where I genuinely didn’t know if I was going to be okay. And I had no idea of how I was going to get back to being okay.

Which, as it turns out, is excellent motivation for a behavioural scientist.

Every paper I read, every strategy I tested, every participant who shared their experience with me (all 1300 of them), it was all deeply personal. And unlike with my other books, I wasn’t just a researcher this time. I was someone who really, really needed the answers.

I found them.

More than that, I have more energy now than I did before I burnt out. I understand my energy in a way I never did before. I know which of my three energy accounts depletes fastest (emotional - almost always emotional). I know my Energy Vampires (the people and situations that reliably drain me) and have become less apologetic about reducing or removing them. I’ve built a set of evidence-based practices that I reach for when the early warning signs of burnout appear.

I now wake up without dread for the workday ahead. I no longer argue with myself about how bad it would look for the CEO of a business to be calling in sick in the days leading up to a two week holiday (the answer, for the record, is not good). I work without constantly watching the clock and feeling behind. I have energy left at the end of the workday to enthusiastically work on a 1000-piece Magic Puzzle Company jigsaw with my daughter after dinner.

I wrote this book for the exhausted souls who are still getting things done, but only just. For the high-achievers who are sick of being told the solution is a six-month sabbatical or a 4am meditation practice. For the people who’ve tried every time management system and still feel like they’re failing.

The tools in this book work without pressing pause on your life. For me, that was the non-negotiable.

If someone you know is running on empty, I’d be so grateful if you’d share this. And if that someone is you - I hope The Energy Game gives you back your spark.