If you typically manage your time—say, by creating to-do list, prioritizing tasks, and scheduling dedicated time for each of those activities—you know how easy it is to get derailed in the course of an ordinary business day. A single email or conversation can break your focus or completely rearrange your priorities.

By managing your energy, you can bring your best performance to whatever activity that comes up, whether it’s being 100% present in conversations, contributing creative ideas in a meeting, or fully focusing on a critical task. You can achieve results that are far superior to the incremental gains you might get from time management techniques.

But how, exactly, do you manage your energy? Start with these five tips.

1. Recognize the Race You Need to Run

When you’re aiming to deliver high performance on a critical, lengthy work project, you’ll often hear people say, “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.” In other words, you should reduce your pace, so you don’t burn out during the long slog ahead of you. But when it comes to delivering consistently high performance, it might not be the ideal analogy.

Here’s an example: Say a business development manager leading a team in a bid for a multi-million-dollar contract recognized that the relentless focus on the high-stakes end goal was sapping the team’s confidence. One month into the pursuit, they were already showing signs of burnout.

To re-energize the team, the manager identified three smaller goals: conducting an analysis of the competition, negotiating with suppliers, and writing the proposal. With this plan, the team was able to work in a series of “sprints” to cross the ultimate finish line and win the bid.

2. Be an Energizer

In The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations, authors Rob Cross and Andrew Parker report on research that found that people who energize others are higher performers themselves.

But according to the authors, being an energizer doesn’t equate to being an entertainer, charismatic, or intense. “Rather, they bring themselves fully into an interaction.”

Think about the times when you’re most able to listen, be fully present, and energize others. Build more of those interactions into your day, and you’ll find that your performance gets a boost, too.

3. Know What Drains You and What Sustains You

“Blocking time on my calendar for valuable family events is crucial for me to maintain high energy—especially since I travel so much,” says Feirn. “It’s important to allow yourself to manage your world in a way that works for you.”

4. Pace Yourself Like an Elite Performer

What do elite musicians, actors, and chess players have in common with top athletes? According to professor K. Anders Ericsson and his colleagues at Florida State University, it’s interval training. Ericsson’s team found that these professionals maximized their productivity by working in focused 90-minute bursts, followed by some recovery time.

The same type of structure can be applied to your everyday work routine. To maximize bursts of performance time, structure your workload into 90-minute chunks. Follow each with an activity that will renew you, such as taking a walk or socializing with a friend at work.

5. Don’t Be a Professional Pretzel

Being a professional pretzel—i.e., twisting into someone other than yourself—is exhausting work.

In short, managing your energy means being authentic at work and encouraging others to do the same. Discover and play to your signature strengths, make room for your team to play to theirs, and as a result, you’ll be able to unleash greater performance as a team.

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