I always thought I needed a good 8 hours of sleep a day to be my best. Perhaps even seven. Less than that, and I figured my day would suffer. You know the feeling when you ache in vague places and your thinking is fuzzy? Your productivity equals that of a gnat and your mood is even lower?

Recently my husband and I had a weekend getaway, and for some inexplicable reason, two days before we left I had a hard time sleeping. My tally of ZZZs for the evening — 3. The night before we left, the same thing happened, leaving me with only 2 hours of sleep that night.

So, when we headed out for our trip in the morning, I fully expected the worst (until I caught that thought and changed it!).  Instead, I found myself not only with plenty of energy for the rest of the day, but with more than enough as I powered out for a late afternoon hike and stayed up late for dinner and conversation.

This wasn’t a case of magical thinking creating the outcome I wanted. There were many factors involved, and all of them had to do with having the tools of Energy Management at hand. For instance, as we were getting ready to leave that morning, I found myself getting grouchy as I sometimes do when I feel rushed and am worried about packing all the right things. I was about to make an irritable comment to my husband, when I felt the energy drain of being in that state of mind and making that comment.

Instead, I chose to conserve. By quieting my mind for a few minutes and deciding not to project my mood outward, I was able to plug that leak. For the rest of the day, whenever I found myself getting unnecessarily drained by a reaction or activity, I stopped and conserved instead. This led me to not only an ok day, but to a sublime day of connection with my husband and myself.

Next time you find yourself with what you feel is less than adequate sleep, watch yourself as you go through your day. See where you are casually tossing energy away, and where you can conserve it. See just how “energized” you can be — no matter how much sleep you’ve had!