Image generated by AI (Gemini)
The TL;DR (Executive Summary)
A full calendar shows how much you’re doing, but it doesn’t provide detail on how much attention you have left in the ol’ energy tank for the person in front of you or on the other end of that Zoom call.
When your energy is running low, it’s easier to miss a useful clue, rush a follow-up, or grow impatient with silence.
Sleep, short breaks, and a little movement can help you manage your energy. They don’t need to become another complicated routine.
Before an important conversation, give yourself enough room to be curious. If that capacity isn’t there, decide where your best thinking needs to go today.
A prospect says, “We’ve tried something like that before, and it didn’t really stick.”
At the very least, you could ask what they tried, or where it fell apart. But the reality is you’re on your fifth call of the day, you owe three people a follow-up, and your energy is waning. You already have a pat answer ready, so instead of digging into the hows and whys, you give that answer instead of asking questions that would probably tell you more than another five minutes of explaining your approach.
In the process, you’ve missed an opening the prospect handed you… and you’re not really delivering value as a result. It’s all because you were tired.
I’ve done enough work around sales conversations to know how easily (and often!) this happens. Lately, my own physical setbacks have also made me pay more attention to the energy my work takes. I can be present for a conversation, but I still need to make an effort to listen. If you’ve worked through a long stretch of calls while dealing with poor sleep, stress, pain, or plain old exhaustion, you know what I mean.
The Clue You Miss When You’re Tired
Most of us can tell when we’re so exhausted that we need to stop working. It’s harder to spot those in-between times, though… when you have 25% to 50% in the tank. You may be functioning, getting through the meetings, and answering messages. From the outside, the day looks pretty productive.
But then you hit a meeting where a prospect says “maybe next quarter.” You could find out what would change by then; instead, you just set a reminder for next quarter. Or someone doesn’t reply to a question or statement of yours, and their silence gets under your skin more than it usually would.
That’s where limited energy can cost you... that lack of presence because your tank is at one-quarter full changes the small decisions inside the work.
I’m especially interested in this because sales advice often assumes we can choose to be more curious, more patient, and more thoughtful on command. If you’re nearly tapped out, though, no amount of training and rah-rah thinking will counter that “I’m really tired” feeling.
Get More Energy Into Your Day
I don’t have a clever hack for this, and I’d be very suspicious of anyone promising one. The research points to a few fairly ordinary things that are easy to lose when work gets crowded.
The biggest is sleep. NIOSH says most adults need at least seven hours and recommends fairly consistent sleep and wake times. If your schedule allows it, protecting that time gives you a better starting point for the next day. It’s also worth noticing whether the coffee you drink to make it through late afternoon is interfering with sleep that night. (I bet it is; I know it does that with me.)
For the energy you need today, try leaving a few minutes between the conversations that ask the most of you. Get up, refill your water, or walk around before your next call. A review of studies on short work breaks found modest improvements in reported energy and fatigue, although it didn’t find a clear overall performance benefit. I like that the evidence leaves room for an honest claim: a break can help you feel less wrung out, even if it can’t promise a better sales call. And I don’t know about you, but the “how you feel” part can be the one thing that changes a call from a success to something much less than that.
If you can get outside for a brief walk, try it on an afternoon when you’re starting to fade. One study of adults who interrupted sitting with short walks found improvements in reported mood and fatigue. The best thing here is you don’t need workout clothes or an ambitious steps-per-day target. Just… get out there and walk.
Food and water belong in the picture as well. On a day filled with calls, it’s surprisingly easy to look up and realize you’ve had coffee but little else. NIOSH includes regular meals and hydration in its guidance for long work hours. I suggest always having at least water and some kind of snacky snack available that you can consume based on your schedule.
These are ways to manage an ordinary demanding day. If exhaustion keeps showing up despite adequate sleep and the basics, it’s worth a conversation with a healthcare professional.
Make Room for the Better Question
When you have an important conversation coming up, look at your last exchange with that prospect or inside influencer and decide what you genuinely need to learn. Give yourself a few minutes afterward to capture what the person said, while you can still hear how they said it… or go to a recording of the call if you have that capability. That small bit of space may keep your follow-up from becoming a recap of your own talking points.
When you’re short on energy, it also makes sense to decide which work needs your judgment most. AI can organize notes or help you start a routine message based on the prospect’s concern, the next question you ask, and when to follow up.
Sales leaders can help here as well. If the team is moving from one call straight into the next all day long, their schedules are shaping the quality of those conversations. NIOSH recommends brief breaks during demanding work and says employers share responsibility for managing fatigue. Give people some room to prepare and recover, then listen to what changes in the calls.
That prospect who said your last conversation “didn’t really go anywhere” actually has given you somewhere to go. If you have enough attention left to ask what happened, you might find out something your prepared answer never would have uncovered.