You probably know what it’s like.
You sit down to work on your business, coffee in hand, ready to make things happen. You’ve blocked off the morning, told yourself today is the day you’re finally going to work on that new product, write that sales page, or map out your next big launch.
And then… two hours later, you’re knee-deep in your inbox, responding to random questions. You’ve fiddled with the design of a Canva graphic. Maybe you even reorganized your Notion dashboard (which, yes, is technically “work” — but deep down, you know it’s procrastination in disguise).
And yet… you haven’t touched the work that will actually grow your business.
It’s not because you’re lazy. It’s not because you don’t care.
It’s because, like so many entrepreneurs, you’re giving your best energy to the wrong things.
The Overlooked Difference Between Time and Energy
We’re good at tracking time. You know if you worked for six hours or sixty minutes. But energy — that deep, focused, creative fuel — is harder to measure, and even more finite.
When you spend your highest-energy hours — those moments when your brain feels sharp, creative, and capable — on low-impact tasks, your business suffers. You can’t tweak your checkout button for 45 minutes and still expect to have the mental bandwidth to craft an engaging sales campaign or brainstorm your next big offer.
The reality: your best hours are a limited resource. And once they’re spent, they’re gone.
Squad member Ashley Romberg, from Pleasurebound Wellness, puts it plainly:
“One of the biggest traps is working in your business instead of on your business. It feels productive, but it’s not the same as growth.”
This trap is especially dangerous for digital entrepreneurs. When you run your own business, the to-do list is endless — there’s always something to “fix,” a tool to test, a module to re-record, or a social post to tweak. But if your best energy is going toward tasks that keep you comfortable rather than tasks that drive change? Your business stays stuck.
Why Do We Waste Our Best Energy?
Let’s be real: we often choose busywork because it’s safe.
Fixing a Canva graphic or answering emails? Low stakes. You can do it half-distracted, and there’s no risk of failure.
Sitting down to write a pitch email? Crafting a new product? Reaching out to a collaborator? Those things are vulnerable. They require confidence. They might fail.
But those “risky” tasks are the ones that build businesses.
Carmen Reed-Gilkison & Deirdre Hade, business strategists and fellow Squad members, see this every day:
“Entrepreneurs fill their days with tasks that feel like work but aren’t strategic. If you don’t deliberately make space for growth activities, they’ll always get pushed aside.”
In other words, we burn our best energy on the things that feel good in the moment — and leave the hard, high-value stuff for when we’re already running on empty.
The Three Buckets of Business Energy
Whether you’re a coach building your first digital course, a designer selling templates, or a service provider slowly transitioning out of client work, everything you do for your business falls into three buckets.
The first bucket is Maintenance. This is the work that keeps the lights on: answering customer emails, fixing a broken link, updating your website, reconciling invoices, tweaking your tech stack. It’s necessary, but it’s rarely transformative. It’s the digital equivalent of sweeping the floor — important, but it doesn’t increase your revenue or expand your reach.
The second bucket is Growth. This is where the magic happens. Growth work means sending a pitch email, hosting a workshop, improving your sales copy, collaborating with another creator, or actively promoting your offers. It’s the work that drives revenue and gets your products into more hands. It’s also the work most of us avoid because it’s uncomfortable and takes real focus.
And then there’s Future-Building. This bucket is about vision: creating a new product, refining your positioning, or laying the groundwork for where you want to be next year. It’s strategic work that doesn’t pay off immediately, but creates leverage for the future.
Most entrepreneurs spend their best energy — those peak, focused hours of the day — in the Maintenance bucket. Why? Because it feels urgent. It gives us that little dopamine hit of “I’m doing something!”
But “busy” doesn’t equal “moving forward,” says Squad member Alegre Ramos, from Beyond Your Wildest Dreams:
“A mistake that trips up a lot of people is confusing productivity with progress. You can check off 20 tasks and still be no closer to your real goals.”
The Energy Audit: Where Are Your Best Hours Going?
If you’re serious about reclaiming your best energy, try this simple audit:
- Identify your peak energy hours. For many of us, it’s the first two to three hours of the day. For others, it might be late evening when the house is quiet.
- Track your week. For five days, jot down exactly what you do during those peak hours. No editing. No excuses.
- Sort the tasks. Label each as Maintenance, Growth, or Future-Building.
- Ask the hard question. Are your most creative, focused hours spent on work that grows your business… or just keeps it afloat?
“The one thing we wished we had known before we started was how important it is to protect our creative time. Guard it like gold, because that’s where the breakthroughs happen.” — Alegre from Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
This exercise can be uncomfortable. But awareness is the first step toward change.
How to Reclaim Your Best Energy
Once you’ve seen the truth about where your energy is going, it’s time to make changes.
Start with protecting your prime hours. Give those hours to Growth or Future-Building work — even if it feels uncomfortable. That means writing sales copy before you check your inbox. It means outlining your new product before fiddling with a Canva graphic.
Next, batch the low-energy stuff. Save your inbox, your social scrolling, your small admin tasks for when your brain is winding down.
And most importantly, revisit your priorities. If everything feels urgent, nothing is. Identify the two or three actions that will create the biggest impact on your revenue or your future opportunities — and put them first.
Asia Sharif-Clark, from Grow Cook Nourish, shared that this one change shifted everything:
“I stopped starting my day in my inbox. That one change — giving my mornings to strategy and client-facing work — changed everything about my business momentum.”
A Gentle Challenge for This Week
For the next five days, give your first 90 minutes each day to Growth or Future-Building work.
Don’t open Slack. Don’t check your notifications. Don’t start by fixing the little things.
Start with one meaningful, high-impact action.
See what shifts — in your progress, your momentum, and even your confidence.
Final Thought: Protect Your Fuel
Your time matters. But your best energy? That’s your real superpower.
When you spend it on the work that grows your business — the scary, strategic, creative, revenue-driving work — you’ll feel the difference. Not just in your to-do list, but in your results.
“If you don’t control your calendar, someone else will. Protect those hours that truly move the needle.” — Alegre from Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
So… where’s your best energy going? And what could happen if you shifted it somewhere better?