If I looked at your last seven days, would your energy be consistent… or chaotic?
In this episode of Stay at the Top, I break down one of the most common challenges I see in high performers. Inconsistent energy.
The afternoon crash. The midweek burnout. The feeling of starting the week strong and finishing it completely depleted. Most people assume it is random. That it is age, hormones, or just “life being busy”.
But in reality, chaotic energy is usually predictable. It is your body giving you a signal that something is missing, and most importantly, it is often within your control to change.
In this episode, I share the two biggest drivers of inconsistent energy that I see again and again, and the simple rhythm based strategies that help you stabilise energy without needing a new routine, a full reset, or a complete overhaul.
This is about learning how to create energy, not chase it.
In this episode I share:
- Why energy is the currency of your wellbeing and performance
- The difference between inputs and outputs
- Why inconsistent energy is rarely random
- The two biggest drivers of chaotic energy
- How living reactively creates a constant game of catch up
- Why inconsistency creates friction and drains cognitive bandwidth
- The importance of rhythm over perfection
- How to stabilise your meal timing without living like a robot
- Why sleep timing matters more than most people realise
- How brain breaks support energy and focus across the day
- The F1 pit stop analogy and why it applies to your calendar
- What to focus on if you want stable energy without relying on willpower
Key Quotes
“Energy is not something you either have or you don’t. It’s something you create.”
“Reactive days turn energy into a constant game of catch up.”
“If you want consistent outputs, you need consistent inputs.”
“If you want better energy, stop relying on willpower.”
Episode Resources
Jessica Spendlove Website – www.jessicaspendlove.com
Jessica Spendlove Keynotes – JessicaspendloveKeynotes – Jessica Spendlove
The High-Performance Profile Quiz https://jessicaspendlove.com/quiz/
Jess Spendlove Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jess_spendlove_dietitian/?hl=en
Jess Spendlove LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spendlove-64173bb8/
About Your Host
Jessica Spendlove | Wellbeing Speaker & High Performance Strategist
Jess Spendlove is an international wellbeing and high performance speaker, coach, and advisor. With over 15 years of experience across corporate leadership, elite sport and the military she is known for helping ambitious leaders and teams optimise energy, build resilience, and sustain peak performance.
As one of Australia’s leading performance dietitians and a trusted voice in executive wellbeing, Jess delivers science-backed strategies that empower individuals, teams and organisations to thrive under pressure and achieve long-term success.
Episode Transcript
The following transcript has been automatically generated and not checked for accuracy
Jess Spendlove (00:12.118)
If I looked at your last seven days, would your energy be consistent or chaotic?
If you answered the later, if it’s chaotic, if it’s not where you want it to be, if you finish your weeks feeling like you’re crashing and burning, then today’s episode is for you. Now there’s a few things you really need to understand from the get-go that are going to help set the scene for today’s episode. One, I really want you to start thinking about energy as the currency for your wellbeing and your performance. Now, energy is not something you either have or you don’t.
It’s something that you create through consistent behaviors that you do every single day and those behaviors are going to be the focus of today’s episode. Also, it’s really important to understand that inconsistent energy is generally predictable and it’s generally a sign and a signal from your body and your brain trying to communicate with you that, hey, hello, you haven’t given me enough of what I need. Now, what that might be could be from a fueling
It could be from a hydration perspective. It could be from a sleep perspective. It could be from a rest or a stress management perspective. There are quite a few things that it could be, but today we’re going to be breaking that down. I’m going to be covering off the two main reasons that I see driving inconsistent or chaotic energy levels and most importantly what you can do about it.
Jess Spendlove (01:52.278)
Now to get going on today’s episode, there’s a few things that you really, there’s a few key things to call out. One, if your energy is all over the place, while that might seem random, know that it is not. It is not your age, it is not your hormones, it’s not about doing bad routines, because I’ve had clients who have been in their 50s and 60s who once we’ve put,
once we’ve tailored the behaviors to them, it has elevated their energy so much so that they found they’ve got the most consistent and elevated energy levels of their life. So if you’re currently telling yourself that it’s any of those things, age, hormones, let’s put that to the side. Let’s rewrite that narrative and let’s look at what some of these consistent inputs or behaviors are that once you start to execute them in a way that works for your life,
I want you to think about the term rhythm. What we’re trying to do is find rhythm. Find a rhythm that works for you, your life, every single day. Because when we can execute on that, we create a compounding effect and that is what drives the results, particularly with your energy over time.
Jess Spendlove (03:14.082)
The way I like to think about energy is that it’s really a formula or an equation. And energy really is an outcome. It is an output. It is the result and the way that your body responds to what you repeatedly do or don’t do.
And so what I mean by this is it’s about the inputs and these inputs are things like what you eat, how you sleep, how you manage your stress, how you move your body and your connection and the quality of your relationships. So I want you to think about those as your inputs. These are the controllable factors and the outputs such as your energy, well they are downstream effects that you feel based on those inputs. And so the energy formula
is inputs are your behaviors from those five things, what you eat, how you move your body, how you manage your stress and recover, how you sleep, and the quality of your connection and relationships. And then the outputs are your energy, your focus, your cravings, your mood, your patience, and your performance.
Jess Spendlove (04:30.669)
And so some of these other outputs that might be familiar to you might be things like the afternoon crash and burn. Now, biologically, we all experience this to an extent in the afternoon, but if yours is…
significant, if yours is really noticeable, if yours gets worse across the week, then know that this is something that we can improve. It may not completely go, but it can be significantly reduced. Some other ways that these outputs might show up.
and in particular when we’ve got energy driving them or a lack thereof, is low tolerance or irritability. You might be extra snacky and maybe that’s in the afternoon or the evening. So whether you’re team sweet or team savoury, that’s often how that can show up. It might also be poor training output. You’re showing up, you’re doing your reps and sets, but it’s just exhausting. And it also might look and feel like poor recovery.
So then what’s really important for you to understand is that energy is not just something you have.
It’s something you create. And so this idea of just springing out of bed full of energy, ready to go, well between us, I call BS on that. That is not what having good energy is. Good energy comes from a consistent rhythm of behaviors around your nutrition, your exercise, your stress management, your sleep and your connections. And the other really important thing and the biggest missing link for most people, it is proactive and it is consistent.
Jess Spendlove (06:14.223)
instant.
Jess Spendlove (06:34.251)
And so the first…
I guess issue undermining your energy and why you’re having inconsistent or chaotic energy is because you were living reactively. Now, honestly, this is most people and it’s easier in the short term to live reactively. And what I mean by that is we wait for something to happen and then we act. Whereas living proactively is setting the intention, setting the tone, implementing behaviors and doing them before the trigger.
takes place.
So I guess when I talk about living reactively, what I’m talking about here is it’s something very common. It’s how most of us are operating because we’re at capacity and it’s easier to just go with the flow and have lunch when there’s a gap or have a break in the afternoon when we feel tired or wait until we feel inspired to go to the gym. But when we are living reactively like this, we are constantly playing catch-ups with our physiology and what we’re not doing
here is what we’re struggling to do here is get back to baseline. We feel the dip, we feel the crash, we implement the behavior and we pick ourselves up. So when we are waiting and we are living reactively and we’re waiting until we feel like we want to exercise and we’re waiting until we have a gap to eat and we’re waiting until we have a crash in the afternoon to have a snack or move or caffeinate which we know we’re going to regret later or we wait until
Jess Spendlove (08:08.717)
Well our favorite show finishes before we go to bed when we are waiting and then acting we are living reactively and over time this allows us to get back to this baseline level of operating but what this does not do is elevate where we’re at and what it also doesn’t do is drive a level of consistency because we’ve created a consistent rhythm and So what happens is when we’re living reactively in our daily decisions these reactive days
turn energy into a constant game of catch-up. And so that is the first energy drain or one of the most overlooked reasons when it comes to inconsistent or chaotic energy living reactively.
The second reason is inconsistency. And inconsistency is really a byproduct, I guess, of living reactively. And it really is a silent killer. It’s this kind of death by a thousand paper cuts is the way I like to think about it. Now, what you need to know is that your body and your brain loves predictability. It thrives off consistency. And basically it wants you to do the heavy lifting for it. So when you were in rhythm and your body and your brain knows
that okay, yep, when I wake up in the morning, I move every day. And then I have a high protein breakfast and then I’m hydrating and then I’m caffeinating. And then in four hours time, I’m having my lunch or my snack, whatever’s coming next. And then, you know, in between that I’m having a brain break. And then mid afternoon, I’m also stopping and doing a lap around the block and having a nourishing snack. And then in a few hours time, I’m having my dinner. When it operates like this and it knows what’s coming,
It A, takes less cognitive bandwidth thinking and predicting what’s coming. It just trusts that. And two, that fuels everything that you’re going to be doing.
Jess Spendlove (10:10.997)
And so understanding that when you are being inconsistent, what that does is it creates friction and it requires a higher cognitive load. So this inconsistency around what you’re eating, what you’re doing, when you’re having a break, when you’re having a coffee, where you’re buying your lunch from, when you’re gonna go to the gym, this inconsistency drives more decision-making and that requires more cognitive bandwidth, which requires more energy. And then over time, we become more fatigued.
because we’re living reactively and also inconsistently. We’re being driven by more impulse choices or we’re just making decisions because whatever’s around and whatever’s convenient or whatever’s available to us. Or you know we get really tired and we have that afternoon caffeine pick me up which we know we’re going to regret and then all that muffin on the counter also looks really good and I’m going to have that and then all of a sudden all of these things are just draining our energy.
decision by decision. And so what ends up having, what ends up happening is not only living like that requires more cognitive bandwidth and also more energy, but it also erodes your energy because you are not living consistently, you are not starting at a baseline and elevating, you are eroding your energy levels and then playing catch-ups. And honestly,
What I see is a lot of people underestimating how much these daily decisions and these behaviors, these inputs really impact.
things like your appetite, which impacts your energy levels. And so even looking at things like your meal timing and what time you wake up, these decisions, the way I want you to think about it is what are the daily behaviours that I do every single day, like my eating and my sleeping, and if hopefully it’s exercising, because that should also be in there in terms of the daily behaviours, but I know that it’s not necessarily going to be for everyone,
Jess Spendlove (12:19.279)
You want to look at them and think, how can I create a level of predictability? How can I create a level of consistency? How can I assess what I need, put that in, and then, like I said, not just erode and rebound, but start at a baseline and elevate, and then sustain that. Because I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely preferring to start at a baseline and elevating and sustaining that.
rather than eroding it and playing catch-ups. That sounds like a much better option to me.
Jess Spendlove (13:01.397)
And I guess as I sit here talking about this, what I don’t want you to think is that I’m saying every day needs to be exactly the same. And you need to eat the same thing every day and you need to move the same every day and it all is just this robotic life. That is not what I’m saying. But what I am talking about is that your body and your brain do love a level of predictability. And so if you have different days, if you’re in a hybrid work situation right now, like a lot of people are, and you might be
working from home some days, which changes the time you go to the gym, which changes the time that you eat, which changes the time that you then have lunch. If that’s all changing, what you want to be doing is looking for your anchors. How can I stabilize some of these things? Can you exercise in the morning every day? Now personally for me, I can’t. I used to do that. That used to be a morning anchor of mine, what I would call my domino habit. But in this season of life, my exercise has to
be more fluid because someone needs to be here looking after Millie can’t always be me. Yes I might be able to get out and go for a walk but I’m personally finding that is really not enough for me right now. I need to be looking at when can I do my strength training, when can I do my cardio, when am I looking to get these other forms of exercise in and so what you might find with this is there is this kind of structured flexibility that I talk about in some of these areas. So if you can’t
exercise at the time that you’d like and that then creates this kind of analysis paralysis or very like black-and-white thinking on if I can’t exercise then I can’t exercise at all because that was a trap I was falling into I was finding then excuses
What we need to do is shift our mindset a little bit there and think about, okay, well, what is the opportunity? Because we know that’s important to our energy. Exercise creates energy. Where is our opportunity across the day? But then when we’re looking at some other areas, so particularly with our nutrition and our sleep, these areas, we do really wanna create consistent rhythms across the day. So with your nutrition, for example, reflect on how many meals
Jess Spendlove (15:19.051)
snacks is your optimal each day, reflect on the timings, in particular what time you start, and reflect on what that looks like across the week. Now if they’re within about 30 to 60 minutes that kind of
gap is fine. But if we are talking about any more than 90 minutes, two hours, three hours difference, and I do see this a lot with breakfast. So in particular, people are, this client is front of mind right now, but there was a client and he had told me when he works at home, he goes to the gym and he has breakfast at 8 a.m. And when he’s in the office, he still goes to the gym or exercises, but he often then doesn’t have time to have breakfast.
So he waits till he gets to the office or when he has an opportunity, which is then generally 10 a.m. Or later Sometimes he skips it because he’s fasting or he just doesn’t get around to it And all of a sudden we’ve got a minimum of a two-hour difference up to a maximum of a three four five hour difference now One thing I really want you to know in this episode is that for you to have consistent outputs and in particular energy You need
And what I’m talking specifically about here, when you eat and when you sleep. And both of these behaviors are behaviors that you do every single day. They’re foundational, they’re fundamental. Every single one of us is doing them. And yet if we can find a way to create a level of consistency with them that works for our lives, so whatever that is for yourself, however many meals and snacks that is, whatever time you wake up and go to bed,
if you can standardize the timing with them and also the time they start each day and you can narrow those within a 30 minute window if it’s wider than that at the moment bring it down to an hour and then try and get it within a 30 minute window as much as possible but the more you can standardize these inputs the more you can standardize and elevate your outputs and in particular your energy.
Jess Spendlove (17:40.364)
And so I just want to reiterate here that this is not about perfection.
You know, I don’t like that word. We don’t use that word around here, but the goal is rhythm. And in particular, I want you to think about your anchor points and particularly the start of your day, whatever that looks like. So if you have breakfast, what time do you do that each day? Can you anchor that within a certain window? And then similarly across the day with the rest of your meals and snacks, have a consistent rhythm. Around three to four hours is a good goal. I would say no more than five.
and if it’s anywhere less than three it’s probably a little bit too narrow. So have a look at what that is. And the other tip I’ll give you there in particular with your meals is if that kind of breakfast to lunch gap is then getting stretched out because of a meeting and say you like to normally go for lunch at 12 or 12.30 but some days it’s like 2 2.30, well can you then bring that afternoon snack forward so you retain that rhythm but you’ve just
change the order of your meals and snacks. So you can see what I’m talking about here. We’ve got agility, we’ve got structured flexibility, but we’re creating a rhythm. Very, very important when we’re talking about driving consistent energy output. The other thing I’ll say there is sleep. The time you wake and the time you go to bed. Now, if you can anchor this, and again, it’s within a 30 minute window, that is the ideal. And yes, that means weekends.
But if not, at least start to narrow it. So assess what it is at the moment and see if you can bring that to start within an hour and then over time within a 30 minute window. And what that might look like, and one of the tips that I love and I’ve been using it a lot lately is rather than a wake up alarm, switch that to a go to bed alarm. So if you’re just there and you’re watching Netflix or whatever series you’re watching and you’re really enjoying,
Jess Spendlove (19:44.21)
it then can you switch that to a go-to-bed alarm?
because the go to bed alarm is going to be that external trigger that then helps you go to bed consistently at the same time, which that will make getting up consistently in the morning so much easier. And so when you start to create these kind of rhythms and anchors, what these do is they reduce decision fatigue, they stabilize your appetite, your energy, and also, you know, any anxiety or inconsistency that’s driving
either inadequate sleep or inability to get to sleep or difficulty getting to sleep or waking at 3 a.m. It can really help to kind of reduce all of these things and all of that feeds in of course to elevating your energy levels.
So I’m just gonna give you a rundown of three key anchors and I have touched on them but I just really wanna call them out on how you can start and how you can really start to drive these consistent inputs. So the first one is wake time. If you can pick a wake time and you can protect it.
Jess Spendlove (21:03.607)
Sorry Shira, just with this, ditch the three things, because I’ve kind of mentioned what they are.
Jess Spendlove (21:23.245)
So I guess as we get to the end of this episode, the key take home here is to think about if you’ve got chaotic or inconsistent or low energy levels,
One of the key ways that you can change this is to look at your inputs, is to take control, is to start living more proactively, is to really think about these rhythms around what you’re eating, when you’re sleeping, when you’re exercising, how you’re managing your stress. What are we doing there and are we consistently doing it? As in, do we have a similar rhythm every single day? Now I’ve mentioned again with some of these, they are going to be the same and they’re ideally the same each day.
you’re eating, when you’re eating, how you’re eating. We want to standardise that while having that flexible approach where we’re moving meals and snacks in different orders if that’s going to accommodate our day better but we’re still retaining that rhythm because that consistent rhythm is the thing driving your energy and when your inputs are consistent, I’m going to say it again, when your inputs are consistent or more consistent your outputs being your energy will be more consistent.
out of the meals, we also spoke about the sleep so standardizing or standardizing more so your wake time and your sleep time. I didn’t mention the brain breaks as much in today’s episode but I just want to quickly mention them here.
sprinkling these intentional stimulant free time in your day, ideally three of them a day, so that you’re allowing that chance to cognitively renew. Very important, we can’t continue to just operate with our foot on the pedal accelerating all day long. We need to treat our days like an F1 pit stop.
Jess Spendlove (23:15.373)
The Formula One cars, they don’t just go out and stay out on the track. What they need to do is strategically decide when they’re going to pit. When are they changing their tires? What’s happening with their weather? And yes, they’ve got a whole team in their ears telling them what to do, but the driver who does this best and the team who does this best often wins. And so that’s how you want to think about your day strategically. When am I putting my pit stop in? When you’re just working all morning, four hours straight, and then you’re having a lunch break,
and then you’re getting back on the screen and you’re working again for a few hours, no wonder why you’re crashing and burning. Because we work in rhythms, we work in micro cycles. There’s a thing called your ultradian rhythm where we operate in 90 minutes of peak performance followed by about a 20 minute trough. Now that doesn’t mean that is the exact rhythm you need to follow but if you can start to introduce some level of cadence which allows for a strategic rest every 60 to 90
minutes or two hours where you’re intentionally having a stimulant free time which means coffee, means screens or caffeine, screens and also crappy food. So what you want to be doing there is restoration, movement, nourishing snack, herbal tea, water, breath work, meditation, something that is restorative. Maybe it’s even a combination of all of those things and when you’re strategically and proactively inconsiderate
layering that in as well as your meals as well as your wake in your sleep time and as well as exercise at some point throughout the day and if you can do that at the same time every day amazing I think that is the ideal but if you’re in a season of life like me where that’s not possible then looking at a way that you can still have rhythm that it still features within your day but you’ve got a bit of flexibility around it and that’s probably the only one there that I would say that really
operates in a more flexible approach compared to the others. The others you really do want to have a more consistent way of operating with them. You’ve just got some flexibility around what’s in them and whether you’re moving like the meals and the snacks around like I mentioned.
Jess Spendlove (25:44.238)
So I guess to summarize, if you want better energy, stop relying on willpower. You don’t need a new routine. What you need is a more stable, predictable way of operating that is proactive and that is consistent. And the goal isn’t to start a million new things at once, it’s to shift one or two. But hopefully what I’m talking about isn’t necessarily anything too far from what you’re doing. It’s just putting some guardrails around the timing. Because the main thing
here if you have low energy, inconsistent energy, chaotic energy, the great thing is it’s within your control to have better, more elevated, more stable energy and it all starts by looking at these consistent inputs. All the inputs and making them more consistent.
That’s all I’ve got for this week’s episode. I hope you’ve enjoyed a solo episode all about one of my favourite topics, energy. And if you’re experiencing inconsistent energy, I hope this has given you a bit of a taste test on what you can do about it. The other thing I will say is that…
I talk a lot about this in my book, so the manuscript that I just submitted last week. Energy is a huge theme throughout the book and I’m so excited to bring it to you.
This is just a small taste test of some of the amazing tips and tricks that are in there. Otherwise, that’s all I’ve got for you this week. I’ll be back again next week with another solo episode. If you found value in it, would mean so much to share it with a friend or a family member. Someone that you think would get value out of this. Someone who likes short, sharp tips and tricks that are science-backed, that are all about living a sustainable, high-performance life.
Jess Spendlove (27:35.572)
for tuning in for another episode and I’m looking forward to being back next week helping you all not only reach the top but sustainably stay there. I’ll see you all then.