The Energy Audit
After every activity, log energised or drained — then do more of one and less of the other.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 91%
During any period of exploration, the reliable compass is not what you think you should want but how you feel immediately after each activity. Log the post-activity energy state of every call, hobby, piece of writing, or meeting. Then structurally do more of what energises and less of what drains. Both Rachitsky and Millerd converged on this independently, and both found their actual paths contradicted their stated intentions.
Origin
Lenny Rachitsky's sabbatical practice (advice he was given before his own break), which Paul Millerd independently arrived at and frames as the antidote to 'creating bad jobs for yourself'.
Core principles
- 01Post-activity energy is a more honest signal than pre-activity intention.
- 02Energising work still contains de-energising moments — grade the aggregate, not the hard parts.
- 03The pull toward the prestigious option (start a company, take the big gig) is strong and frequently energy-negative.
- 04The audit never ends — it governs which projects to keep and which niche to pick.
How to run it
- 1
Run a wide portfolio of activities
During your break or slack time, deliberately do a broad spread: advising calls, writing, hobbies, meeting friends, sketching business ideas. You need variance to get signal.
Pro tip Include the things you are supposed to want. Those produce the most surprising results.
- 2
Log energy immediately after each one
Right after each activity, ask a single question: did that give me energy or sap it? Not 'was it good' or 'was it useful'. Energised or drained.
Pro tip Log within minutes. Retrospective ratings get rewritten by what you wish you'd enjoyed.
Watch out Do not confuse 'hard' with 'draining'. Writing is difficult and full of de-energising moments but was net-energising for Rachitsky.
- 3
Believe the log over your plan
Rachitsky expected to enjoy advising and consulting; every advising call left him de-energised. He expected to start a company; working on ideas kept draining him. He didn't expect writing to be the thing, and it was.
Pro tip Millerd notes the gravitational pull to start a company after leaving big tech is enormous. Saying 'I just feel good writing, I'm going to follow that' sounds crazy — and is the correct move.
Watch out The socially prestigious option will keep re-recruiting you. The log is your defence.
- 4
Restructure toward the energising, prune the rest
Systematically increase the energising activities and reduce or eliminate the draining ones. Millerd applies the same rule to project selection, hiring (he hires for aliveness first, skills second), and to which parts of his business to outsource or unwind.
Pro tip Millerd hired a community manager after realising he was bad at and drained by community management — and that people exist who love it and are good at it.
Watch out It is easy to create bad jobs for yourself. Picking a niche you don't actually care about to write or podcast about is exactly how you build a job you hate, with no boss to blame.
In the wild
On his sabbatical, Rachitsky tracked energy after every call, hobby, and writing session. Advising calls consistently drained him despite being the thing he assumed he'd do. Company ideas drained him too. Publishing a piece of writing left him energised even though the writing itself was hard.
→ He did more writing and less of everything else — which became the newsletter and podcast business he now says earns significantly more than his senior Airbnb role.
Millerd launched a community, discovered he was bad at community management and that it was draining his creative energy — an existential risk to his whole path. Rather than grind, he named the cost of inaction and hired someone who genuinely loves that work.
→ The community continued without cannibalising the creative energy his business depends on.
Common mistakes
Rating activities by what they should feel like
Prestige and self-image contaminate intention but not the post-activity gut check. Log the gut check.
Confusing difficulty with drain
Hard, frustrating work can be net-energising. Grade the whole arc of the activity, not its worst twenty minutes.
Building a business around a niche you don't care about
As Millerd puts it, that just creates a job you hate — except now you own it, so nobody can fire you from it.
Is it for you?
Best for
Someone on a sabbatical, between roles, or with slack in the week trying to work out what to lean into next
Not ideal for
Situations where the work is fixed and non-negotiable in the short term, so nothing can be added or pruned
From the transcript
“pay really close attention to what gives you energy after you do the thing”
“and then my whole strategy was just do more of the things that energize me and do less of the things that de energize me”
“I thought I'd want to do some advising or Consulting I found after every advising call I was deenergized”
“it's easy to create bad jobs for yourself”
“I'm always looking for that energy first and skills”
From the episode
Redefining success, money, and belonging
Paul Millerd (The Pathless Path)