Get More Energy With Personal Energy Tracker App RISE

Energy. We can’t live without it. And for most of us, we just can’t seem to get enough of it, either. 

Management consultant Peter Drucker once said: “what gets measured, gets managed.” He may have been talking about business, and may not have even said it at all, but this idea can apply to everything in life, including your energy levels. 

Once you start tracking your energy, you can find the times of day you’re most productive, make the most of the energy you have, and learn how to get more of it the natural and sustainable way. 

Below, we’ll explain why you should track your energy in the first place, how you can use this information to manage and improve your energy levels, and why the RISE app is the ideal tool to help you do it. 

Why Should I Track My Energy?

Time tracking is a popular productivity technique. You can see exactly how long a task takes to do, how long you’re spending on different projects, and how to most efficiently spend this precious resource. 

However, you could have all the time in the world, but if you don’t have the energy, nothing will get done. Energy, therefore, is an even more precious resource than time. 

But how do you manage your energy? Tracking it is a necessary first step.

Here's what you can do when you start tracking your personal energy: 

1. Find your most productive times of day and make sure you work on high-priority tasks during these times. 
2. Find your low-energy points each day and avoid scheduling important meetings or challenging tasks during these times. You can also boost your energy during these dips with well-timed naps, walks, or by getting natural light. 
3. Learn how your energy levels change when you fly across time zones, work night shifts, or otherwise have an irregular sleep schedule.
4. Get more energy by knowing when your body wants to go to sleep and wake up. Use this energy for everything important to you in life: excel at work, spend quality time with your family, practice a hobby. 

Tracking your energy isn’t simply about assessing your daily amount of energy, though. Our energy levels follow a predictable pattern throughout the day. And this is all due to your circadian rhythm. This is your body’s biological clock. It runs on a roughly 24-hour cycle and, as well as your energy levels, it dictates things like hunger levels, body temperature, and when your body produces certain hormones. 

Here’s what your energy levels look like over the course of the day: 

• You wake up and take some time to shake off sleep inertia (or grogginess)
• You have a morning peak in energy
• You have an afternoon dip in energy
• You have a second-wind peak in energy in the late afternoon or early evening
• Your energy levels then wind down until bedtime 

The timings of these peaks and dips in energy are affected by things like your chronotype (whether you’re an early bird, night owl, or in between), how long you slept for the night before (and at what time), and your exposure to zeitgebers. Zeitgeber is German for time-giver and science-speak for an external cue that helps time your circadian rhythm to the outside world. The most powerful zeitgeber is light exposure, but meals and exercise also impact the timing of your circadian rhythm. 

You don’t need to figure this all out with time logs or an expensive energy monitor, though. The RISE app predicts your circadian rhythm each day and shows you a visual representation of your energy levels. 

We use your recent sleep history data and algorithms to make this happen. Our prediction model is built from the renowned SAFTE model (Sleep, Activity, Fatigue, and Task Effectiveness), which predicts changes in cognitive performance based on your circadian rhythm and was developed by the US Department of Transportation and the Department of Defense to forecast and avoid fatigue in transportation operations.

With the RISE app, you’ll not only track your energy levels, you’ll be one step ahead of them, knowing when they’re likely to rise and fall throughout the day, and by how much. You can check your schedule each day or get push notifications to remind you when your peak and dips are coming up. 

“I have always had problems with the amount of energy I have in a day. It often happens that during my day I crash. This app has allowed me to know when my body is performing to its maximum. Thanks to this app I’m able to prioritize my work and do complex work during my peak moments.” — 5-star review. 

“I love this app. I’ve been using it for six months now. Knowing when the peaks and dips in my energy levels will occur is so helpful.” — 5-star review. 

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How Do You Manage Your Energy with RISE?

You may just be tracking your energy because you love data. But for most of us, we want to do something with this information. With the RISE app, you can not only see when your energy levels will change throughout the day, you can make the most of them by scheduling your day to match and getting reminders to see when you’ll be at your best. 

“Well executed app that teaches about sleep and through alerting you to natural energy swings can help you structure your day better. Thanks rise!” — 5-star review. 

Here’s how: 

Schedule Your Day to Match Energy Peaks and Dips 

It can feel like torture to power through a particularly tricky task at work during your energy dip. And, on the other hand, it’s a waste to work simple admin tasks or scroll through social media during your most productive times each day. 

With RISE, you can see when exactly these energy peaks and dips will happen each day, and how long they’re expected to last. 

Connect RISE to your Apple or Google calendar, so you can see the best time to schedule your to-dos. 

Here’s what we recommend doing:  

Morning Grogginess

Sleep inertia is a fact of life. You can make this morning grogginess shorter and less severe by keeping sleep debt low and staying in circadian alignment (more on both soon). 

To make the most of this time: 

• Do easy tasks: Like household chores, checking emails, or making a to-do list for the day. 
• Do a morning routine that sets you up for the day: Think getting natural light exposure and some exercise. 
• Give yourself 60 to 90 minutes each morning before you have to be at your best: RISE can tell you how long your morning grogginess will last, so you know when you can start to expect better energy levels and less brain fog. 

To get over sleep inertia faster: 

• Get natural light: Light resets your circadian rhythm for the day and suppresses the sleep hormone melatonin. 
• Have a cup of coffee: Caffeine stays in your system for up to 12 hours, so get your coffee in now to get the energy-boosting effects without the later sleep disruption. 
• Get some exercise: Exercise gets your heart rate up and releases cortisol and serotonin to boost your mood and alertness levels. Bonus points if you work out outside in natural light. 

We cover more ways to get over sleep inertia faster here.

First Energy Peak 

This is your biological prime time when you’ll have high energy and be most productive. Use this time of the day to do anything where you need to focus, be alert, or make important decisions. 

How to make the most of this time: 

• Schedule challenging tasks: Like writing, coding, giving a presentation, or making a sales call. Research shows cognitive performance is more accurate and faster when doing novel tasks during your energy peaks and you have more attention during this time. 
• Do tasks that require emotional regulation: Studies show you can better manage your emotions, positive mood is higher, and negative reactions are lower during your optimal time. If you need to schedule tricky conversations or navigate a difficult meeting, now’s the time. 
• Learn new things: Research shows school children learn more in morning classes compared to afternoon classes. So, whether you’re studying for an exam, learning a new skill for work, or learning a new language at the weekend, do it during your morning peak. 
• Do difficult tasks, even if you’re a night owl: If you’re a night owl trying to become a morning person, scheduling challenging tasks for your first energy peak is even more important to help make your new earlier schedule stick. 

Afternoon Energy Dip 

The best way to beat your afternoon dip in energy? Working with it, instead of against it. Research shows now’s the time of day when we’re hit with sleepiness, more car accidents happen, and even our ethics are affected.

How to make the most of this time: 

• Schedule easier tasks: Save to-dos like emails, admin, watching a webinar, or low-stakes catch up meetings for this time. On the weekend, now’s a great time to knock out some mindless household chores. 
• Work on a problem: Research shows people are more successful at solving tasks that need insight, creativity, and problem-solving skills at non-optimal times of day according to their circadian rhythm.
• Take a break: Go for a walk, workout, or do a relaxing activity like reading. 
• Take a nap: If you’ve got high sleep debt, now’s the perfect time to chip away at it. And even if you don’t, napping can improve mood, alertness, and cognitive performance in those who generally get enough sleep each night.
• Schedule an energy boost: Now’s the time to give yourself a quick pick-me-up. Skip the coffee, and opt for energy-boosting activities that won’t keep you up at night like getting natural light, doing some yoga, or taking a short nap. 

You can learn more ways to stay productive through your afternoon dip here.

Second-Wind Energy Peak 

After the afternoon dip, you’ll start to feel your energy levels pick up again. 

How to make the most of this time: 

• Any final important to-dos at work: Finish off any work tasks that need focus that you couldn’t get done during your morning energy peak.   
• Spend time with family and friends or on a hobby: If you’re done with work, or it’s the weekend, use this time of higher energy levels to spend time with your kids, socialize with friends, practice piano, or hit the rock climbing gym, for example. 
• Break a world record: Most world records in sports are broken during the second energy peak when body temperature is at its highest. For those of us who aren’t top-performing athletes, this is the best time to hit a personal best in the gym.  

Evening Wind-Down 

As your energy levels start dipping towards the end of the day, don’t force yourself to stay up and get more work done. Do low-energy tasks and activities that will help, not hinder, you falling asleep later. 

How to make the most of this time: 

• Do relaxing activities: Like reading, listening to music, doing yoga, or watching TV. If you do spend this time looking at screens, wear blue-light blocking glasses to stop blue light suppressing your melatonin production. You can learn more about blue-light blocking glasses here.
• Avoid anything that will disrupt your sleep: Like bright light, caffeine, large meals, and alcohol. RISE can tell you the exact time to avoid these things each day. 
• Do a wind-down routine: Slow your brain and body down to prime them for sleep with a wind-down or bedtime routine. Do some of the relaxing activities mentioned above, take a warm bath or shower, and dim the lights about 90 minutes before bed.

You can learn more about how to spend your wind-down time here. 

How Do You Get More Energy with RISE?

We’ve covered how to get more energy in detail here. But here are the key things to focus on. 

Pay Down Sleep Debt

‍Sleep debt is the biggest thing determining how much energy you feel each day. It’s the running total of how much sleep you owe your body over the last 14 nights. It’s measured against your sleep need, which is the genetically determined amount of sleep you need (not everyone needs 8 hours). 

For example, if your sleep need is 8 hours 30 minutes, but you’ve only been getting 7 hours of sleep, you’ll have built up quite a bit of sleep debt. 

It’s easy to build up sleep debt and not even notice though, as our bodies adapt to sleep deprivation over time. We think we’re doing fine, when really our health, productivity, and energy levels are all suffering. 

There are long-term health impacts of sleep debt. But day to day, we’ll feel the effects of high sleep debt in our energy levels — those energy peaks will be smaller and energy dips much deeper. 

RISE works out your individual sleep need. It then uses your phone use behavior and proprietary sleep-science-based models to work out how much sleep debt you’re carrying. We recommend keeping this below five hours to maximize how much energy you feel each day. 

Got more than five hours of sleep debt? You can catch up on sleep by: 

• Taking naps: Nap during your afternoon dip in energy to stop the extra sleep making it hard to fall asleep that night. Plus, you’ll be low on energy anyway, so taking a break and a nap is the ideal way to spend this time.  
• Going to bed a little earlier.
• Sleeping in a little later: Keep this to an hour to two to minimize how much you disrupt your circadian rhythm.
• Improving your sleep hygiene: If you can’t squeeze in a nap or sleep for longer at night, focus on sleep hygiene. This is the set of habits you can do throughout the day to help you fall asleep faster and wake up less often during the night, helping you get more sleep overall. 

RISE can guide you through 20+ sleep hygiene habits and exactly when to do them each day. 

Sync up with Your Circadian Rhythm  

You can, and should, schedule your daily to-dos to match your peaks and dips in energy levels. But another way to sync up with your circadian rhythm is by matching your sleep-wake schedule to when your body naturally wants to go to sleep and wake up. 

RISE can work out your sleep need and show you your “Wake Zone,” or when your body naturally wants to wake up. You can also see when your body naturally winds down and wants to go to bed. 

In the RISE app, look for your Melatonin Window. This is a roughly one-hour window of time when your rate of melatonin production is at its highest. If you go to sleep during this one-hour window, you’ll have a much easier time falling and staying asleep. 

By heading to bed at the right time for you, you’ll have a much easier time meeting your sleep need and keeping sleep debt low. Plus, you’ll be in sync with your circadian rhythm, which leads to more energy each day and endless health benefits. 

Get a Personal Energy Tracker That Makes a Difference 

If you’re looking for a personal energy tracker, turn to one that can not only help you understand your energy levels, but improve on them, too. 

The RISE app helps with energy management. It predicts how your energy levels will fluctuate throughout the day, so you can schedule your daily tasks to make the most of the energy you have. 

To get more energy, use RISE to pay down sleep debt, maintain excellent sleep hygiene, and go to bed and wake up when your circadian rhythm wants you to. 

By doing all of this, you’ll not only have more energy, everything from your mental health to your productivity to your overall wellness will improve. In other words, you won’t just be tracking your energy levels, you’ll be in control of them, instead of them controlling you.