Energy drainers
jasonleow • 7 Oct 2025 •
Another simple rule to succeeding at life:
Do less of what drains energy.
Doing what gives energy is nice. But we don’t always have that luxury. Avoiding what drains us can be the solid alternative. We’re hardwired to avoid the negative, anyway.
What I do about my energy drainers:
Less yapping, more building
Less busy pointless work, more meaningful work
Less colleagues
Parties and social gatherings
Less ‘junk food’ reels
Less mindless scrolling
Less pre-bedtime scrolling
Spending overall less time on social media
Drama, rage bait and fighting on social media
Pointless arguments about EU/politics/etc anywhere
Switched careers and avoided all these:
Office politics
Conducting workshops
Giving presentations
Being on stage
Doing training
Not closing my open loops - uncompleted chores, tasks, messages
Arriving early than rushing everywhere
Not taking everything too seriously
Holding in my breath, shallow breathing
More moving about, less overthinking
Via negativa can be a way to happiness and success in life, too.
In fact, if I have to choose only one, I’ll choose avoiding what drains me.
Less of energy drainers, and I’ll be fine.
Comments
Hmm I’m not so sure about that, at least based on my own experience. I was doing interesting stuff all along that give energy, but often drainers creep back in and I still get sucked into like say drama on twitter that drains energy. But when I focused on eliminating drainers, I felt I naturally freed up more time and bandwidth for energy givers which were never far out of reach…
I think it’s important to identify energy drainers, but I would not focus much on them. Where focus goes, energy flows. By focusing on the energy givers, you will naturally avoid the drainers.