28 Days of Asking: Day 3
Yesterday was ten calls.
Different people. Different energies. Some exploratory, some transactional, some somewhere in between.
Then aftercare pickup. The boys in the backseat, recapping their days in overlapping sentences.
Family dinner. Chaotic cleanup. Then a couple of hours building something new—writing, shaping, collaborating with Claude Cowork testing my vibe coding skills.
By the time I stopped, I wasn’t tired in a bad way. Just full.
This morning I woke up early. Not dragging. Not dreading.
Optimistic. A little bit of mad dash energy. Ready to move.
And I realized, that’s not how every morning feels.
Day 3: What’s the difference between a day that drains me and a day that fills me?
On paper, yesterday should have been exhausting. Ten calls. Kids. Dinner. Creative work after hours.
But I woke up today with more than I started with. That doesn’t always happen.
Some days I do half as much and end up twice as empty. Same hours. Same effort. Completely different result.
I know the difference isn’t about workload (I’ve experienced this before). It’s about something else.
Maybe it’s variety—different conversations lighting up different parts of my brain.
Maybe it’s the learning, maybe it’s the connections, or maybe it’s ending the day building something instead of just responding to things.
Maybe it’s all of it. Or none of it. I don’t know yet.
Kelly McGonigal talks about how movement and engagement aren’t just metabolic. The body doesn’t just burn energy…it generates it, depending on what we’re doing and why.
Some days I spend energy. Other days I make it. The math isn’t as simple as input and output.
I don’t have this figured out.
But I pay attention now in a way I didn’t before. Not just how much I did. But how it left me.
Here’s what I’m sitting with today:
What’s the difference between a day that drains me and a day that fills me? Not in theory. In my actual life. What was different about the last day that left me more energized than when I started?
If you’re following along—think about the last week.
Was there a day that filled you instead of emptied you?
What were you doing? And what might that tell you?
This energy generation versus depletion frame is underrated. The McGonigal reference about the body making energy rather than just burning it connects to what I've noticed - variety in tasks seems to matter more than volume. Days with diverse challenges feel diffrent from repetitive grind even at the same intensity. The post-creative work energy boost is a real phenomemon.