Definition
A weekly energy budget names how much focus debt you can spend before quality collapses — pair with Pareto principle.
Origin
Zeigarnik’s unfinished-task effect shows open loops consume attention. Sonnentag and Fritz’s detachment model links recovery to next-week performance — budgets without recovery lines are fiction.
Mechanism
Allocate finite units across: principal problem, recovery, optional engagements. Overspend on optional work steals from the principal line; underspend on recovery raises error rate and emotional reactivity (modest contrasting tally on detachment boundary conditions).
Applications
Sunday or Monday: write three numbers — principal hours, recovery blocks, optional cap — before accepting new invitations.
Sources
Cite
- Zeigarnik, B. (1927). Über das Behalten von erledigten und unerledigten Handlungen. Psychologische Forschung, 9, 1–85.
- Sonnentag, S., & Fritz, C. (2015). Recovery from job stress: The stressor-detachment model. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(S1), S72–S103.