These five prompts compress the most time-intensive parts of an energy management practice into focused AI sessions. Use them in sequence over a two-week period, or use any single one to address a specific energy problem.
Prompt 1: Set Up Your Energy Audit
Use this to configure your AI session as an Energy Audit companion and establish your logging format.
I am starting a 7-day Energy Audit based on Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz's
four-dimension framework. Each evening I will share my hourly log for the day.
For each entry I will provide:
- Time block
- Activity type (deep work / meeting / admin / social / recovery)
- Physical energy: 1–5
- Emotional energy: 1–5
- Mental energy: 1–5
- Brief context note (optional)
Please confirm you have received each day's log, store the data, and do not
offer analysis until I ask for it after day 7. At that point, I will request
a full pattern analysis.Run this at the start of your audit. Do not change your schedule during the audit week — you are observing, not optimizing.
Prompt 2: Identify Your Depletion Patterns
Use this after five or more days of Energy Audit data to surface structural problems in your schedule.
Here are my energy logs from the past [N] days:
[paste your log entries]
Please analyze these logs and identify:
1. My three most consistent peak windows — hours where at least two of the
three energy scores were 4 or 5
2. My three most common depletion triggers — activity types, contexts, or
time patterns that reliably produced score drops
3. Any activities that produced score increases after a low period (genuine
recovery activities)
4. The single structural change most likely to improve my output next week —
be specific about timing and task type
5. Any gradual pattern I may have missed because it develops slowly
Be direct. Flag uncertainty where five days of data is too thin to be confident.Prompt 3: Design Your Default Week
Use this after you have an Energy Profile (at least two weeks of logs) and are ready to redesign your schedule template.
I want to build a Default Week — a template that assigns task types to energy
windows based on my actual capacity profile.
My Energy Profile summary:
- Peak windows: [list your two or three consistent peaks]
- Trough window: [your lowest-energy period]
- Most effective recovery activities: [what your logs show actually restores you]
- Biggest depletion triggers: [what consistently drops your scores]
My fixed constraints:
- [list meetings and commitments you cannot move]
My recurring work categories:
- [list your main task types: deep writing, client calls, code review, etc.]
Design a Default Week template that:
- Protects my peak windows for my highest-demand tasks
- Clusters meetings in mid-energy windows
- Uses my trough for low-demand administrative work
- Includes at least two genuine recovery breaks per day
- Respects my hard constraints
Explain the key decisions, especially any trade-offs.Prompt 4: Diagnose Your Spiritual Energy Gap
Use this when your Energy Audit shows consistently low spiritual energy scores, or when work feels flat and draining despite adequate physical rest.
My energy logs show that my spiritual energy scores (sense of purpose and
meaning) are consistently low — averaging [X out of 5] — even on days when
my physical and mental energy are adequate.
I want to explore whether this reflects a values misalignment, a role mismatch,
or something else.
Please ask me five questions that might help identify whether the problem is:
a) The type of work I am doing (wrong tasks for my strengths or interests)
b) The direction my work is heading (goals that are not aligned with what
matters to me)
c) The context I am working in (culture, team, or organizational fit)
d) Something else I have not considered
Ask one question at a time and wait for my answer before asking the next.
After all five, offer a brief synthesis and one or two suggested experiments.Prompt 5: Build a Recovery Protocol for Each Dimension
Use this when you know you are depleted but are not sure what recovery activities will actually restore each dimension.
I want to build a specific recovery protocol for each of the four energy
dimensions in Loehr and Schwartz's framework.
My context:
- Role: [your job/life situation]
- Available time for recovery activities: [e.g., 20 minutes between meetings,
60 minutes in the evening]
- Activities I already do: [exercise, meditation, reading, etc.]
- Activities I know do NOT restore me: [e.g., passive TV, social media]
For each dimension — physical, emotional, mental, spiritual — please suggest:
1. One micro-recovery practice (under 5 minutes, during the workday)
2. One daily recovery practice (15–60 minutes, after work)
3. One weekly recovery practice (longer form, weekend or full evening)
Ground each suggestion in what research or established practice supports it.
Flag any suggestion that is more speculative.How to Use These Together
The five prompts follow a natural sequence: Prompt 1 establishes your audit. Prompt 2 analyzes the data. Prompt 3 builds your schedule. Prompt 4 addresses the values layer. Prompt 5 designs your recovery architecture.
You can run them sequentially over two weeks, or use any individual prompt for a targeted session. The only prerequisite is log data for Prompts 2 and 3 — five days minimum, two weeks for the most reliable Default Week design.
Related: The Complete Guide to Energy Management Frameworks · The AI-Augmented Energy Management Framework · How to Manage Energy, Not Time · AI Morning Routine Design
Tags: AI prompts energy management, energy audit prompts, ChatGPT productivity, Claude planning, manage energy not time
Frequently Asked Questions
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Can I use these prompts with any AI assistant?
Yes. These prompts are written for any capable AI assistant — Claude, ChatGPT, or similar. They work best in a session with sufficient context length to hold a week's worth of energy log data, so Claude or GPT-4 class models are more reliable for the analysis prompts than smaller models.
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Do I need prior energy log data to use these prompts?
Prompts 1 and 5 work immediately without prior data. Prompts 2, 3, and 4 require at least three to five days of energy log entries. The fastest path is to run Prompt 1 for five days and then use the others once you have data.
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How do these prompts relate to the Loehr-Schwartz framework?
Each prompt targets one or more of the four energy dimensions — physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. Prompt 2 analyzes depletion across all four. Prompt 4 specifically targets the spiritual dimension, which is the most commonly neglected and the hardest to analyze without structured reflection.