The article below challenges something most of us chase: more energy. But Dr. Kashey argues energy is too vague. Instead of asking, “How do I feel?” maybe the better question is: “What am I consistently producing?” He wants us to measure output.
Here are a few ideas that hit home for me:
— Measure what you can sustain. It’s not about one great day, one big workout, or one productive sprint. It’s about the quality of work you can repeat over time. That’s the real scoreboard. It’s also why I’m so committed to my tracking sheets. What gets measured gets improved.
— Cut the dumb stuff. Doom scrolling. Bad food. Wasted time. Tiny distractions that quietly steal hours from your week. You don’t necessarily need more energy; you need fewer leaks. I catch myself losing an hour here and there and usually know exactly why. Dumb stuff. Stop it, Craig.
— Define what “Winning the Day” looks like. If you don’t know what a great day is, you’ll never hit it consistently. Set your standards. Calls made. Workout done. Priorities handled. Routines completed. I’m all over this one. I want to know I won my day, my week, my year… and ultimately, my life.
There’s a lot more clarity in the article below. Energy comes and goes. Output is a choice. Measure it. Protect it. Build your days around what actually moves the needle. That’s how you keep growing and living your Fantastic Life.
The Fantastic Life Rule: #12
Do Nothing in Moderation
If you want real results, stop half-committing based on how you feel. Show up fully—regardless of your “energy.” Consistent, all-in execution beats waiting for the perfect state every time.
Why your energy has nothing to do with your performance “Boosting energy” is a trap. Here’s the metric you should be tracking instead.
December 3rd, 2025
Michael Easter
Case in point, I was recently complaining to him that I was having a “low energy” day.
- Me: I have low energy today.
- Trevor: ‘Energy.’ WTF does that even mean?
- Me: Um … (searching for words) … I feel um …
- Trevor: Let me stop you. Did you write the same number of words you usually do today?
- Me: Yes. Maybe more.
- Trevor: So then why would these vague feelings of ‘low energy’ matter if your output is the same or better?
- Me: Fair enough.
His point was that we talk about energy like it’s a real, measurable thing. We say things like I did: “I don’t have energy today,” or “I need more energy.”
We also spend a lot of money on things that claim to boost energy: supplements, diets, biohacks, etc.
But Dr. Kashey says most of what we call “energy” is just a vague label we slap onto sensations. And those sensations are often terrible predictors of what we actually produce.
Acting by “energy” can steer us wrong. That’s the part that matters.
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Today you’ll learn:
- Why “energy” is a scientifically meaningless term.
- How “energy” became a big marketing term used to sell you things you don’t need.
- Why we often confuse stimulation (heart rate, anxiety) with actual capability.
- Why getting clear about energy can help you feel better and get more done.
- The best way to accomplish more (no vague ideas of “energy” required).
Let’s roll …
The marketing of energy
The wellness world loves the word energy. You see it in bestselling diet books that claim to “boost energy.” Or supplements that promise “sustained energy.” Or techno-wellness language like “dopamine optimization” to boost energy.
The reason the term is everywhere is rather simple: It’s vague enough to promise something good but impossible to actually measure. “It’s scientistic hand-waving,” Kashey told me.
This is important because people confuse stimulation for capability.
Caffeine, for example, makes you feel highly stimulated—more alert, higher heart rate, etc—but it doesn’t always lead you to produce more, measurable work. “We get perceptions of benefits more than we get actual benefits,” Dr. Kashey said.
This confusion is the entire business model of the modern energy-industrial complex.
If we can’t trust our feelings to guide performance, what should we trust?
In the rest of this letter, we’ll explore:
- The fascinating disconnect between how you feel and your performance—and what to measure instead.
- How to identify the silent behaviors that are acting as a “parking brake” on your performance.
- A mental framework to measure your true output, ignore the noise, and produce high-level work regardless of how you feel.
- And, as always, the audio version of this post is at the bottom of the page.
Your feelings ≠ your output
When Dr. Kashey asked me how many words I’d written, he was hinting at his core thesis: If you want to understand performance, stop asking how you feel and start measuring what you do.
His point is that feelings aren’t clear messages from your body.
Rather, they’re vague sensations we observe and tack a story onto. In our case, we say “low energy” when we feel a certain way, then tell ourselves we have low energy and invent narratives around how that impacts us.
Worst case: Our internal narrative bends our behavior in a bad direction. We tell ourselves, “I can’t do X, Y, or Z today because I have low energy.”
Psychological research backs the idea that our interpretations are often wrong.
The findings are consistent:
- People’s feelings don’t reliably track their capability¹.
- The “low-energy” sensation is usually an interpretation, not a fact².
- What we produce on our “high-energy” and “low-energy” days often doesn’t differ³.
As Dr. Kashey and I spoke, I realized I’d seen this in my own work.
Some of my best writing came on days when I was underslept and underfed and would classify as “low energy.” Meanwhile, some of my most incoherent work came when I felt ecstatic—days I would classify as “high energy.”
The same goes for my workouts. Sometimes I’ll enter my garage and feel like frozen garbage—yet set a PR in an exercise. Other times, I’ll feel ready for the Olympics and perform rather average. Famous cases of this abound (follow this footnote for my most hated case⁴).
The big takeaway: The vague idea of “energy” doesn’t always correlate with what you actually produce. And what you produce is what matters.
Dr. Kashey says success is determined by how much more work you can sustainably produce over time. Not by how “high” or “low” energy you feel on any given day.
What actually improves output
It’s rather simple, according to Dr. Kashey: Do less dumb stuff.
Diets are a valuable example to understand this take. Many diets claim to increase energy. But Dr. Kashey points out that what they really do is remove things that make people feel like crap.
When people cut out common irritants—fermentable carbs, allergens, excess caffeine—their sleep often improves, pain decreases, digestion stabilizes, and stress drops.
That makes effort feel easier, and people call that “more energy.”
“But, really,” he said. “Feeling ‘energized’ on a new diet is often a collateral benefit that comes from measurable biological improvements, rather than a direct, magical outcome of the new foods themselves.”
In other words: The person stopped doing dumb stuff (eating foods that negatively affected their physiology) and felt better.
That’s an idea we can apply to anything. I wrote in my book Scarcity Brain:
Everyone likes to focus on developing good new habits. But I want to know how we can resolve the behaviors that hurt us most. Because here’s the thing: it doesn’t matter how much gas we give good new habits; if we don’t resolve our bad ones, we still have our foot on the brake.
If you cut out the dumb stuff holding you back—i.e., release your foot from the brake—it becomes easier to do more productive things (if you choose). Your output increases.
How to apply this:
- Track your output, not your vibes.
What we think we did—or feel we did—often doesn’t match what we actually did. This shows up in studies on exercise, diet, work, and more.
The only way to know if you improved is to measure what you’re trying to improve. Measure output mechanically: miles walked, pounds lifted, reps completed, words written, sales made, meals cooked, etc.
- Define performance clearly
Related to the above, Kashey defines performance as “how much work we do over time.”
If you run farther in an hour or lift more total weight in an hour, performance improved. If not, it didn’t.
You can apply this idea to anything—and use it to actually improve.
- Don’t wait to “feel energized”.
This is where people get trapped by the nebulous term “energy.” We often do less simply because we have a vague notion that we need to be in the right state of “energy” to do more. We need to feel “motivated” or “ready.”
Instead, act first. See what happens.
Research is clear that action precedes feeling.
- Do less dumb stuff.
If you’re having an issue, look for what might be holding you back. Common output killers: Too many distractions, poor sleep, excess caffeine, chronic pain, environmental friction/noise.
For example, my office used to be off our main living room—loud and jam-packed with distractions. My new office is in a separate casita that’s quieter with far fewer distractions. My output has risen dramatically.
Remove those brakes, and your output naturally rises.
- Beware of energy-based marketing.
If a product claims to boost a vague feeling, assume it’s selling the feeling, not the output.
- Interpret sensations wisely.
Your body isn’t sending divine telegrams. It’s generating sensations. If the way you interpret those sensations is holding you back, ask how else those sensations could be interpreted in a way that helps you. The stories you tell yourself are critical to your productivity, mindset, happiness, and more.
Have fun, don’t die, and, to quote Dr. Kashey, “why would these vague feelings of ‘low energy’ matter if your output is the same or better?”
For example, I will be forever traumatized by the occurrences on June 11th, 1997. I grew up a fan of the Utah Jazz, and my mom worked her butt off to get us tickets to the Jazz’ finals run against the Chicago Bulls. It was game five and the series was tied 2-2. Michael Jordan was completely drained from food poisoning—about as “low energy” as he could get. Yet he dropped 38 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. The Bulls won by 2 and went on to beat the Jazz in the series.