energy-management▌
refoundai/lenny-skills · updated Apr 8, 2026
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Framework for diagnosing energy drains, auditing calendars, and scheduling work around peak performance zones.
- ›Helps identify activities that energize vs. deplete you, then guides calendar restructuring to spend more time in your \"zone of genius\"
- ›Built on five productivity frameworks covering energy-driven scheduling, superpower activation, delegation strategies, and post-activity energy tracking
- ›Includes diagnostic questions and common pitfalls (ignoring energy signals, optimizing
Energy Management
Help the user manage their energy for sustained performance using frameworks from 5 product leaders who have optimized their personal productivity and avoided burnout.
How to Help
When the user asks for help with energy management:
- Diagnose the current state - Help them identify what's draining vs energizing them
- Audit their calendar - Review how they're spending time and categorize by energy impact
- Design for their superpowers - Help them spend more time in their zone of genius
- Create sustainable rhythms - Build routines that protect energy over time
Core Principles
Schedule for energy, not just time
Anneka Gupta: "Being able to manage my energy levels and figuring out how to schedule my time for my energy has really allowed me also to figure out how to have that abundant mindset in all situations." Manage mental and emotional energy, not just calendar slots.
Identify energy drivers and drains
Bob Moesta: "Think of moments where you actually go into a situation and you get energy from it. At the same time, those moments where you go in and you get the life sucked out of you - that's an experience." Use this framework to identify what to pursue and what to delegate.
Audit your calendar by energy impact
Claire Vo: "Categorize the way you're spending your time into those buckets, and then put the bottom buckets away. Just focus on that top bucket and go, 'How can I be here more?'" Find your 'zone of genius' work and delegate energy-zapping tasks.
Use superpowers to create energy
Donna Lichaw: "If you subscribe to this idea of managing your energy, not your time, this will help you do that. If you're using your superpowers, you will have more energy." Working in your strengths generates energy rather than depleting it.
Pay attention to post-activity energy
Paul Millerd: "Pay really close attention to what gives you energy after you do the thing. Say you have a call. Did that give you energy or did that sap you of energy?" Track what energizes vs saps you after every interaction or task to guide career direction.
Questions to Help Users
- "What activities give you energy after you do them?"
- "What's on your calendar this week that you're dreading?"
- "If you categorized your work by energy impact, what would be in the 'zone of genius' bucket?"
- "Are you using your superpowers regularly, or mostly doing things that drain you?"
- "What could you delegate to create space for energy-giving work?"
Common Mistakes to Flag
- Ignoring energy signals - Pushing through energy drains without addressing the root cause
- Optimizing only for time - Filling calendars efficiently without considering energy impact
- Avoiding delegation - Holding onto draining tasks because 'it's faster if I do it'
- No recovery time - Scheduling back-to-back draining activities without breaks
- Treating all tasks equally - Not distinguishing between work that energizes vs depletes
Deep Dive
For all 5 insights from 5 guests, see references/guest-insights.md
Related Skills
- Running Effective 1:1s
- Having Difficult Conversations
- Delegating Work
- Managing Up
How to use energy-management on Cursor
AI-first code editor with Composer
Prerequisites
Before installing skills in Cursor, ensure your development environment meets these requirements:
- ›Cursor installed and configured on your development machine
- ›Node.js version 16.0+ with npm package manager (verify with
node --version) - ›Active project directory or workspace where you want to add energy-management
Execute installation command
Execute the skills CLI command in your project's root directory to begin installation:
The skills CLI fetches energy-management from GitHub repository refoundai/lenny-skills and configures it for Cursor.
Select Cursor when prompted
The CLI will show a list of available agents. Use arrow keys to navigate and space to select Cursor:
Verify installation
Confirm successful installation by checking the skill directory location:
Reload or restart Cursor to activate energy-management. Access the skill through slash commands (e.g., /energy-management) or your agent's skill management interface.
Security & Verification Notice
We perform automated surface-level scans (Gen AI Scanner, Socket, Snyk) during installation. These checks detect common vulnerabilities but do not guarantee complete security. Always review skill source code and verify the publisher's reputation before production use.
Skills execute code in your development environment. Always verify the publisher's identity, review recent commits, and test in isolated environments before production deployment.
List & Monetize Your Skill
Submit your Claude Code skill and start earning
Use Cases▌
User Story & Requirements Generation
Create detailed user stories, acceptance criteria, and feature specs
Example
Generate user stories for 'password reset feature' with acceptance criteria, edge cases, and test scenarios
Reduce spec writing time by 50%, ensure comprehensive coverage
Competitive Analysis
Research competitors, compare features, identify gaps
Example
Analyze 5 competitor products, create feature comparison matrix, suggest differentiation opportunities
Complete competitive research in 2 hours instead of 2 days
Roadmap Prioritization
Evaluate features using frameworks (RICE, ICE, Kano) and create prioritized backlogs
Example
Score 20 feature ideas using RICE framework, generate prioritized roadmap with rationale
Make data-driven prioritization decisions faster
Stakeholder Communication
Draft PRDs, status updates, and stakeholder presentations
Example
Create executive summary of Q3 roadmap, monthly progress report, feature launch announcement
Save 3-5 hours/week on communication overhead
Implementation Guide▌
Prerequisites
- ›Claude Desktop or compatible AI client
- ›Access to product documentation and roadmap tools (Jira, Notion, etc.)
- ›Understanding of product management frameworks (RICE, Jobs-to-be-Done, etc.)
- ›Stakeholder contact information and communication channels
Time Estimate
30-60 minutes to see productivity improvements
Installation Steps
- 1.Install product management skill
- 2.Start with user story generation for known feature
- 3.Progress to competitive analysis: research 2-3 competitors
- 4.Use for roadmap prioritization: apply RICE/ICE scoring
- 5.Draft stakeholder communications and refine based on feedback
- 6.Build template library for recurring PM tasks
- 7.Share effective prompts with product team
Common Pitfalls
- ⚠Not validating competitive research—verify facts before sharing
- ⚠Accepting user stories without involving engineering team
- ⚠Over-relying on frameworks without qualitative judgment
- ⚠Not customizing outputs to company culture and communication style
- ⚠Skipping stakeholder validation of generated requirements
Best Practices▌
✓ Do
- +Validate research and competitive analysis with real data
- +Collaborate with engineering when generating technical requirements
- +Customize frameworks and templates to your company context
- +Use skill for first drafts, refine with stakeholder input
- +Document successful prompt patterns for PM tasks
- +Combine AI efficiency with human judgment and intuition
✗ Don't
- −Don't publish competitive analysis without fact-checking
- −Don't finalize user stories without engineering review
- −Don't make prioritization decisions solely on AI scoring
- −Don't skip customer validation of generated requirements
- −Don't ignore company-specific context and culture
💡 Pro Tips
- ★Provide context: company goals, constraints, customer feedback
- ★Ask for alternatives: 'Show 3 ways to prioritize this roadmap'
- ★Request stakeholder-specific formatting: 'Executive summary vs. engineering spec'
- ★Use skill for 70% generation + 30% customization to company needs
When to Use This▌
✓ Use When
Use for user story writing, competitive research, roadmap prioritization, stakeholder communication, and PRD drafting. Best for reducing repetitive documentation and research work.
✗ Avoid When
Avoid for strategic product vision (requires deep customer empathy), pricing decisions (needs market and financial expertise), or when face-to-face customer discovery is more valuable than speed.
Learning Path▌
- 1Basic: user stories, feature specs, status updates
- 2Intermediate: competitive analysis, prioritization frameworks, PRDs
- 3Advanced: product strategy, go-to-market planning, OKR setting
- 4Expert: product vision, market positioning, business model innovation
Discussion
Product Hunt–style comments (not star reviews)- No comments yet — start the thread.
Ratings
4.8★★★★★50 reviews- ★★★★★Chaitanya Patil· Dec 28, 2024
energy-management has been reliable in day-to-day use. Documentation quality is above average for community skills.
- ★★★★★Alexander Tandon· Dec 20, 2024
energy-management reduced setup friction for our internal harness; good balance of opinion and flexibility.
- ★★★★★Nikhil Patel· Dec 12, 2024
energy-management fits our agent workflows well — practical, well scoped, and easy to wire into existing repos.
- ★★★★★Amina Zhang· Dec 12, 2024
energy-management is among the better-maintained entries we tried; worth keeping pinned for repeat workflows.
- ★★★★★Xiao Khan· Dec 8, 2024
We added energy-management from the explainx registry; install was straightforward and the SKILL.md answered most questions upfront.
- ★★★★★Alexander Malhotra· Nov 27, 2024
Useful defaults in energy-management — fewer surprises than typical one-off scripts, and it plays nicely with `npx skills` flows.
- ★★★★★Piyush G· Nov 19, 2024
Solid pick for teams standardizing on skills: energy-management is focused, and the summary matches what you get after install.
- ★★★★★Alexander Sethi· Nov 7, 2024
I recommend energy-management for anyone iterating fast on agent tooling; clear intent and a small, reviewable surface area.
- ★★★★★Alexander Chen· Nov 3, 2024
Registry listing for energy-management matched our evaluation — installs cleanly and behaves as described in the markdown.
- ★★★★★Tariq Torres· Nov 3, 2024
Keeps context tight: energy-management is the kind of skill you can hand to a new teammate without a long onboarding doc.
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