What affects our energy levels?

I have been observing what affects the level of energy I have to work on something, and how to optimize it.
My first “Equation” was that, we had a long term base level formed by good / bad habits (health, inner peace etc). Our “state of mind” then acted as a multiplier on short term modifiers like level of sleep, hunger, coffee and so on influence the amount of energy we had at any point. But after some discussion with friends and observation, I realized that this is only our store of “potential energy”.

We also need a trigger (or “Do Work”) to convert this into Kinetic energy that is actually used. Tiggers could be a deadline, an interesting project, good company, energetic environment, force of habit, nice weather or probably even Coffee.

To optimize for energy, we need to watch our potential energy reserves and keep them high, and then look for triggers that allow us to use them. And then be mindful of how fast an activity drains our potential energy reserve. For an introvert like me, talking to people drains my reserve pretty fast, while being in the zone working on an interesting project is a much slower drain.