What’s the Difference Between Capacity and Energy?

How you load the dishwasher matters.

What’s the Difference Between Capacity and Energy?

Many people assume capacity and energy are the same — but they’re not.
Understanding the difference is what separates exhaustion from efficiency.

The Dishwasher Analogy: Energy vs. Capacity

Picture a dishwasher.

It only has so much space — that’s its capacity. How much you can fit inside and how efficiently it runs depends on how you load it.

If you toss everything in randomly, you’ll run out of space quickly.
If you arrange items strategically, you’ll fit more — and everything gets cleaner in one cycle.

Now, the hot water and detergent represent your energy — the fuel that powers the process.

But even with plenty of hot water (energy), if the dishwasher is poorly loaded (a capacity issue), you’ll still have to rewash things.

The Connection to Work

In our professional lives, most of us try to add more “hot water.” We drink another coffee. We extend our day. We push harder, thinking more effort automatically leads to better results.

But it doesn’t.

If our systems, workflows, and habits aren’t structured well — if the “dishwasher” is overloaded or disorganized — then the extra energy goes to waste.

Why Capacity Matters

When you improve capacity, you’re not doing more. You’re doing better with what you already have.

That means:

• Remodeling workflows to remove friction.

• Clarifying priorities so effort goes where it counts.

• Building habits that sustain, not drain.

Energy fuels productivity, but capacity determines how far that energy goes.

Now What?

If this idea resonates, that’s exactly what my book, Capacity: The New Advantage, is built around.

Every chapter gives you strategies to remodel the way you work, using the time you already have. You’ll learn how to:

• Rebuild how meetings are held so time produces movement, not just discussion.

• Streamline how communication flows so clarity replaces confusion.

• Redefine delegation as a leadership advantage, not a task handoff.

Through these shifts, you’ll begin to experience what it means to have a capacity advantage — working within smarter systems that amplify your results without adding more to your plate.

📖 Read more about this in my book, Capacity: The New Advantage, or connect with me to bring this conversation into your organization.