Let's see how understanding TEP constraints transformed real people's friendship strategies:
Rosa's Energy Optimization Rosa, 38, kept failing at weekend friend plans. After tracking her energy patterns, she discovered her social battery was highest Tuesday and Thursday evenings—when her kids had activities and she had a natural break.
She stopped fighting her weekend exhaustion and started scheduling friend connections during her actual high-energy windows. This meant coffee dates during kids' soccer practice and walking meetings during lunch breaks. Her friendships improved because she was actually present, not forcing herself to socialize while depleted.
Ali's Proximity Hack Ali's remote work meant he could live anywhere, but this created proximity challenges. His friends were scattered across the city with no natural gathering point.
His solution: He started working from a co-working space in a central location two days per week. This created a proximity anchor—friends could meet him for lunch or after-work drinks without anyone traveling far. By solving the proximity problem, his social life reactivated.
David's Time Stacking David realized he had time for fitness OR friends, but not both as separate activities. He transformed his solo gym routine into social time by joining a climbing gym with a strong community.
Now his workouts included built-in social time. He also started a monthly "Dads and Drinks" group that met during the kids' Saturday morning activities. By stacking social time with existing commitments, he found hours that didn't exist before.