Do you turn the lights off when you leave the house? Unplug your computer when you’re on vacation?

What about your personal batteries? Do you know how to recharge those?

Catherine McCarthy is COO of The Energy Project, which helps people and companies become more energized, more focused and more productive.

Catherine says the Energy Project is a leadership development company that works with corporations, schools, hospitals, police departments and more to help people harness the science of high performance and to tap into the most sustainable types of energy — yours.

She says time and time again they’ve helped people learn to be more productive and more efficient at work and home, which, in turn, improves their quality of life and brings them a higher level of engagement.

It’s not about wringing workers dry just to try and make them efficient, Catherine says. It’s about living and worker smarter and helping people to understand the power behind simple ideas. It’s an idea Cahterine and her colleagues are so passionate about that they’ve written a book, “The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance.”

Find out what effect the recession has had on workforces across the country and how some really big companies, like Apple, Google, Starbucks and Sony Pictures, are turning to the Energy Project to invest in their employees, many of whom have been stretched thin and burdened with increasing demands over the past few years.

Plus, Catherine shares surprisingly simple but effective tips you can start incorporating into your life today in order to dramatically improve your quality of life. She breaks it down into the four forgotten needs — things we know we should do but aren’t.