Productive Cycle
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked on the phone to my sister and ranted about how I was no longer going to follow productivity advice from men. So many of the habit building books (Atomic Habits, Tiny Habits), business productivity advice, and even workout plans come from people who aren’t accounting for a woman’s hormonal cycle. What do you mean I don’t get more rest days on my period?
For me, ignoring or disregarding the impacts of a woman’s cycle when laying out a plan for how to accomplish tasks day in and day out is a total oversight. If I’m going to lay out realistic plans to reach my goals, this is as fundamental to me as knowing when I plan to be on vacation. Finally I’ve found the resource I’ve been looking for.
Laura Davis was a recent guest on the Accountable podcast and talked about how to match up entrepreneurial work with your cycle. Of course this required a woman to know where they are in their cycle and to have some tracking data to back it up, but this was the information I had been hunting for. I want to break it down here for anyone else who always feels like pulling her hair out when the plan laid out for them by others goes awry in the week leading up to and including her period.
Now I literally just learned this information so I don’t purport to be an expert of any kind, but I’ll link the resources at the bottom so you can research for yourself. Here’s the gist of the cycles and how they break down with the ideal type of work to perform in each stage. The major caveat is that it’s not always possible to organize our lives around our cycle so some stuff is unavoidable, but that means you’ll just need to build in longer recovery times in the instances where you don’t have control over your schedule.
Menstruation: From the start of your period through bleeding (3-7 days), This time period is one where you’ll likely need more rest. This is also a great time to do activities like reading and reflecting back on how past projects have gone.
Follicular phase: Between the end of menstruation and about day 14 of your cycle, This time period is ideal for creative work, making detailed plans, and anything else that requires an alertness to the nitty gritty. Usually this brings in more energy and an ability to tap into higher level thinking.
Ovulation phase: One to two days somewhere mid-cycle, This is where you’ll find yourself at peak confidence, radiant, clear-thinking, and highly articulate. Therefore, this is a great time to make a pitch for something you want/need (raise, guest spot, book agent, etc) or to appear as a guest speaker or in some other public facing way. Maybe prerecording all your monthly social media videos of this time period where you’ll be feeling your most attractive and well-spoken.
Luteal phase: From ovulation to the start of your next cycle. The early portion of this phase has carryover attributes from the hormone shifts of ovulation so that work can continue into this phase. Late luteal phase, in contrast, is marked with a pulling in of energy, often equated to late fall when compared to seasons. Organizing and administrative tasks are great for the late luteal phase and play into the best aspects of the hormones at this time. Declutter your work space. Put some of the systems in place that you designed in your follicular phase. Minimize the amount of high energy demands on yourself during this week or build in extra recovery time if they are unavoidable.
So how have I applied this? Well for one, it helps me not feel like a crazy person when I can make such huge strides toward my goals one week and then want to curl into a ball and not talk to anyone the next. Some of the things I have some control over like making my videos to post or recording podcast episodes I can plan around the most ideal times. I can give myself some more grace when my writing is one point one week (follicular phase), and I can’t put a string of words together two weeks later (late luteal phase). Even this week, I was working on some goal setting and a detailed action plan to meeting my 90-day milestone of completing my rewrites. I cleared some time to make sure I prioritized it while I was in the ideal phase instead of putting it off until a more open time in my schedule.
I’ve heard plenty of breakdowns of the phases of a hormonal cycle before, but I found this conversation to be particularly helpful because Laura explained the BENEFITS to each phase. It feels empowering to have this information and a framework for application.
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