Knowing Your Productivity Cycles
Let’s get real, ladies.
What do you know about your productivity cycle?
I am talking about our hormonal cycle and the importance of understanding the incredible impact it can have on you, your productivity, and your sanity. Knowing your cycle empowers you to make some really cool decisions on what you say yes or no to.
There is actual scientific proof that as we go through our hormonal cycles every single month, it has a direct impact on our productivity, organizational skills, and so much more.
I was first introduced to this concept several years ago when a coach that I was working asked me to track my productivity and energy for a few months. I looked at the following questions:
Do you have a week where you're feeling like the creative juices are flowing?
Do you have weeks where you are hyper-focused and able to get a bunch of stuff done?
Do you have weeks or you just feel like nothing's working?
At the end of the three months when I looked back over all the data, I noticed an absolute pattern broken out into roughly weekly cycles over four different phases.
While it would be really great to coordinate our entire lives around this, I know it's not realistic. Sometimes there are things we have to do on certain days and at certain times.
However, I want to open your eyes to this so you can start thinking about it when you're doing your weekly and monthly planning. Are there opportunities to schedule certain tasks at certain times to align with your productivity cycles?
Here are the 4 phases women typically go through in a given month:
- Creative phase: the juices are flowing and you’re full of amazing ideas!
2. Communication phase: you can communicate like no other!
3. Hyper-productive phase: power hour is a GO!
4. Reflective phase: you are now tuned inward!
I would encourage each one of you to take the next two to three months and actually grab your planner and just make notes in there every couple of days on the following:
Where are you feeling your body connecting to?
Are you more lethargic, maybe intuitive, or lacking energy?
Did you feel like you were hyper-productive?
Was it one of those periods where all the ideas were coming to you?
Was there a window of time where you felt like your patience was endless and everything felt great?
I would bet that the vast majority of you will uncover some patterns for yourself.
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