We’re going to dive into a topic that most of my clients have been asking me about lately. I’ve been talking to a lot of people on social media, and it is cycle syncing your business and how it can increase your productivity.
What is cycle syncing?
It is aligning your tasks, workouts, food, social activities, etc with the 4 different phases of your cycle.
I am not an expert on this. There are accounts that you can follow, apps that you can download. I’ll talk about some of those in this blog, but I’m not an expert.
In this blog, I am sharing from my own personal experience and how I set up my business to run more efficiently, for me to enjoy it more based on my hormone cycle.
Quick Foundation & Resources
Let’s start with the quick foundation. Your menstrual cycle has four phases:
The menstrual phase, which is the first day of your bleed till about day five on average.
The follicular phase, which is day six through day 11.
The ovulation phase, which is when you’re ovulating days 12 through 16.
The luteal phase, which is days 17 to 28-ish whenever you start your period.
Again, this is average. It’s different for every woman.
I have two apps that I love to use versus the app that’s just on your iPhone to track.
MyFLO: is an amazing app to track and also a good follow on Instagram. They give tons of tips about cycle syncing. With the app, as you go through every cycle, it gives you tips: what to eat, what to do, what type of workouts to do. I think the cost for this app is around $3, it’s worth it.
I also really like the app 28. It is one of the prettiest apps that I have ever seen. They have workouts on there. They have affirmations all related to what phase of your cycle you’re in. This app is free to use!
Those are both good things to download to give you more information, help you cycle sync your business. If you’re interested in something like that, go download those apps.
The Follicular Phase – Planning
Let’s start with the follicular phase, this is right after your period is over. Your energy starts to come back, your brain is more focused
From a business standpoint, this phase is all about planning
- Creating my focus for the next 4 weeks
- Making my master to do list of goals, priorities and tasks
- Block important tasks on the calendar (podcast recording, content creation, meetings, blocking time off for rest)
- Plan out my content for the month (I don’t create it. This isn’t the time to write captions or make reels – we are just strategically planning)
Anything that requires the strategic, planner side of your brain is good to do during this phase.
The Ovulation Phase – Creativity & High Energy
Personally, this is my favorite cycle.
This is when your energy and creativity peek. You crank out your to do list. You never need that second cup of coffee and you feel like superwoman!
During this phase I focus on:
- Creating my content for the month (writing captions and emails, making reels, outlining my podcast)
- Much more forward facing marketing
- Launches are scheduled during this time
- Podcast interviews and IG live collabs
- Big project push – the tasks that I typically avoid, I get done during this phase
This is the time when you feel like you can conquer the world! You’re confident and full of ideas and focus.
The Luteal Phase – Wrapping Up & Slowing Down
Moving into the luteal phase, this is probably my least favorite, if I’m honest. At least the second half of it. This is also the longest phase.
The first half of it is really your final push to finish up your projects for the month, finish up your content, wrapping up. When you think of these phases like the seasons of the year, this is Fall. We’re slowing down. You have a little bit less energy.
This is when I start looking at my calendar and blocking time off the next week so that I can really, really slow down. For me, and I don’t know if this is true for everybody, this is the time in my cycle where I’m good with cleaning the house and reorganizing. I always want to bake a lot and cook a lot during this time. It’s much more of the home vibes. I plan to do the home projects or special cleaning, things like that during this phase.
This is the time to finalize projects, do some extra prep for the next cycle and to build some extra rest into your week if you are able.
The Menstrual Phase – Minimize & Rest
I do make sure as we move into the menstrual phase, I’m going to really minimize my calls.
I’m going to still show up for my clients, but anything extra, I really try to take it off my plate. This is when I’m going to read more or catch up on my shows and just give myself permission to relax.
Don’t launch during this time. Do not launch during this time! Don’t take on new projects during this time.
I’ll never forget, probably a year and a half ago, for whatever reason, I was not paying attention to the calendar. I had two launches in a row. I scheduled them while I had my period. I didn’t realize it until we got there. I’m like, oh, this is terrible, right? You’ve seen the memes, you experience it, you know how it is. Those couple days leading up to your period, you’re a mess.
You’re thinking about getting divorced, you’re burning down your business, you hate everyone, you can barely smile…
It’s a terrible time to launch. Be proactive and do not launch during that time.
Now, what I’d like to do, and what some people have told me is they tend to be a little bit more creative during this time.
What I do is I keep a list of ideas that pop up. This is not the time to start taking action on new ideas, but keep that list of things that pop up for your content ideas, program ideas, and then revisit them when you get into the follicular phase and start making your plan to move forward.
Like I said, this is not something that is cemented in. Life happens. If you have kids, you really only have so much control over your life. Schedules change. Toddlers get sick. So stuff does get thrown into chaos all the time. You have to do the best with what you’re handed.
I focus on what I can control. I take as much control over my calendar for my stuff, my client stuff, for my business as I possibly can. So that when life with my kids, my family, myself, when things happen that I can’t control, at least my business is under control.
These are not hard, fast rules. I get that this isn’t something that you can always magically do. This is why it’s so important to plan ahead to make your quarterly outline. You have to be tracking your period in order to do this.
This is a place to start if you’re not doing that yet. When the women that I work with start to prioritize their planning ahead of time and stop trying to play catch up, stop trying to live in the week for the week when it comes to their business, it really helps. So if you’re planning and you’re thinking ahead and then you’re adding in cycle syncing, a lot of times you can be so much more productive and can get things done quicker. You can be more focused. Then you just feel like you’re in a better flow.
For me, I cannot write content when I have my period. I mean, I can, and there are times where I don’t have a choice and I have to, but it takes me twice as long to do it. By prioritizing having a plan and cycle syncing, it just allows me to be more productive.
When you are more productive in that first half of your cycle, then you’re able to have more space, more room for rest in the second half without the guilt, frustration, feeling like you’re behind.
That’s really what cycle syncing looks like for me. Like I said, there are tons of people on Instagram that are experts at this. I love following Dr. Lindsey. I don’t remember if that’s her exact handle, but she really focuses on what to eat, what to drink, what type of activities to do during each cycle. Super helpful.
At the end of the day, our bodies are not built the same way that men are. They’re on a 24 hour hormone cycle. So their productivity, what they can do, how they operate week to week is very different from how we as women can operate. Our hormone cycle is 28 days. We have our peak and we have our valleys and they happen weeks apart from each other. By being knowledgeable in that and adapting our lives to that, it’s really helpful for how we run our business, how we show up in our life, and just in general, how we are as women.
Helpful links:
Download the MyFLO app HERE
Download the 28 app HERE
Follow me on Instagram HERE
Listen to this podcast episode HERE
