Do you know how to truly rest in your business? (Wait, is rest even a thing? Aren’t I supposed to be hustling?!)
If that’s you, then lean in – today’s episode is all about how I prioritize seasons of rest while building a business.
Because I built my ideal #momlife on a foundation of taking breaks when needed, and I can’t run my business any different.
And neither can you. So let’s dig in.
And if you’re unfamiliar with the concept of taking a break being a good thing, here’s the Cliff notes version: When your bucket is low, you’re not good for much of anything.
Whether that’s parenting, toilet cleaning, or anything else that requires brain power (like menu planning).
So you might as well hop off the phone, go flop on that sofa, and take a nap or read a book or cross stitch until you feel charged up again. No one – and I mean your kids, too – is helped by you being one straw away from yelling at everyone and everything.
(We spend a whole module on this in #Momlife Made Easy – what rest as a mom truly is, and the nitty gritty practicals of how to build it into your day – so if that’s what you need, join me over here!)
Why you need a pre-planning day
First off, let’s get one thing clear: There’s a difference between “not being motivated” to do a particular task and it being the wrong time of the month.
(And yes, I mean that literally. There is such a thing as cycle syncing.)
The cure for writer’s block, or podcasting block, or YouTube block is simply to move your planning day to a different one than your recording day, and to always have an idea bank to pull from.
So first we need to build those two things into your business.
Let me go over those again: one, pre-plan your weekly content BEFORE you sit down to write/film/record it; and two, never be stuck with a blinking cursor on pre-planning day.
Make a habit of jotting down any interesting ideas on your particular business’s content topics whenever you think of them – be it a notes app (appropriately labeled), a Word doc, or a Trello board.
Then, when you’re selecting episodes to record (or videos to shoot) for next month, just glance over your saved notes.
Does one in particular jump out at you? Two? Grab as many as you need for the length of your batching session (one for next week, four for next month, thirteen for next quarter, so on and so forth).
Now, that’s a different task than planning. So let’s call that your pre-planning day.
Why you need a planning day
On planning day, you’re actually going to take those bare bones notes – it might only be a phrase per idea – and flesh them out into normal-length episodes for your content platform. This is where you’ll fill in approximately how many bullets’ worth of talking points you need for your typical length YouTube video or podcast episode.
And guess what? When you’re done writing out bullets, you’re done! That’s all you have to do for this step of batching content.
You’ll record another day, one where you’re in recording headspace – and today’s not it.
I have to say, I really love my planning days. Even outlining is pretty fun! All the pressure of producing an actual, full-length piece of content is gone.
All I have to do is play with my chosen topic:
- What would I like to say here?
- Which idea sounds most interesting to me to speak on this week?
- What’s coming up next month that might pair with this content idea?
That sort of thing.
Try splitting up your choosing, outlining, and recording days into separate work blocks (at the very least), and get into the habit of writing down each new “that would make a great video” idea as it comes to you.
You’ll be so thankful you did when you’re sitting down to select episode topics.
Because you never, ever have to stare at a blank page again.
Recording days and your monthly hormones
Okay. So now that we’ve got “how to write weekly content sans pressure” through our heads, the next thing to do is figure out how to flex with the ebbs and flows of our own energy.
Because the one thing that I can tell you (and you know from your own experience) is that you won’t always feel as energetic as you do today.
Some days it’ll be more, some days it’ll be less.
And that’s completely okay. Normal, in fact.
It’s called cycle syncing.
Aka, you’re a woman, and you have hormones. And they play a huge part in what business tasks you feel up to each week and which ones you just can’t get your head around to start.
So, a basic primer: You know about menstrual phase – when you’re on your actual period. This is a great time to take a business course, plan out your next week/month/quarter, pre-plan or outline episodes, that sort of thing.
Whatever’s low energy and easy in your business, that’s what you get to do all week. Lucky you!
Next phase, you move into more of a “normal” or baseline energy. Get back to knocking out your typical to do’s here.
And shortly after that, depending on your unique cycle, you’ll move into the ovulation phase. This is when you get really high energy, when it doesn’t take any mindset work or psyching yourself up to get on video, do a webinar, hop on a podcast interview, that sort of thing.
So take advantage of this really high energy time and schedule meetings, record your course, batch record your next set of podcast episodes or YouTube videos, or meet up for guest interviews.
You’ll be thrilled to have those out of the way in a couple weeks when you can’t stand the thought of getting on video!
You don’t need to hustle – you just need to sync.
Pro tip: Only schedule as many meetings/interviews/videos as you have time slots in your day for. Ovulation phase can last for 1-3 days, so you have a short window to really be “on” for your audience.
Which means you won’t be able to get everything done.
Get used to slotting webinars, workshops, and challenges into “so many for this month, so many for next month” type scheduling – because it’s truly okay that you can’t get ALL the videos on your quarterly to-do list done in one sitting.
Be real here. Give yourself the grace to skip all video stuff till next month’s high energy time, and just do what fits in this cycle’s ovulation window.
It’ll be so much easier and less stressful when you batch your tasks like this.
And if you need help getting your head around the whole concept of high and low energy times and applying them to your day, hop in #Momlife Made Easy, where I’ll help you transform your entire daily and weekly schedules to something that supports YOU!
Oh, and build in all the breaks you need, at your unique low energy points during the day, too. Because life is no fun if you’re going against your own energy flow. And you absolutely don’t have to live that way.
I learned about cycle syncing after a couple years in business, and let me tell you – I’m a disciplined person, but there’s a world of difference between “I’m recording today because I have to” and “I’m feeling great, plus it’s recording day!” in how my episodes come out.
It takes SO much less hype to get myself into the right recording headspace (like, none at all) during ovulation phase, compared to the rest of the time when I’m constantly having to tell myself to “speak up louder” or “get more animated.”
There’s no comparison.
And spoiler alert, this is why you need to have at least a loose plan for your month! Because if you don’t know roughly when your next high energy couple days are, those videos you need to record for your course or coaching program are just going to keep hanging over your head.
But when you can tell yourself, “Yes, I’m not feeling in the mood to do videos this week. But that’s okay, because this is my pre-menstrual phase, and in two weeks I’ll be raring to go” – that’s way better for your brain. And your stress level. And your mental planning process.
Sold?
All right, last one. What happens after ovulation? Well, you go into your standard work energy phase, where you’re making progress on projects, knocking off to-do’s, and generally wrapping things up. (It’s called your luteal phase.)
The closer you get to your next menstrual phase, the more your work energy shifts into pre-menstrual mode – aka, project wrap-up – and the less you’re inclined to just chunk off huge sections of your launch emails or course content.
That’s more what your earlier-in-cycle luteal phase will be like – the project progress mode. (It’s another one of my favorites.)
This is your baseline, your normal standard of work – but really, it’s your “two weeks of the month” norm of work. Not your every day, must-hold-myself-to bar.
Okay?
The simplicity of cycle syncing
The point of using cycle syncing in your business is to give yourself permission to take easy weeks when you need to, go full throttle when you’re on a high energy ovulation day, and get back in whacking-the-to-do-list mode in between.
That’s it.
It’s not some complicated, be uber-productive time management or productivity system.
It’s just there to make your life as a business-owning mom easier.
What would you change about your next week’s to do list if you lined it up with your monthly cycle?
What would you give yourself permission to lean into, or delete from, your schedule?
That’s what you need to get going on today.
Because you don’t need to hustle in business – you just need to sync.
And you know how to do it now.
Which tasks are you going to cross off next week’s list today?
