Planning My Work Schedule Around My Cycle

Wassup, ladies, gentlemen, lentlemen. It’s your girl, Ellie B back at it with another nugget episode for you guys. Welcome back to the Fuck The Status Quo Podcast in blog form. I’m trying something new out this month and I think I may be onto something fucking revolutionary but I’ll report back. 

If you have a penis, you probably didn’t click this post. Like, ew, she’s talking about periods? Yes, bitch, this  is about my occasionally bleeding vagina and my hormones. I’ve already warned you so if you continue to go after this point, that’s on you homie. 

Alright, so listen. I’m fuckin’ busy, okay? I have no one to blame but myself for this but I have a lot going on. And I was starting to feel really overwhelmed, like there just wasn’t enough time in the day. I’ve heard people say that expression, “there aren’t enough hours in the day” and I was always thinking … “Shut up, dumbass. You make time for what’s important.” But I was seriously starting to feel like, I truly could not get everything done that I needed to.

My Google calendar is my ride or die bitch but she’s a big ‘ole bitch, okay? She is stacked. Fat ass, big tits, thick thighs. My Google calendar looks like I’m the fuckin’ CEO of Earth. I put eeeeverything in there. And I was starting to notice certain patterns and trends .. just from being in a committed relationship with google calendar for almost a year now. 

For example, I put in my calendar every Tuesday morning to find 10 new potential wholesale accounts, so stores to get my products in and then about mid morning or early afternoon on Tuesday, is when I reach out to them and actually send the message. I just hit them up on Instagram. No need to complicate things. 

But I was finding that when I went to look for 10 accounts, I ended up finding dozens. And you can save stuff or screen shot it but a lot of times you forget to come back to it if you don’t write it down. So I was like, why am I forcing myself to stop at this 10 when I’ve struck some gold here and am onto something or just in the mood to do it, like I’m already here, right? Why not just knock out the 40 for the month. How much longer is that really going to take? 

And then I noticed with my content. You guys, I have three Instagram pages and a Tik Tok I’m running just for my own businesses. I knew I didn’t want to be on camera every day. If you know me or if I ever start making video podcast episodes, you will see that I chill real fuckin’ hard. Comfy clothes are my passion. Oh, and I recently found out that my birthday January 21 is also national sweatpants day so it’s my civic duty to represent that lifestyle.  Anyway, I thought weekly planning and filming was a good groove for me. And, turns out it’s not. Multiple content filming days would pass and I either wasn't in the mood or doing something else and it wasn’t getting done. 

And then on the flip side, I’ll get a bunch of new cards made with new designs and shit. And so I’ll have in my calendar for 2 weeks straight or something to upload 3 new listings. You know, every day, 30 or 45 minutes a day. And most days … shocker, it doesn’t get done. And then one day I’ll just spend like 5 hours and get shit done. 

And, a little tip for my Etsy people. I was uploading 3 a day because Etsy likes you to be active on the platform and uploading new shit but also doesn’t want you to be spammy. Uploading a lot of products at once can be spammy and actually get you banned. That’s why I spaced out uploading new listings. And even though I just said I spent 5 hours getting them all done at once, that doesn’t mean you want to upload them all at once. Save them as a draft, and then just hit publish on a few of them every day. 

Anyway, so yeah, I was basically giving myself all these relatively short and simple tasks but just to the point where I was feeling so all over the place. Jumping from one project to the next. One skill to another. I was just feeling pretty disorganized and just frazzled. Frazzled is a funny word. Actually, all words are funny if you stare at them long enough. But I was like, okay … I’m able to have these long stretches of time where I get shit done. How about instead of doing stuff every week, I do it every month instead? And then I looked at my calendar and took notes like, “Okay, which of these tasks can be done monthly instead of weekly?” 

Because, this is another one of my completely made up theories but here it goes - Humans in general have such a fucking short attention span now that if you’re not focused on a task for long enough you risk getting distracted. But the longer you’re able to focus on something, the more likely you are to enter what I like to call the zone of genius, or Z.O.G. otherwise knowww as zog. The act of being in that zone of genius is a term I have completely made up, called “zoggin’” 

I’m gonna have to draw a fuckin’ chart to demonstarte this, very scientific information, of course. It’s like extreme hyper focus zone of excellence. We all love to be here. 

So I noticed I was having these spurts like about once a month where I would just be zoggin’ and get hella shit done. Like, most of the time when I design greeting cards, it’s in a matter of hours. I sit down and I just get in the fuckin’ zone and create like 50 greeting cards. But I don’t have those creative juices every day. Zoggin’ is a limited time deal. It’s a sacred and special place and deserves to be treated that way and not exploited like a child actor or something. 

And then one day I was like … hmmm, I wonder if these surges of productivity and also the days of not wanting to do SHIT or maybe still getting shit done but not feeling creative or sharp or whatever, I wonder if these have anything to do with where my cycle is at in the month? 

I swear, you guys, this is probably TMI but I am the worst at having a vagina and a period. Every month when I get my period, it’s like I’m 12 years old again getting it for the first time and just shocked and totally unprepared, fuckin’ ruining clothes and shit still at the age of 30. Like, you’d think I know by now after having a period over half my life that this happens every month but nah, not yet. 

Anyway, so I got this app called flo. This is not a plug for them, download the app if you want to, or don’t. Live your life. But you enter in your recent period dates and then it tells you when you’re next one is. But it also will give you insights on maybe why you’re feeling tired or is like “hey, you might be bloated tomorrow.” 

So then one day I just had like this Jimmy Neutron, brain blast moment. And if you don’t know what that means, it means an instant, almost lightning bolt like strike of insight or inspiration. It’s high quality zoggin. It’s like snorting a line of pure ZOG. I was like ….. “I’m gonna plan my entire month’s tasks around my menstrual cycle and what moods or symptoms this app predicts I’m going to be experiencing at that time.”

Alright, so I broke this down into 4 parts for the roughly 4 weeks each month. 

Week 1, day 1 is the day you start your period. Your progesterone and estrogen are low. So you might feel tired (and crampy and bloated and all the things) but your mood should be relatively calm. So, just chill out, girl. If you can avoid it, don’t plan important shit this week. Practice some self-care. Take a bath, read a book, go to bed early and get lots of rest. Go easy on yourself this week. 

Week 2. It’s fucking go time, baby. Your progesterone is low and your estrogren is rising which means you may find your concentration and creativity are boosted. This is it boiiiiii. This is zog time. This, is the optimal time of the month for you to get shit done that requires creativity. Like I said, I’ll report back. This is my first month trying this. But I have scheduled all of my creative shit to be done this week. I’d rather sacrifice one long Saturday a month of getting all my content created or blog posts done or write all my newsletters, than spend half of the day, every single Saturday doing it. You’re fun, you’re playful, you’re silly this week. Let loose, be creative. Journal, brainstorm, day dream, dance in your living room. 

Week 3. You’re still zoggin’ this week. Buuuut with your progesterone and estrogen on the rise, you might be kind of … bitchy. So this is the time of the month I hermit the fuck up and get the tedious shit done. New listings, doing my finances, counting inventory, shit like that. Inceasing progesterone boosts your verbal memory which means your though processing skills are on fiyyyyaaaa. 

Week 4. You’re stressed. You’re emotional. Probably hungry. Drink extra water. Try and go out for walks. Face time your best friend or hang out with him or her if you’re able to. Call your Grandma, check in with your brother, chat with a loved one. Watch your favorite movie. Mediate, journal. 

So to sum that shit up, 

• Week 1 = it’s your period. Chill out on all fronts. Do whatever you feel like.
• Week 2 = creative, playful, fun, zoggin’ time 
• Week 3 = get serious shit done zoggin’ time  
• Week 4 = Nurture your emotional and social side. 

I will give you guys an update on this soon. I might recant everything I’ve just said. So, feel free to try this shit with me. Let me know if you do. That would be pretty cool to hear your experience and insights if you feel comfortable sharing. You can slide into my DM’s, I’ll allow it. 

I hope this shit works out. It made me feel way less stressed out almost immediately when I made the shift of instead of multiple small blocks of time having one large block of time to get something done. 

Also, I was about to end this rant, but I’ll add this. I am, in a lot of ways, an all or nothing bitch. But I am a procrastinator and I have no shame in that. I am a functioning procrastinator, okay? I need that pressure to get shit done. And once I start, I’m not stopping until I finish. If you give me a month to get something done, I’m probably finishing it days before. And I’m not recommending this but it’s truly what works for me. And I thought about this when making my calendar for the month. I was like, dude what if it gets to your “creative week” or your “get shit done time” and you just blow it and don’t do it. Now you’re fucked because you’re that much more behind. 

I weighed the pro’s and con’s, okay? But then it was that procrastinator pressure of like …. Okay but that just means I HAVE to get it done then. So, like I said, I’ll report back. 

I hope this goes well. If not then … I’m still probably gonna have to make tshirts that say Zoggin’ on them, just sayin’.