Working With (Not Against) Your Natural Rhythms (Productive Flourishing Pulse #489)

Understanding your energy patterns is key to managing your capacity

Last week I shared how a nasty cold turned the back half of my January into one giant recovery block, and how that unexpected downtime reminded me of the necessity of building margin into our plans.

But there was another lesson, or rather reminder, from the experience: not every minute, of every hour, of every day is meant for doing.

What about simply being?

What about all those activities we often discount when thinking about typical “productivity” — playing, connecting, sleeping, laughing, walking, reading (for fun!), and so many others?

While I was lying on the couch, unable to do much beyond coughing, I felt frustrated and more than a bit guilty about all the things that weren’t getting done.

This was an extreme example of ignoring my own energetic cycles, so much so that my body went on strike. Not only had I not allowed myself the necessary margin, I’d not been particularly mindful of where my different types of work belonged in my schedule. (Yes, I know, guess I should take my own advice one of these days!)

Which brings me to one of our most powerful tools for understanding these cycles: the heat map (a heat map worksheet is included in the post). Just as tracking our daily energy patterns helps us identify when we’re most primed for different types of work (and rest!), expanding this awareness across a week can reveal even deeper insights.

I invite you to try it: Over the next week, notice not just your energy levels throughout each day, but also what types of activities naturally align with those levels.

• When are you most creative?

• When do you prefer connecting with others?

• When does admin work feel easiest?

Next week, we’ll explore how to use these insights to create a weekly blueprint that works with your natural rhythms rather than against them.

~Maghan

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Understanding Your Natural Rhythms

As we explore energy patterns beyond just our daily cycles, these posts can help you recognize and work with your natural rhythms — whether they’re daily, weekly, or seasonal:

1. How Heat Mapping Your Day Can Make You More Productive. Understanding your daily energy patterns is the first step to recognizing larger cycles. This tool helps you visualize and track when you're at your best.

2. Create, Connect, & Consume: Balance Each to Get Your Best Work Done. Just as we have natural energy cycles, we have natural cycles of creating, connecting, and consuming. Learning to balance these can help you work more effectively with your natural rhythms.

3. You Are Not A Robot. A reminder that our energy isn't meant to be constant — we’re human beings with natural ebbs and flows that need to be respected and worked with rather than against.

4. What Happens When You Go Against Your Daily Rhythms (podcast). A candid conversation between Charlie and Angela from 2016 exploring what happened when Charlie experimented with completely reversing his daily schedule — and why sometimes it’s better to work with our natural rhythms than against them.

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Take a Moment

A prompt to pause and reflect.

Think about your energy patterns — not just throughout your day, but across your week. When are you at your best? What kind of work feels most natural during these times?

We’d love to hear what’s coming up for you.

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Workshop Better Work Rhythms

Understanding and managing team capacity gets complicated when everyone has different natural rhythms and energy patterns. Our workshops can help:

• Team Readiness Workshop - Evaluate your team's capacity, competency, and workways to prevent burnout and build resilience

• Team Habits Workshop - Develop daily practices that help your team work sustainably

• Team Meeting Makeover - Free up valuable team time by streamlining your meeting structures

Explore our different workshops or other ways we can support your team.

Not sure where you might want to start? The free Team Habits Quiz is a great way to identify where your team could benefit from building in more sustainable practices.

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Need Support Working With Your Natural Rhythms?

When you're fighting against your natural energy patterns, even simple tasks become harder than they need to be. Our Productivity Coaching helps you create a schedule that works with your natural flow:

• Identify your peak performance times and align your most important work accordingly

• Develop strategies that honor your daily and weekly energy patterns

• Create sustainable practices that respect both your capacity and your goals

Not sure where you need the most support? Take our free Momentum Quiz to discover your productivity persona and get personalized insights about your natural working style.

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In Case You Missed It

Focus Blocks Are the Real Measure of Your Team's Capacity

REPLAY: February Leadership Strategy Session

37 Universal Verbs to Use for Your To-Do Lists

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February Events and Replays

Check out this month’s replays explore ways to create sustainable capacity through the power of subtraction:

• [Replay] Leadership Strategy Session: Our February 5th session explored how teams can use subtraction to free up capacity and focus on what truly matters.

• Monthly Momentum Call (MMC): Wednesday, February 19, 2025, at 11:00 am PST Learn practical ways to assess and adjust your personal capacity for sustainable progress.

Paid subscribers get access to both these calls each month, plus the whole replay, notes, and extras. Free subscribers, consider upgrading your subscription to get access to the full replay and invitations to attend live next month!

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