Working With Your Energy Cycles, Not Against Them
You've probably tried to force yourself into the mould of what a "real" business owner should look like.
Someone who works nine to five, has everything figured out, whose every day is productive and perfectly scheduled.
You've pushed through low-energy days. Scheduled meetings when your body was asking for rest. Felt defective when your creative flow didn't match the rigid structure you thought you needed.
Here's the truth: that image is not only unrealistic, it's harmful, especially for those of us who create for a living.
The Cost of Fighting Your Natural Rhythms
I see it constantly in the creative business owners I work with.
The weaver who pushes herself to complete orders when her hands are asking for rest. The graphic designer who forces herself through client revisions on days when her creative energy is desperately trying to flow toward her own projects. The copywriter who schedules writing sessions during her lowest-energy hours because that's when her calendar says she should work. The photographer who books back-to-back shoots without considering what her nervous system can actually hold.
The cost shows up in the quality of your work, in your relationship with your craft, in your body's increasingly urgent signals that something isn't working.
What Changes When You Stop Fighting
What happens when someone finally gives themselves permission to work with their energy rather than against it?
There's an initial fear: won't I get less done? Won't my business suffer? Won't clients think I'm unprofessional?
The opposite happens.
When you schedule tasks according to your energy, you work with more focus during your high-energy windows. When you allow yourself rest during low-energy periods, you return to your work with renewed clarity. When you stop forcing yourself through tasks that drain you on days when you're already depleted, you prevent the kind of burnout that takes months to recover from.
This isn't about creating an idealistic schedule where you only work when inspiration strikes. It's about building realistic flexibility into your business that acknowledges you're a human being, not a productivity machine.
Practical Tools for Working With Your Energy
If you’re curious about starting to plan your schedule taking with energy levels in mind, here’s a few ideas:
Start tracking. You can't work with your energy cycles if you don't know what they are. For the next two weeks, notice:
When during the day do you feel most creative?
What days of your cycle (if applicable) feel expansive versus introspective?
What external factors impact your energy? Think weather, social interaction, types of tasks?
Map your tasks to your energy. Not all work requires the same kind of energy. Administrative tasks need a different energy than creative work. Client communication needs different energy than solitary making. Once you understand your patterns, you can map tasks accordingly.
Create flexible structures. Instead of rigid schedules, create containers. Maybe Tuesdays are for creating, but what you create depends on where your energy is leading you that day.
Practice acceptance. This might be the hardest part. There will be low-energy days. Days when you accomplish less. Days when your body asks you to slow down. These aren't failures, they're part of the natural cycle that makes sustained creative work possible.
Connect with your body. Your body is your compass. Walking in nature, sitting in the sun for twenty minutes, feeling your feet on the ground - these aren't luxuries. They're essential practices that help you stay connected to your internal rhythms.
Your Next Step
If you're ready to stop fighting against yourself and start working with your natural energy patterns, I've created a tool to help you begin: an energy audit that will help you map your unique rhythms and identify patterns you might not have noticed.
When you honour your energy cycles, you don't just become more productive. You rediscover joy in your work. You create with more authenticity and build a creative practice that sustains you instead of depleting you.
Isn't that why you started this journey in the first place?