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In our May “how can we help you?” thread, a reader writes:
Do people who menstruate experience fluctuations in energy or productivity during different phases of their cycle? If so, are there strategies that help with managing demanding academic work?
Do readers have any helpful tips to share?
I’m someone who menstruates, and I definitely experiences fluctuations in energy and productivity during my cycle. It can honestly be pretty frustrating. I don’t have any revolutionary advice, but I mostly just try to organize my monthly work-flow around it. I try to do high energy cognitive work — which, for me, are tasks like writing and big picture conceptualizing — for my energetic/productive periods (no pun intended). And reserve certain lower energy cognitive work — like revisions, emailing folks, administrative tasks — for the times when my menstrual cycle is negatively affecting me. This obviously is not always possible. Deadlines sometimes fall in bad weeks and life can disrupt plans. But it can help.
I’ve also found that consistently lifting weights throughout the month has helped with my overall energy levels, which makes the menstrual-cycle-related lull a bit easier to manage.
Would love to hear if other folks have better tips though!
I try to plan my schedule so that I don’t need to, as it were, move heavy furniture on those days. sometimes it can’t be helped so in that case I do what I can and give myself some grace and healthy snacks (almonds, raspberries, bananas).
and when those days come, I usually do either setup or recuperation. setup is me acquiring books, hatching a timeline for the paper and figuring out what the writing community for this paper might be. recuperation is me, say, taking a longish hike to gain some fresh eyes on whatever I’ve written.
I’ve also found that my eye for revising is best during menstruation. not sure why but my theory is that this is the time when my tolerance for BS is at its lowest and my willingness to be honest is at its peak. makes me an unpleasant social companion I’m sure but it helps me spot and acknowledge gaps in logic, odd framing, overreaches in my claims…
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