How To Use The Power Of The Moon To Achieve Your Goals
- I started setting my goals and working on a lunar schedule (instead of a daily schedule) to boost my productivity
- A lunar schedule draws upon the concept that each phase of the moon is better suited to promoting different activities and that we can get more done and feel better by being more in sync with this schedule
- I adhered to the schedule for a month and tracked my progress towards my goals and recorded how I felt
- I gained a deeper insight into how I best work, I reached my goals, and implemented changes to my schedule moving forward
Tonight is a Full Moon — the Cold Moon, specifically. According to Bustle,
Full moons are generally a time of illumination (literally and metaphorically!), higher energy, and outward focus. When it comes to setting goals or intentions, it’s always helpful to focus on release during a full moon, since they will begin waning (or getting smaller) over the final two weeks of the lunar cycle, making the energy well-suited for shedding and letting go of things.
I’ll try anything to work smarter and not harder. When I found out I could tap into the moon’s power to be more productive, it was easy to say yes — it was definitely cheaper than buying coffee every day from Starbucks. So, a couple months ago I started aligning my goals to a lunar schedule to draw energy from the moon. It’s helped me meet my goals, improve my productivity, and generally have more energy.
I heard about this concept from where all great ideas come from now, a podcast episode: How To Work Like A Woman (In A World That Doesn’t Want You To). The episode discusses how our modern working schedule (as well as most things in life) was designed by men and for men, so for people with more feminine energy (versus masculine energy), our widely-accepted and widely-adhered to Monday-Friday 9–5 schedule may not be the best fit.
A daily Monday-Friday 9–5 schedule is based on the sun, which is associated with masculine energy. A feminine schedule is based on the moon, a monthly schedule.
So What Does The Moon Have to Do with Goals And Productivity?
Each phase of the moon corresponds to different energies that are better suited to different activities.
The New Moon is the start and the end of each moon cycle. That’s when resting, reflection, and planning for the coming month happens.
When the moon waxes (transitions from the New Moon to the Full Moon), that’s when you get to working on your projects. Challenges might arise and adjustments to plans may be necessary.
The Full Moon is when you put all your projects out in the world because of all that moon energy.
And when the moon wanes (Full Moon back to New Moon), that’s when the energy kind of draws back and you tie up loose ends with your projects.
And then you’re back to the New Moon and the cycle starts again.
How I Used The Moon Cycle Work Schedule to Figure Out How I Best Work
I started working on a Moon Cycle Work Schedule on the new moon in late September 2019. Timeanddate.com helpfully tracks the phases of the moon.
I decided I needed to apply some rigor to my experiment so that I’d be able to see if the moon schedule helped with my productivity and energy levels. I kept a daily log (old habits are hard to break!) tracking the phases of the moon, what I did, and how I felt.
Some people do ceremonies on the New and Full Moon. I just made sure I rested during the New Moon and did everything I wanted to, which included sleeping a lot, watching Netflix, drinking tea, and of course, setting my intentions and planning for the coming month.
I considered everything going in my life when planning out the coming month. What projects did I have lined up? What deliverables and deadlines did I have to hit for clients? When was I teaching yoga classes and when would I have to sequence them? Was I traveling or taking vacation? I wrote down everything I had and wanted to do and tried my best to time everything appropriately. For example, I knew I had two reports and a video deliverable due on certain dates. I made sure I used the two weeks between the New Moon and Full Moon to prep and work on everything and aimed to finish everything by the Full Moon, even if they weren’t due exactly on that date. For projects that were due later, around the next New Moon, I aimed to finish the bulk of the work by the Full Moon and I considered everything else (analysis, report writing, editing) to be the loose ends I’d be tying up.
What I Learned About How I Work
I liked setting my goals and working on this new schedule because it took the pressure off me to get anything done each day. I had monthly goals instead of daily goals. I found that this schedule was good for longer term, creative projects. I still had things I needed to do each day, like urgent tasks, meetings, and client deadlines and those were exempt from the moon schedule. I focused on what I could control, rather than what I couldn’t. I found that even deliverables subject to deadlines set by others could fit well into this framework with a little bit of creativity and reasoning.
For example, I had to learn how to edit a video using iMovie. I pieced together 10 interviews (both video and audio only) into a coherent story, added in transitions, and overlaid music on top of it. I barely knew how to do any of it going in. I had to factor in learning in addition to doing.
Normally, I would freak out and get anxious about having to do this and get frustrated that I didn’t know how to and feel behind. On the new schedule I knew I had 2 weeks to get to the final deliverable. On the first day I read a PowerPoint How-To and watched YouTube videos about how to use iMovie, and fiddled around with it a bit. When I got frustrated with it, I just made the decision to stop for the day and work on something else. I factored in these types of days as part of the overall project in the moon waxing phase and made good, steady progress and hit my deadline.
Given my more flexible work arrangement (remote), as long as I’m able to hit my deadlines and deliver work, I can sometimes set my own hours. I learned that I’m basically useless between the hours of 3–5pm but I get a spurt of energy in the evening, but only on heads-down creative projects, and not anything that requires communicating with other people. I’m able to knock out some work in the evening and then do these other kinds of tasks in the morning when other people are working too.
At first, I was skeptical that working on a lunar schedule would fit with a “normal” job. However, I found that a little bit of creativity and open-mindedness went a long way. Instead of forcing myself to work when I didn’t feel like it, I gave myself permission to take a break and pick it up later when I was feeling better. I’ve learned how to listen to myself better and stop feeling guilty about “not getting as much done” as I should have. I’ve learned to embrace the positive effects of procrastination and ironically, have become more productive the more I let myself push things off. Instead of forcing ourselves to push through when we don’t feel our best, I’m all for taking a moment and walking away, trusting that inspiration and energy will strike if I give myself space.
If you’re interested in trying this out, feel free to use the worksheet and log I created to start off. The next New Moon is on December 25, 2019. Merry Christmas!
