Some time ago, I stumbled upon an interesting comment by a professional creative. They said that they work best when they follow the “moon cycle”. They themselves seemed surprised by this. But they claimed their mind followed moon cycles, like clockwork, for years now, and they had finally just accepted this as some biological truth.
When I read that, I thought: “Huh. It actually matches my own experience quite well.”
So, for a few months, I (informally) tracked what I was doing. I checked when I felt most inspired and productive. I checked when I happened to work the most, and when I worked the least. I tried to listen to my body and do this by intuition, instead of pushing myself or keeping strict schedules.
And, as you might have guessed, it basically confirmed that person’s comment.
What exactly is the idea? It’s not some vague occult theory or anything, don’t worry. The moon is just a useful way to explain/remember it, but it actually has nothing to do with it.
- The moon cycle takes ~1 month.
- You can split it into two parts: new moon (“invisible”) -> full moon, and then full moon -> new moon again.
- Each part, as expected takes ~2 weeks.
- Here’s the theory: our body was made to work hard for the first half of the moon cycle, and then to rest during the other half.
In other words, our body/mind has enough energy and creativity for about 2 weeks of work at a good pace. Once those 2 weeks are over, we need about 2 weeks to recover.
If you can do this, you get a healthy cycle of work and relaxation. One that’s sustainable and prevents you from pushing yourself too hard. If you don’t do this, you’ll either work too much and run yourself dry, or you’ll end up too lazy during a period when you could have actually achieved something.
Ever since reading that theory, my own life has just confirmed it over and over. That’s why I wrote this article about it!
For example, take the past month. The first two weeks, I really struggled to get much done. I would only write a single chapter per day, instead of multiple. I played more video games and got distracted by YouTube much more than usual. I still worked, and I still got good work done, but it was slow going. After one or two hours, it already felt like “pushing it too much”. I needed to add too much pressure to an exhausted mind to come up with new creative ideas.
Once those two weeks were over, though, the speed picked up again. I did not change any habits or mind-set. I would like to say creativity returned “as if by magic”, but that’s not it. It’s really just something that happens gradually over the course of a few days. You wake up with a head filled with ideas again. You wake up and feel energy to do more again. As such, the past two weeks have been incredibly productive. I wrote multiple (short) books for the online store. I specified some very strong ideas for board games and puzzles. I completely overhauled my quizzing system to make it as professional and good as I always wanted it to be.
You could say that, in the span of those 2 weeks, I got 4 weeks worth of work done. The “slow weeks” are compensated by the “fast weeks”.
Reading my old updates/diaries, I could see this pattern clearly. Every month seemed to have 2 weeks of “it’s all going a bit slow, and I can’t figure out solutions to these problems, and I’m out of ideas for puzzles in this escape room, ugh”. But once you get through that period, you get 2 weeks of “great ideas, lots of productivity, finishing stuff left and right, much more energy (both physically and mentally)”. All together, this leads to a pretty balanced average. One with good productivity and output, sure, but also enough moments of rest and relaxation.
And so, with this knowledge, I try to consciously recognize this. I try to recognize when I’m in my 2 “slow weeks” and give myself some grace. I try not to push too hard and accept that a few hours of work is enough too. I remind myself that creative solutions and great ideas will come in a few weeks time. On the other hand, when I’m in my 2 “fast weeks”, I try not to waste it. This already happened quite naturally, but now I’m conscious of it.
For years now, I’ve recorded ideas for songs/music on my phone. It’s just easy to quickly whip out your phone and hum something or play something on the piano. As expected, my phone saves the date of the recording in the file. And at the end of each month, I try to copy those files to my laptop (for backup and organization). Usually, I have about ~15 recordings to copy. And usually, they were all made in a span of 2 weeks, or even a few days.
Somehow, this 2 week -> 2 week cycle just seems natural. I don’t get any new musical ideas for two weeks. And then suddenly, I wake up with three ideas that I think are good enough to play on the piano and record. Suddenly, the energy and inspiration returns, as if recharged, and it all comes at once. And because all those new ideas come all at once, you get your “fast weeks” in which the flood gates have opened.
I also hope this knowledge helps some people out there. Helps them realize that a “healthy” balance in life is supposed to be a cycle. You’re supposed to have days where you’re just a little more productive than usual/planned, offset by days where things are hard and your mind is just not generating any ideas. And, in my experience, this cycle follows the moon cycle pretty closely. Two weeks of work, two weeks of rest.
Or, rather, two “fast weeks” and two “slow weeks”. You’ll still be doing things in your slow weeks, of course you are. You’ll just be doing less, with less pressure, less creativity, and less expectation. In my slow weeks, I tend to catch up on boring administrative things or simply let my mind rest and focus more on physical exercise. In my fast weeks, well, that’s when 80% of the work gets done. In hindsight, that’s when 80% of the work you’ll find on my online store was made and finished ;)
Those were my thoughts for today,
Tiamo