Productivity Hacks for The Female Brain | Alisa Vitti & Jim Kwik

Welcome back, Kwik Brain, and the topic we're gonna talk about today, productivity hacks for the female brain. And this is gonna be a really hot episode because I know because the one we did before this was very stimulating. And so I'm really excited to have back on the show women's hormone expert, integrative nutritionist, and bestselling author of WomanCode, Hey, Jim.

Great to be back. Thanks for having me back a second time.

No, this is good. We were talking last time. We did a women's-only episode.

So exciting. Yes.

And we talked— you revealed a new— not a new, but a new to most audiences— a new cycle. A new term.

The infradian rhythm, right? And its important effects on women's brain and women's health in general and why we need to take it As seriously, if not more seriously, than the circadian rhythm for women in their reproductive years.

And this is the 28-day cycle?

We know that in our 28-day cycle, yes. Women experience that in our 28-day cycle.

Okay. So if you haven't watched that episode or listened to that episode, make sure you do that, because that'll give you a really good foundation for what we're about to go through in this one. So how do we take that and hack productivity? Knowing how the female brain is working within that cycle.

Yeah, so quick recap. The last video that we talked about, last episode, we were really exposing the fact that the female brain changes up to 25% over the course of the month in this very predictable way that you can plan for, right? I think oftentimes, I know for me, being a student of so many different other wonderful teachers, we often hear about how to architect that peak flow state where you're just you're doing your genius work, you're getting a lot done, you're— all the things are— the stars are aligning. And oftentimes that feels like it's hit or miss, right? And especially for women, it feels especially more hit or miss because they're not aware. We haven't been taught about how our infradian rhythm, our 28-day cycle, affects our cognitive, emotional, let's say, interests. And so when we aren't aware of that and we're not planning for it, we're kind of like always swimming upstream when we don't have to be working that hard. And I think that's important because I don't know about you, but from where I sit, having taken care of women for over 20 years in my practice at Flo Living as a hormone expert, I really see how many women are struggling with the effects of just not feeling their best, right? Over half of women these days are now struggling with a hormonal issue. Women are sick, stressed, and overwhelmed even though there's like more and more wellness information available to us. It's somehow not working for us, and there's a real reason for that. It's because the things that are being suggested that we try— different diets, different workouts— that's not actually being based on our biochemistry, right? In fact, a lot of that research is being done exclusively on men and postmenopausal women, and it's ignoring the infradian clock, and that's really becoming neuroendocrine disruptive for women. And so we're just not as able to architect a peak flow state if we're ignoring this infradian rhythm. So that's a key component. But then knowing what these, these phase changes are and knowing how your brain changes over the course of the cycle, you can actually do more with less stress. And I think that's really an exciting opportunity.

Well, I think everybody wants to be able to experience that. So how do you align the two? How do you reconcile these phases with our productivity?

With what we wanna do. I mean, first and foremost, let's just say for sure that burnout is a real thing and that women, because we're working more, we're getting paid less, we are dealing with a lot of invisible work, women have a lot on their plates and we feel like we wanna try to squeeze as much as we can into the 24-hour day. But we have this 28-day set of time to work with. And so if you can think about project mapping, not in a day, not trying to get to cram your to-do list in a 24-hour period of time, but to really expand into these 4 phases, and I'll share with you how you might do that, you can get so much more done. Because none of us can actually make more time, but we can optimize our brain performance and maintain our energy. That way we can consistently get to the things that we want to do, right? Instead of what women are often doing, which is feeling like they're behind the 8-ball with their energy and feeling like brain fog from not caring for their infradian rhythm. So we want to set ourselves up for success. What does that look like across the 4 phases? So you have— to recap, you have the follicular phase, the ovulatory phase, the luteal phase, and the menstrual phase. And in these 4 phases, your hormones are changing in concentration. You have more estrogen during the ovulation phase. You have a huge surge in estrogen at that time. Then during the luteal phase, you have a surge and a decrease in that hormone. And then all your other hormones are changing as well. And I go into in-depth in the new book, In the Flow, about exactly what's happening. But what you need to know is that, for example, in the follicular phase, this is the time, for example, for you to brainstorm, plan out your projects, start new things, ideate, begin projects. The ovulatory phase, because social and verbal centers are being stimulated, this is the time for you to collaborate, to get together with your team and start mapping things out, to get to do a presentation, etc.

Interesting.

If you are in your luteal phase, this is the time for you to do your deep work, to schedule lots of chunks of time where you're actually getting things done and bringing things to completion. The hormonal levels really have you interested in task and/or detail-oriented work. And then in the menstrual phase, this is when the right and left hemispheres communicate maximally across the corpus callosum, so you're really great at evaluating. So if you have to do, I don't know, a budget analysis or review, you know, somebody on your team or look at any sort of data from your marketing team, that would be a great time to do it. And that's just for work, you know, if you're in a corporate environment or you're an entrepreneur. But you can apply this same kind of project orientation, which has these 4 kind of patterns, phase patterns, one being initiating, the second one being opening up, collaborating, the third one being completion, and the fourth one being evaluating. You can apply that to Any project, anything you want to work on, whether that be a career-oriented thing, a motherhood-oriented thing, or a relationship-oriented thing.

What would you say to someone who's listening to this and she says, well, maybe the world doesn't always work perfectly to fit into my responsibilities for that phase. They don't correspond. What do you do?

I want to say that, first of all, you don't have to change the world. You just have to change your self-awareness. Let's keep in mind that men are a great example of how this actually works because You guys have been doing this for millennia, right? Your circadian rhythm and your hormonal rhythm really sync up. Your hormonal pattern exists within a 24-hour cycle. You guys organize your workflow around your optimal hormonal pattern.

Mm-hmm.

You have your surge of testosterone and cortisol in the morning. That's when you're doing things like banging out really important work or getting in an intense workout or connecting physically with your partner because that's optimal for your hormonal pattern. You just do it without worrying about, is this ideal for somebody else, right? Of course, if you have to do something at a different time of day, as long as you have been, let's say, 80% of the time, day over day, week over week, month over month, catering to your hormonal and biological reality and supporting it with exercise and diet and an overall life plan that supports that rhythm, you can handle the sort of like external demands on your schedule that don't sync up with— let's say you want to do a workout at night because you're traveling.

Right.

You can do that and it's not going to tank your energy.

Because I have reserves.

You have energy reserves because you're caring for your hormonal pattern on a continuous basis. We as women are not caring for our hormonal pattern at all and we're continuously draining our energy. So in order for you to really get in front of the 8-ball as opposed to always feeling like you're behind it with energy is to start really taking serious care of your own hormonal pattern just like the guys do, but do it for your biology and your biological reality which has you existing in this infradian rhythmic way. You have to change what you're eating each week. You have to change which workouts you do, and then you can change, again, what you're focusing on creatively or productive-wise, productivity-wise, so that you can optimize whatever you're doing in your life.

That's amazing. You mapped out this whole process in The Flow.

That's right. I mean, I've taken all the guesswork out of it, so there are charts. There's the food flowchart, which foods do you eat when, the fitness flowchart, which workouts do you do when. The Daily Flow Planner. There's a whole new time management system just for women to take into consideration their infradian rhythm as they're planning their day-to-day tasks. There's workflow, so you know which projects to do at which time of the month. There's relationship love flow, so how do you optimize your romantic relationship according to these changes? Because 60% of women are sexually unsatisfied, it turns out, and it's often because they don't know how these hormonal changes are affecting their sexual response and their sex drive. And As a new mom myself, I've been really delighted to see that I've actually been able to leverage my infradian rhythm as a mother and really make motherhood much more sustainable and one where I feel like not completely overwhelmed all the time. So it's been amazing to really not only apply this to my own self-care and the hundreds of thousands of women who've been doing this with us for a couple of years, but to really start to apply it in the relationships with people that I care about at work, at home, and with my husband.

Well, I appreciate you taking this and bringing this to our audience also, this, this information that's not generally available. And how do people get the book?

You can go to intheflowbook.com and get all the fun bonuses and things we have there for you this week.

Amazing. Congratulations on the new book. Thank you, Jim. Everybody, what I want you to do is take a screenshot of this episode Tag Alisa, tag myself in it also, and share your big aha. When you share something that you've learned, you get to learn it even deeper. Again, all of this information will be in our show notes at jimkwik.com/notes, and you'll also get the link to our book and social media and so much more. Thanks for being on.

Thanks, Jim.

Hi, Kwik Brain. It's your brain coach. I want to thank you so much for watching this video. 3 things to do. Number 1, make sure you share this because when you teach something, you get to learn it twice. Update your learning so you can update other people's learning as well. Number 2, make sure you subscribe to this channel so you don't miss a thing because if you miss a video, you miss a lot. And finally, make sure you hit that bell so you're notified and you find out when we put out the latest and the greatest. One extra thing, if you want really close attention, then text me. Here is my phone number.

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