What if the moon could help you understand your energy, creativity, and focus, even after menopause?

For years, I planned my business, launches, writing, and even vacations around my menstrual cycle and the moon. Then perimenopause hit, my rhythms became unpredictable, and I let that way of planning go.

Now, on the other side of menopause, I'm reconnecting with the moon in a completely new way. And I'm using AI to make it easier!

In this episode of the Plan Simple Podcast, I'm sharing my personal journey with cycle-based planning, what changed during perimenopause, and why I've become so curious about finding my natural rhythms again.

We'll explore:

• How I used to plan my business and life around my cycle and the moon
• Why the moon can still be a useful planning framework after menopause
• How to track your energy, creativity, mood, and focus in just two minutes a day
• My 90-day moon experiment and how I'm using AI to look for patterns
• How understanding your personal rhythms can help you create plans that feel more natural and freeing

You don't need to know anything about astrology or moon phases to try this. You just need a little curiosity and a willingness to pay attention to yourself.

Resources mentioned:

Download my free Moon Journal to get started tracking your energy and exploring the moon's phases.

And if you're ready to make plans that work with your life, join me for Plan Next Month, where we create a simple, inspiring plan for the month ahead.

Because planning should support the way you actually live, feel, and work.

“How can we reframe social media or other platform building as part of our writing process?”

–Mara Eller

Are you writing a book? Or dreaming of writing one? Where does social media and Substack fit into that dream? We’re diving into all three of those — writing books, building a social media platform, and growth on Substack — with writer, editor, and book coach Mara Eller.

Mara almost gave up on Instagram, because not much was happening for her and she wondered if it was worth the time. Sound familiar? We talk about what changed, and how she went viral, and what that did for her followers.

Whether you use social media and Substack to grow your audience for your book or your business, you’ll find something in this conversation.

We talk about:

• Why you need to build a platform and a simple mindset shift that can help you show up
• Focusing on one platform and pushing your content to other platforms
• The Yap Challenge and doing a series
• Showing up daily in Notes on Substack and what else you can do there
• Tips and tools to actually sit down and get the writing done
• The importance of a writing community and how a book coach can help you

ABOUT MARA

Mara Eller is a writer, editor, and book coach with 17 years of experience. She’s passionate about helping people transform pain into purpose and claim authorship over their lives. Her podcast, The Soul and Science of Great Writing, explores the intersection of craft and creativity with equal parts awe and analysis. In addition to 1-1 editing and book coaching, she also offers a 5-month memoir writing program called Unearthing Beauty, which guides students through a repeatable process for identifying, outlining, and expressing their life-changing stories. Students walk away with the core of their memoir written and refined as well as a chapter-by-chapter roadmap and the tools they need to finish the entire and share it with the world.

LINKS

• Free exercise: maraeller.com/heartofyourstory.
• Website: maraeller.com
• Substack: @maraeller
• Instagram: @mara.eller
• TikTok: @maraellerwriter

DOABLE CHANGES

At the end of every episode, we share three doable changes, so you can take what you've heard and put it into action. Action is where change happens.

Even though we want big change, it’s really little things done over and over that make the difference. So pick a doable thing. Put it in your calendar. Weave it through your days for a week and then move on to the next one. It will have a snowball effect.

Here are three Doable Changes from this conversation:

• CREATE A SERIES FOR SOCIAL. Pick a topic and talk about different parts of it every day for a week. Let people know it’s part of a series and they should tune to get the rest.
• SHOW UP IN NOTES. If you’re on Substack and want to start gaining traction, show up every day for a month in Notes. You can keep it simple. Share an idea, share a quote from a post, ask a question … Miss a day? Show up the next day.
• TOUCH YOUR CREATIVE PRACTICE DAILY. You don’t have to churn out 50 pages every day or hit a specific word count. But try to touch your practice. Read what you wrote last and jot down notes about what’s next. Voice message an idea that comes while you’re driving. Make a list of scenes you have to write. And yes some days sit and write. But you don’t have to spend hours daily to be a writer or get your book done.

“The monthly plan is the place where you bring together where you are now with where you're going.” – Mia

Last year, one of my FLOW365 clients told me she had put her monthly plan in a gold frame on her desk. I loved the idea so much that I immediately went out and bought my own.

Now, every day when I sit down at my computer, I can look up and see what matters most to me. My big dreams are right there, alongside the things I've decided deserve my attention this month. On the days when I'm excited and full of energy, it keeps me focused. On the days when life feels complicated or I'm questioning what I'm doing, it reminds me why I'm doing it.

I've come to believe that monthly planning might be the most powerful planning practice we can have. It's the place where our big dreams meet our actual lives, where we can honor what this season is asking of us, and where we decide what deserves our energy next.

In this episode, I'm sharing my one-page monthly planning process, including the four steps I use to look back, learn from what's happened, reconnect with my bigger vision, and decide what matters most for the next four weeks.

I'm also talking about why I've been experimenting with planning around the new moon, what menopause has taught me about finding new rhythms, and why a monthly plan can be especially powerful when life looks nothing like we expected.

And we're talking about guided planning and why I think planning together can be as different from planning alone as going to a yoga class is from rolling out your mat in your living room.

You'll walk away with a simple process you can use right away, whether you're growing a business, navigating a big life transition, focusing on your health, or feeling called toward something new.

Want to see the process written down? I created a companion Substack post with all four steps, my favorite reflection questions, and a simple guide to creating your own one-page monthly plan. Read the Monthly Planning Guide on Substack

I've created Plan Next Month, a full year of guided monthly planning, because I want more women to experience what happens when we make time to plan consistently.

Here's how it works:

• 12 guided monthly planning sessions. Once a month, we'll gather on Zoom for one hour. I'll guide you through the planning process step by step, with time built in to actually make your plan.
• One page that holds what matters most. You'll create a simple plan that brings together your wellness, home and family, inner life, and work, while keeping your bigger dreams in view.
• A monthly planning template. You'll have a page to work with each month and a repeatable process you can make your own.
• Live or on your own time. Join me live or use the recording to plan whenever it works for you. The recordings include the guided exercises and planning time.
• A full year of practice. Each month you'll reflect, make decisions, and create a plan that responds to your actual life. Over time, you'll build the habit of following through on what matters.

And when you join now, you'll also get Make December Matter, my special year-end planning workshop, included. (It’s usually $97.)

Right now, you can join for $88 for the entire year, before the price increases. That's 12 months of planning together for less than the cost of many single workshops.

This is guided planning rather than coaching. You'll leave each session with your own completed monthly plan, and the structure to keep coming back to what matters.

Ready to plan the next 12 months with me?

Sign Up Here