There is a key factor that is missed, when people talk about productivity. Usually, the focus surrounding how to be more productive leads in the direction of systems and structures that you need to put in place in order to get more done and achieve greater success. However, the reality, is, that such approaches are based in masculine energy and can quickly lead to burn out. I am going to break down how you can harness productivity through masculine and feminine energy in order to create balance and ease. 

What are masculine & feminine energies and how do they relate to work? 

Let’s just get one thing clear; you are made up of energy. 

Energy guides you in HOW you show up in life. Your energy can be excited, calm, collected, anxious - and the way you feel when you show up to things in life will determine your experience.

Have you ever been super anxious while travelling or been travelling with someone who is super anxious and is very strict about time? That is going to be a very different experience of travelling than totally trusting that you’re going to make your flight and feeling relaxed and calm, right? 

You exude and experience energy at every moment of every day. 

One way to talk about energy is on a scale of high and low vibration; high includes energies of excitement, passion, motivation, love and gratitude, whereas low vibrations would be more negative energies, such as hate, irritation, overwhelm, and so on. 

Another way we can talk about energy, in order to identify how to best USE your energy for creating balance, is on a masculine to feminine scale.

Here’s the thing: every single one of us has a mix of masculine and feminine energies within us. This has nothing to do with gender, sex, or orientation. It has to do with our energy and HOW we show up to life. I will break down more specifically how this funnels into masculine versus feminine energy. Even though every single person has a mix of both masculine and feminine energy, the ratio is different for each individual. You might have a 40/60 ratio of feminine/masculine energy whereas your partner or best friend may have a 20/80 ratio.

Now that you understand that you’re constantly vibrating in a particular energy and that you have a masculine/feminine combination in HOW you show up to work, let’s get into the specifics of how to harness these energies for balance and productivity. 

We live in a masculine heavy work society 

Because you vibrate out energy every second of every day, that includes when you are working.

Just take a moment and think about how society has framed success? What do you need to do to be successful? What personality traits are valued the most in work environments? 

Most of us have never taken the time to really consider why we work the way we work and if the societal standard of success is really in alignment with our own individual versions of success.

The dominant societal narrative teaches you to work more heavily in your masculine energies, because the value is placed on status, accomplishments, clear cut goals and plans, consistency, and momentum. This in turn creates mentalities such as needing to hustle and grind it out to show that you are committed, the belief that longer hours means greater output, and that your value is based on your productivity. 

This is how society has taught you to work. Now, even though you might not follow these rules, you are still influenced by them on a subconscious level. You might not like structure, however you feel like you need it to be successful. You might love structure but when you don't follow it to a T, you feel lazy or like you've failed. These are just some of the ways the masculine work narratives play out, and create a lack of balance and a society of burnt out overworkers. 

Does the feminine have a place in work? 

One of the reasons why there is a heavy emphasis on masculine energetic ways of working, is because the feminine has been largely excluded from the public sphere and area of work. 

If you've ever worked in a corporate environment specifically (although these narratives play out in most work environments in different ways), think about what qualities and personality traits were accepted and which ones were rejected? Did you ever have to change anything about yourself so that you would better fit into that society? Perhaps you felt you needed to be tougher to "fit in with the men". There is an immense amount of pressure in the working world for high level performance, for both men and women. However, the type of performance that is expected and the way you are meant to work is guided by the masculine.

So how do we begin to balance out these energies? The more we promote the masculine heavy energies, the more we as a culture (and as individuals) will move towards burnout, overworking, and overachieving in ways that are not healthy for our mental, emotional, or physical well-being. 

The Masculine & Feminine Energy Scale

Identify if you are in your masculine energy in work: 

You love structure. You have a clear structure and you stick to it no matter what (even when you are exhausted or overworked). Consistency and momentum are the most important to you; you show up every day no matter how you feel.  You are goal orientated and focused on achieving your outcome, aka getting to the destination. You have a work hard mentality and nothing is going to get in your way. 

However, because you are so structure orientated and goal focused, you often disregard how you are feeling in order to get things done which quickly leads to overwhelm, overworking and burnout. 

Identify if you are in your feminine energy in work: 

You tend to shy away from structure and work more from a place of inspiration and flow. Instead of honing in on the strict structure, you are motivated by the big picture vision and creativity. You let your body guide you and you are more likely to rest if you are tired or take a break if the inspiration isn’t striking. You are first and foremost focused on being in the process and enjoying the journey. 

However, because there is a lack of structure, you may end up being “too flowly” and stay stuck in a wishy washy place where you are not taking clear and needle moving action in any specific direction. 

Which of those two sounds more familiar to you? As you now know, we tend to have a combination of the two, so a little bit of each in different situations might be true for you too. 

How to Use Masculine & Feminine Energies to Create Balance & Harness Productivity

Here is the catch: even though society has taught you to work more heavily in your masculine, masculine energy is still incredible important to success… but only when you can incorporate it in a customized balanced way. 

The key to doing this, is to first identify what your ratio is between masculine and feminine energy, and then to move towards what balance looks like for you. You can take the quiz here.

As I mentioned, most of us tend to be heavier in our masculine energy so creating balance means bringing in more feminine energy. However, because masculine energy has been pushed by society, you may have come to fully reject masculine energy. In this case, you will be heavier in your feminine energy in how you are working and will need to bring in more of that masculine energy to even out the scale and create balance.  

Harnessing productivity starts with identifying where you fall on the scale and then taking action to find your center point of balance. In order to create time-freedom in your life, you need to be creating ways to work smarter not harder and get the right things done in less time. 

It’s amazing how much time you have when you are able to easily tap into productivity when you need it, and when you realise how much you do that doesn’t actually need to be done… like at all. Balancing out the masculine and feminine energies for yourself will in turn allow you to be more productive and also begin to reclaim your time, energy, and results, because you are no longer doing things simply to fit the masculine working standard. 

Let me know in the comments where you fall! And remember to take the quiz to dive deeper and create your new structure and way of working that balances your masculine and feminine energy to harness your productivity!