Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #164| Why Traditional Time Blocking Fails Women and Creates Overwhelm—And What To Do Instead

Transcript

#164| Why Traditional Time Blocking Fails Women and Creates Overwhelm—And What To Do Instead · Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing

0:00
Megan Sumrell: women are perpetually living in time debt right now, where, basically, you wake up, you write, you make the list, which I hate lists.
0:06
Megan Sumrell: Your goal for the whole day is to check everything off the list, but every time you check off one, three more get added right.
0:17
Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
0:24
Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former overwhelmed working woman and current life coach.
0:29
Michelle Gauthier: On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's working woman experiences and in each episode you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease and relaxation to your life.
0:40
Michelle Gauthier: Hi, friend, today I'm talking with someone who feels like a total kindred spirit.
0:47
Michelle Gauthier: Her name is Megan Sumrall and she is a former corporate process improvement expert Same thing I used to do, fun fact and she turned into a time management coach who's helped over 10,000 women create more calm and order and breathing room in their lives.
1:04
Michelle Gauthier: What makes Megan's approach different, and why I really wanted to have her on to share her approach with you guys, is that she's created a feminine time management system that works with your life, not against it.
1:16
Michelle Gauthier: She is not focused on rigid routines or perfect calendars.
1:20
Michelle Gauthier: She's all about how to realistically plan your week.
1:23
Michelle Gauthier: No-transcript.
1:52
Michelle Gauthier: If you're sick of chasing an impossible schedule and feeling defeated at the end of every week when you can't do everything that you had on it, this episode will give you hope in some clear direction.
2:02
Michelle Gauthier: I have to say when I was recording this episode, I had a cold and my microphone also sounds terrible, so I apologize in advance for the poor sound quality.
2:13
Michelle Gauthier: From here on out, thanks for listening today, and I hope you enjoy Megan as much as I did.
2:19
Michelle Gauther: Hey Megan, welcome to the podcast, I'm so glad you're here today.
2:23
Michelle Gauther: I feel like this is just a coming together.
2:26
Michelle Gauther: That was meant to be, because we both talk about overwhelm and time management and so many similar things and you know people might say, why do you want to interview someone who's so similar to you?
2:35
Michelle Gauther: But I love finding out just the differences and like some great way that you might think about something versus how I think, about something that we can share with the audience, and so one of those things that I have followed and admire about what you're doing is the way that you talk about time management.
2:53
Michelle Gauther: So before we jump into that but I can't wait for you to share with everybody the way that you look at time management Will you just tell us a little bit about how you got here?
3:00
Michelle Gauther: Like, why did you become a time management guru?
3:03
Megan Sumrell: Well, in third grade, when my teacher said what do you want to be when you grow up this was not it my answer was not you know time management.
3:11
Michelle Gauther: Not Online on Zoom on video.
3:14
Megan Sumrell: Right.
3:15
Megan Sumrell: So, like you, I actually have a corporate background.
3:17
Megan Sumrell: For over 20 years I was a math major landed in the corporate IT software space kind of sheer luck out of college and so I spent over 20 years in and out of numerous software organizations across a lot of different domains, ranging from e-commerce to healthcare to aviation, telecommunications.
3:37
Megan Sumrell: All of that and my career really landed me in the quality assurance space and over the course of that I ended up getting a number of certifications and trainings all around process improvement, optimizations, streamlining If anyone listening is in that space, if you've heard of Lean, six Sigma, agile, all of that I have all of those certifications project management, certified scrum trainer, all of that.
4:03
Michelle Gauther: I have to pause! Oh my gosh gosh.
4:04
Michelle Gauther: I was a six sigma black belt.
4:06
Michelle Gauther: No one ever knows what that is.
4:08
Michelle Gauther: Oh my gosh, Megan.
4:09
Megan Sumrell: Okay, we were meant yeah, see, we were, we were meant to we are kindred spirits.
4:14
Megan Sumrell: Kids are like, is that karate?
4:15
Michelle Gauther: no, it's all about process improvement and how to make things the most efficient, which, as a gift for us, also helps you.
4:23
Michelle Gauther: Help people do that, okay, I'm sorry to interrupt, I just got really excited that someone said Six Sigma on the podcast.
4:29
Michelle Gauther: Go on.
4:30
Megan Sumrell: And there's a reason I bring that up because it ties into what I do now and how I created what I created.
4:34
Megan Sumrell: So towards the end of my career not knowing it was going to be the end of corporate, really, the role that I was serving at that time is I would go into large software organizations and essentially recreate all their systems from the ground up to build their software better, faster, cheaper, higher quality.
4:49
Megan Sumrell: So I got married later in life.
4:52
Megan Sumrell: We started a family later in life, after struggling with fertility and all of that, and so I kind of entered motherhood on the later end and was, you know, just going through the paces as working moms do work, kids, work, kids really hard.
5:09
Megan Sumrell: And I had one day where I thought, you know, I'd done everything right.
5:14
Megan Sumrell: My daughter was about two and it was a Friday I can still remember it so clearly and I'd gotten up early so I could finish work early.
5:19
Megan Sumrell: I had the snack bag the night before, like all the things.
5:21
Megan Sumrell: We could just go have an afternoon at the park and I was pushing around the swings and I live in the South, so everybody's chatty down here and the woman next to me in conversation innocently just asked me what do you do for fun?
5:34
Megan Sumrell: I was like huh, I didn't have an answer and I didn't even know I didn't have an answer, like I didn't realize my life had transitioned so much that I couldn't answer, "What do you do for fun anymore?
5:49
Michelle Gauther: And it's not that I wasn't in moments where you're like oh crap, and it's not.
5:54
Megan Sumrell: I mean, it's not like I mean I was having fun at the park, right, that's not the same as what do I do for me, for joy in my life.
6:00
Megan Sumrell: And so I went home, kind of had a midlife crisis that night after getting my daughter to bed and I sat in that space for a while and I was like what happened?
6:10
Megan Sumrell: How did Megan get from there to here, where now I don't like my entire, I don't even know who I am.
6:17
Megan Sumrell: Some days I don't even know how to dress as corporate mom, like it.
6:21
Megan Sumrell: Just I don't know.
6:22
Megan Sumrell: I felt like I completely lost my identity.
6:23
Megan Sumrell: And then, thankfully, it kind of hit me that hey, megan, you do this for a living.
6:28
Megan Sumrell: You go into chaotic spaces and create new structure and processes to align with their values.
6:36
Megan Sumrell: So I was like why don't you take yourself on and apply everything that you do in your corporate life to your calendar, to your time?
6:44
Megan Sumrell: Because the fact was, when I dug into it, I realized what was missing was me.
6:50
Megan Sumrell: Everything was getting done.
6:54
Megan Sumrell: From the outside, looking in, it looked like the perfect life, right, I had the job, the house, the kid, the dogs, all that.
7:00
Megan Sumrell: I was really unhappy and unfulfilled, and the fact is, my calendar was completely full of everybody and everything, and I was nowhere to be found on it.
7:12
Megan Sumrell: So I said about I threw away the planner I'd been using for over 20 years.
7:16
Megan Sumrell: I was a Franklin Covey like diehard went to all their courses, you know the whole shebang and I was like let's start from the ground up and figure out how do I juggle all the things I'm juggling without losing myself in the process and without being perpetually overwhelmed.
7:33
Megan Sumrell: So I essentially created a new way of controlling the chaos, if you will, and developed this weekly and monthly planning system.
7:41
Megan Sumrell: And I was doing a keynote at a women in tech conference and was at one of like the tables and the women we were all chatting and they're like how do you?
7:51
Megan Sumrell: It's like, how do you manage all of this?
7:53
Megan Sumrell: And so I started sharing some of my calendar and how I do stuff.
7:56
Megan Sumrell: Well, I get an email from a group that was there saying can we hire you to teach us how you plan your time?
8:04
Michelle Gauther: Oh interesting.
8:05
Megan Sumrell: I was like huh, that's interesting.
8:06
Megan Sumrell: So I had to sit with that for a little bit and I was like, is this something I could turn into a repeatable framework, like, is this something I could teach people on?
8:13
Megan Sumrell: So I reached back out and I said, hey, you know I've never shown this to anybody, but I'd be willing to do that if you just give me honest feedback, like I'm happy to mentor you on this.
8:24
Megan Sumrell: So I guided these five women through what I was doing, transformed their lives.
8:29
Megan Sumrell: I found my missing passion and joy and I was like this is it I?
8:34
Megan Sumrell: When I saw their life transform and experience that process of, like, turning this into a repeatable system, that is what planted that seed in me of this is how I want to spend my life.
8:47
Megan Sumrell: So, you know, had to think about it for a while and I'm happy to say that at the time we're recording this, we are now this is my five-year anniversary fully just into this business.
8:57
Megan Sumrell: We've now served in over.
9:00
Megan Sumrell: We've served over 10,000 women in over 15 countries teaching this time management system that is specifically for women, because we need something different than our male counterparts.
9:14
Michelle Gauther: That is amazing 10,000 women's lives improved by learning how to manage their time better.
9:20
Michelle Gauther: That's awesome.
9:21
Michelle Gauther: Yeah, what kind of results?
9:22
Michelle Gauther: What would be just like typical results for people who do this program?
9:27
Michelle Gauther: And then I want to ask you some questions about how it actually works.
9:31
Megan Sumrell: Yeah, so I mean, the number one thing and I know this is what you hear from all the women you work with as well is they're no longer overwhelmed.
9:39
Megan Sumrell: They're like, their life feels spacious, feels like there's room to breathe and you're no longer feeling.
9:48
Megan Sumrell: I always feel like I was in that whack-a-mole game or like spinning the plates.
9:51
Megan Sumrell: They were always spinning, but I was always in that mild anxiety of one goes, it's all going to fall apart, right, like just hanging on.
10:01
Michelle Gauther: Yes, and so I can feel the stress in my chest when you remind me of that feeling.
10:08
Megan Sumrell: Yeah, yeah, and you know that it's I always use this phrase of women are perpetually living in time debt.
10:14
Megan Sumrell: Right now, where, basically, you wake up, you write, you make the list which - I hate lists.
10:18
Megan Sumrell: Your goal for the whole day is to check everything off the list, but every time you check off one, three more get added.
10:23
Megan Sumrell: Right?
10:23
Megan Sumrell: You go to bed, the list is not done, so you feel like a failure, when you never could have done the list in the first place.
10:29
Megan Sumrell: So maybe there's eight things left that didn't get done.
10:31
Megan Sumrell: Well, you wake up the next day already eight in debt, and now you go add 15 more to it and you're living in this perpetual cycle of time debt, day after day after day.
10:44
Megan Sumrell: And it wears on you mentally.
10:45
Megan Sumrell: It wears on you physically, wears on your soul.
10:49
Megan Sumrell: And so what we're doing, the way getting out of overwhelm looks for the women I work with is now they're no longer in time debt.
10:58
Megan Sumrell: Now they've got a savings account of time.
11:03
Michelle Gauther: Of time.
11:03
Michelle Gauther: Yes, yes, that's there for them, yeah because when you're in time debt, you somehow get like a meeting cancellation or some white space on your calendar.
11:11
Michelle Gauther: You're like I better grab that list and get back to it because you're always making up for lost time.
11:16
Michelle Gauther: So just to be where you're in charge of your time and you can sit through that white space and be like it's being very proactive instead of constant state of reactivity.
11:27
Michelle Gauther: Yes, well, the thing that first drew me to the way that you're talking about managing time is the idea that it is based on a feminine calendar.
11:36
Michelle Gauther: So will you just tell us what that means and like why you created it that way?
11:41
Megan Sumrell: Yeah, and so I very openly say this is a feminine time management system, and there's three key things that differentiate this from pretty much every productivity I'll put that in quotes system that I have researched, been introduced to or have tried, and all of those have been created by men.
12:00
Megan Sumrell: So, first and foremost is, you know, even when I look back at my Franklin Covey days, let's just talk about the technology.
12:09
Megan Sumrell: Technology has had a massive impact on our time, because when you think about you know, when I think about my life when I first started working so I'm in my 50s, so when I started working, there was no cell phones or no laptops, like we didn't even.
12:26
Megan Sumrell: I mean, the internet was kind of like ooh, exciting and new.
12:29
Megan Sumrell: So what this meant was when I was at work, I was only at work, right, and then when I went home, I was only at home, no one was reaching me.
12:38
Megan Sumrell: Well, now we walk around with computers in our pocket that are more powerful than the computer systems.
12:44
Megan Sumrell: I first worked on yes much, much more, and so it is this kind of Amazon Prime now of everything's instant right now, and so we have information.
12:53
Megan Sumrell: A study I read from like five years ago was showing that the volume of data that we're consuming from our mobile devices is equivalent of watching 18 movies a day.
13:05
Michelle Gauther: Really.
13:07
Megan Sumrell: Yeah, oh my gosh.
13:08
Michelle Gauther: Now that's sort of terrifying.
13:10
Megan Sumrell: So if you're going through a traditional masculine time management program where basically they're teaching you structured time blocking and create your perfect week, I'm sorry.
13:20
Megan Sumrell: Where in there does it say how we're staying on top of 18 movies a day in the form of the 12 portals from your kids' student activities and different schools and different teachers and different lessons, right?
13:32
Megan Sumrell: The onslaught of emails coming at you, the notifications from the portals that you need to stay on top of, and a lot of this tends to fall on traditional caregiver roles, right?
13:43
Megan Sumrell: So if my daughter's sick, the first phone call they're making is not to my spouse, they're calling me first.
13:51
Megan Sumrell: Right.
13:52
Megan Sumrell: So we need to acknowledge, like that we're in information overload and masculine systems are not addressing this.
14:00
Megan Sumrell: They're just giving very caveat things of like just turn off your notifications.
14:04
Megan Sumrell: Well, that's because they know someone else is going to get that phone call.
14:08
Megan Sumrell: Yes, yes, someone has to be there, so we need to acknowledge this and create a way for us to.
14:16
Megan Sumrell: How can we plan?
14:17
Megan Sumrell: I call this planning for uncertainty.
14:19
Megan Sumrell: How can we plan our time when we know we are the primary person absorbing the uncertainty?
14:25
Megan Sumrell: Right, so I have to create a plan that looks very different than my husband's yeah, yeah, uncertainty right.
14:30
Megan Sumrell: So I have to create a plan that looks very different than my husband's yeah, yeah.
14:38
Megan Sumrell: Now, the second thing here is just looking at the sheer data of the change of the number of women that are now working than 20, 30 years ago.
14:43
Megan Sumrell: Right, the number of women that are responsible for being the primary caregiver and working adds a whole caveat of responsibilities that traditional masculine planning systems are not talking about.
14:57
Megan Sumrell: Right, they're not addressing the fact that there's a reason why, at 2 am, you wake up and have those list-making sessions in your bed.
15:06
Megan Sumrell: Right, I've got the birthday party and what about this?
15:09
Megan Sumrell: And I noticed the last time they were together, this kid wasn't getting along with that.
15:13
Megan Sumrell: Or I'm noticing my dad's not driving as well.
15:15
Megan Sumrell: All of that is not being addressed in a masculine planning system.
15:20
Michelle Gauther: Yeah, there's no time block where you're considering the time blocks like 2 am.
15:24
Michelle Gauther: Yes, absolutely.
15:25
Megan Sumrell: Yeah.
15:26
Megan Sumrell: And then bottom line is biology, science.
15:28
Megan Sumrell: Men and women are different.
15:31
Megan Sumrell: Our brains are different and so there is a reason.
15:35
Megan Sumrell: A masculine planning system usually is always trying to teach this concept of creating the perfect week as your solution for hyper productivity.
15:44
Megan Sumrell: And a book, I mean.
15:45
Megan Sumrell: I absolutely love this book called Buy Back your Time by Dan Martell.
15:48
Megan Sumrell: I always tell like entrepreneurs they should totally read it, but don't read his chapter on weekly planning, because even he is teaching this concept of you create your perfect week, like every Tuesday, Thursday from 10 to 2 is when you do meetings Every Monday.
16:02
Megan Sumrell: Right, it's just rinse and repeat.
16:04
Megan Sumrell: Well, that's because their brains, the chemistry in their brains, is staying pretty consistent, day after day, week after week.
16:13
Megan Sumrell: You look at what's going on in a women's brain related to our hormones.
16:17
Megan Sumrell: That cocktail in our brain is changing daily.
16:21
Megan Sumrell: Yeah, daily, right.
16:23
Megan Sumrell: Which is why, when you think about it, there are weeks where you're like I got more done in those four days than anybody could do in four months.
16:33
Megan Sumrell: Right, Absolutely.
16:34
Megan Sumrell: Then you have the week where you're like I got nothing Right, no creativity, you're having a hard time making decisions, all of that Staying awake even.
16:44
Megan Sumrell: Staying awake.
16:45
Megan Sumrell: Yeah, awake, yeah.
16:50
Megan Sumrell: And so you take the day-to-day fluctuations and then you compound that with you know, starting in your 20s, versus to perimetopause, to post-metapause, that just escalates all of that.
16:58
Megan Sumrell: And so you have to have a system, a planning system that has an understanding and awareness that time blocking and structuring the perfect week can be an absolute recipe for disaster for women, because our biology is not designed in a perfect week.
17:17
Michelle Gauther: Yeah, yeah, which that makes so much sense.
17:20
Michelle Gauther: I love the thought of creating time management for the primary caregiver or even just the feminine.
17:28
Michelle Gauther: You know, even if you're not, if you don't have children, but you operate, you have a menstrual cycle and different hormones.
17:35
Michelle Gauther: You know that, yeah.
17:37
Megan Sumrell: And even if you're not a caregiver it's interesting it's called the limbic part of your brain, which is our emotional center.
17:42
Megan Sumrell: In a female brain it's significantly larger than a male brain.
17:47
Megan Sumrell: We handle emotion more, so, whether you're a mom or caring for aging parents, the fact is, we have a lot more going on in the emotional centers of our brain, which is why we oftentimes need a little space, either before or after, or for me on my book, ending anything on my calendar.
18:08
Megan Sumrell: That requires large emotion from me.
18:11
Michelle Gauther: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
18:12
Megan Sumrell: Whereas a lot of times men don't need that because that section of their brain is not.
18:18
Megan Sumrell: It's not as active and it's not as physically large as ours.
18:20
Megan Sumrell: So, understanding all of these nuances of how we're different.
18:26
Megan Sumrell: Well, that means we're going to need planning systems that support those differences.
18:31
Michelle Gauther: Yeah, yeah, that's such an interesting observation.
18:34
Michelle Gauther: I mean even the way that I used to care for people on my team at work, exactly you know just it was.
18:40
Michelle Gauther: They weren't my kids, but I cared about them.
18:42
Michelle Gauther: I knew all about their lives.
18:43
Michelle Gauther: I knew what they might be worried about.
18:45
Michelle Gauther: It's just human nature for women to think like that.
18:49
Michelle Gauther: Do you know Nate Bargatze, that comedian?
18:53
Megan Sumrell: He's our number one favorite.
18:59
Michelle Gauther: Yes, exactly.
19:00
Michelle Gauther: He says in his stand-up that his daughter missed the bus on the way home on the first day of kindergarten.
19:05
Michelle Gauther: And they called him and he's like why did you call?
19:08
Michelle Gauther: You know this is the dad's phone number, right?
19:10
Michelle Gauther: Like why did you call me?
19:11
Michelle Gauther: And then he said, call any mom.
19:13
Michelle Gauther: Any other mom in the class probably knows what bus number it is.
19:17
Megan Sumrell: And then he's like, the only time you call the dad first is if there's two dads.
19:21
Michelle Gauther: Yeah, Otherwise always call the mom.
19:23
Michelle Gauther: Always call the mom first and then they're like he said OK, so do I need to come and get her.
19:27
Michelle Gauther: Yes, come and get her.
19:28
Michelle Gauther: And he's like okay, what's the name of her school?
19:30
Megan Sumrell: I'm like, exactly.
19:32
Michelle Gauther: Oh my gosh, that's exactly it.
19:34
Michelle Gauther: So, yeah, there, there's no time block for that.
19:37
Michelle Gauther: So where do you?
19:38
Michelle Gauther: I know you can't just the whole program on this podcast, but like, where do you people start in planning the perfect week?
19:51
Megan Sumrell: Isn't the thing they should do?
19:52
Megan Sumrell: Just Just very high level.
19:53
Megan Sumrell: What do you teach them to do?
19:53
Megan Sumrell: Yeah, so I call this a bottom-up time management system instead of a top-down.
19:55
Megan Sumrell: And a lot of people that teach that kind of get excited about teaching productivity or you know, life skills or whatever.
20:02
Megan Sumrell: And I've been to conferences like this where you get, you know, you get in a room and they guide you through some process to help you figure out what your long-term goals are.
20:11
Megan Sumrell: Right, whether it's envisioning, there's so many ways you can do it.
20:14
Megan Sumrell: You know, maybe the five years, and then they teach you how to, like, break that goal down into actionable steps.
20:20
Megan Sumrell: Right, and you leave so motivated You're like, yes, I'm going to go home and finally start doing those things that I said I wanted to do, start doing those things that I said I wanted to do.
20:30
Megan Sumrell: And then you walk in your front door and the reality of your life smacks you upside the head because you've probably been living in time debt and you're drowning and you're like I can barely figure out how to get through tomorrow.
20:39
Megan Sumrell: How am I supposed to take this first step on this book?
20:42
Megan Sumrell: I've decided I'm going to write, or whatever it is you've left that round.
20:45
Megan Sumrell: Well, that's what I call top down, where we're starting from the big picture, and then the problem is they're failing you because they're not getting you to stop drowning first.
20:55
Megan Sumrell: So that's why I say I teach from the bottom up.
20:57
Megan Sumrell: So we start with mastering weekly planning, because when you learn how to master your weekly planning, this is what gets you out of time debt.
21:05
Megan Sumrell: You can't even begin to think about those great goals and dreams and projects till you get your day-to-day life out of chaos mode.
21:13
Megan Sumrell: So, at its heart and notice, I say weekly planning and not daily planning.
21:19
Megan Sumrell: Again, a lot of experts out there teach wake up, do your brain dump for the day, identify your top three.
21:28
Megan Sumrell: For some reason everyone says identify your top three.
21:31
Megan Sumrell: I've done some deep dive research on this.
21:33
Megan Sumrell: I have yet to find any scientific background into why everyone says find your top three.
21:37
Megan Sumrell: But someone said find your top three and then they tell you just focus on those and then when those are done, then you can focus on everything else.
21:45
Megan Sumrell: Well, now let's.
21:47
Megan Sumrell: There's a million things wrong with that.
21:50
Megan Sumrell: For women, Maybe it is a day where none of the top three are things that are happening that day, right.
21:57
Megan Sumrell: Maybe you've got a day that's full of dentist appointment, doctor appointment, 12 meetings, air conditioner repair guy coming right and I structure my time where sometimes I have days where it's like today's the day that all that little stuff's getting done, but then tomorrow's a day where I get this big block of time to go focus on something Right, and plus, maybe it's the day where there's more than three top priorities.
22:20
Michelle Gauther: Right.
22:20
Megan Sumrell: Sometimes that happens.
22:21
Megan Sumrell: So, at its heart, this weekly planning system is something and people can pick and choose when they choose to do it.
22:27
Megan Sumrell: I have women that work unusual schedules, like they're nurses, so maybe they're off Monday, Tuesday, so they do their weekly planning.
22:33
Megan Sumrell: You know, wednesday to Tuesday versus Monday to Sunday.
22:38
Megan Sumrell: You get all the flexibility you need there, everything that's competing for our time for the upcoming week, and then we're creating our roadmap on our either digital or paper calendar, showing us with specificity of when we're doing those and how long we're going to be spending on them.
23:02
Megan Sumrell: And this sounds very like well, of course, megan, like that's what calendars are for.
23:09
Megan Sumrell: But here's the subtle difference what most people do today is their calendar shows appointments, right, so like you and I having this call, or you've got your dental appointment or soccer practice or whatever, and what goes on their calendar is usually things that involve other people, right, you have accountability with someone else.
23:29
Megan Sumrell: Then, separately, is the list of everything that needs to get done, and so you're jumping around all day from a commitment with someone else to now you've got open space, and then you go to look at the list and go, okay, which thing should I do now?
23:43
Megan Sumrell: Right, and operating this way there's a whole other episode we could do on this creates severe decision fatigue.
23:50
Megan Sumrell: Every time you're looking at a list going what do I pick now is decision fatigue.
23:56
Megan Sumrell: And in decision fatigue, your response is going to be to make really bad choices.
24:00
Megan Sumrell: You're going to pick the low-hanging fruit, usually a thing that really doesn't matter, and you're never going to get to the big stuff.
24:07
Megan Sumrell: So through this, we start with a five-step weekly planning process and then we learn the 10-step.
24:11
Megan Sumrell: And before you think, megan, I'm overwhelmed, how could I do a 10-step weekly planning process?
24:16
Megan Sumrell: I do this in 15 minutes every week.
24:18
Megan Sumrell: All right, this is not something that takes hours to do.
24:20
Megan Sumrell: We actually convert all those things that would live on your traditional to-do list into appointments on your calendar appointments with you.
24:31
Megan Sumrell: But there are some nuances to this related to that uncertainty, right?
24:36
Megan Sumrell: Because what a lot of women will do is, if they're being okay, I'm going to start blocking my calendar for stuff.
24:42
Megan Sumrell: Well, now they're blocking it from sunup to sundown.
24:45
Megan Sumrell: So then if that emergency hits at 10 am now, it's a domino effect for the entire week, right?
24:53
Megan Sumrell: So part of this process is learning how to calculate what your uncertainty number is, based on your unique life as it is today.
25:02
Michelle Gauther: That's an interesting concept, yeah.
25:03
Megan Sumrell: So I know during my working hours I work between 23 to maybe 25 hours a week, basically when my daughter's at school I know that I need to make sure I have a good four hours every week protected on my calendar during work time for things that are going to come up that I don't know about, that I will need to handle for work.
25:24
Megan Sumrell: And I also know I'm going to need at least two hours every week for what I call household COO stuff, things that I don't know is going to happen the forms, the paperwork, the trip to the Michaels for the school project, the lawnmower breaks, the whatever, and so, because I know this, think of it like an emergency fund, right?
25:43
Megan Sumrell: So a lot of financial advisors like, hey, just put away $100 a month into an account so that when the water heater breaks, the money's there for you.
25:51
Michelle Gauther: Well, we're learning how to build an emergency fund into our week, every single week, so that when those things happen, you can absorb them without it derailing your entire week absorb them without it derailing your entire week, and so how we like just even thinking ahead that if something were to come up, that that would be fine, because I know their space feels so much better than like what am I getting this from there and this to there, and now this isn't going to get done, or now I'm going to have to work on Saturday when I didn't want to or stay up late or get up early, and you know people will tell everyone oh yeah, well, just make sure you have a little white space on your calendar.
26:29
Megan Sumrell: It's like, well, when and how much?
26:30
Megan Sumrell: And so we have to learn the right way to do that, because it's different for everybody.
26:35
Michelle Gauther: Yeah.
26:36
Megan Sumrell: So that's one of the first things that we all learn, and mine has changed.
26:39
Megan Sumrell: You know I used to be, even when I was using this planning system.
26:43
Megan Sumrell: When I was in corporate for a while I got stuck managing a support team.
26:47
Megan Sumrell: Did not love that, but I realized by calculating my uncertainty I'm like I have to block off 90 minutes every single day.
26:54
Megan Sumrell: I have to protect that on my calendar at work because I always have at least an hour and a half of unplanned customer support emergencies, and so by then my planning for uncertainty meant I had blocks every day protected.
27:08
Megan Sumrell: Now it just means I usually I kind of changes week to week but I don't need it every day.
27:14
Megan Sumrell: I just know I need four hours over the course of the week to be able to absorb those emergencies, because I'm not dealing with level one.
27:23
Megan Sumrell: you know client down, I'm not saving lives here, so it's stuff that can like you know?
27:27
Megan Sumrell: oh, I'll do that, Wait a minute tomorrow, and so even just learning that skill of how do I calculate, how do I understand what the uncertainty looks like in my life, and then how do I build a plan that acknowledges that, so that already just decreases the stress and anxiety of feeling like, right, I check one thing off and three more things comes on.
27:49
Megan Sumrell: Now we just get to change our path of how we're getting from point A to point B.
27:54
Megan Sumrell: But we have the space to do it.
27:57
Michelle Gauther: Yes, I love that, and I've heard you say on your podcast that you don't work past about 2 pm.
28:03
Michelle Gauthier: Two.
28:04
Michelle Gauther: So if you're running this business where you have helped 10,000 women, you're clearly really making the most of the time.
28:13
Michelle Gauther: So you've got this like four hours built in for one thing and two for another, and then you're doing your podcast and helping your clients and all these things.
28:21
Michelle Gauther: So I'm saying that just to say what a great example you are of someone who is in alignment with her family and a business that she loves and not overwhelmed.
28:31
Michelle Gauther: Just to say, everybody listening, it's possible, it's possible, it is.
28:36
Megan Sumrell: And you know I always share.
28:37
Megan Sumrell: We run the business using the exact same planning framework.
28:42
Megan Sumrell: I teach for women to use in their lives.
28:44
Megan Sumrell: So, we do the same weekly planning process.
28:47
Megan Sumrell: In the business, we do the same monthly planning process.
28:50
Megan Sumrell: I have three contractors who are all working moms, two of them homeschool and the other two that are homeschooling, have two children that they're each homeschooling.
29:00
Megan Sumrell: But we are all that's part of working here at the Pink Bee you've got to be using the top framework, and so we build and plan the business the same way that we teach people to build and plan their lives, which gives us the freedom to at any point, someone on the team could wake up and say I've got a family emergency and the business is going to operate just fine, because of what we've put in place.
29:25
Michelle Gauther: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
29:25
Michelle Gauther: And another, and another example, too, of you're not doing this all by yourself.
29:30
Michelle Gauther: If you're doing this all by yourself, you'd have to work a lot more hours or do less or something.
29:35
Michelle Gauther: So you know, yeah, and it's interesting.
29:37
Megan Sumrell: So you know, one of the things I learned from you that I love is your that fit part right yeah, a building fitness yeah.
29:44
Megan Sumrell: When I decided to start, like to actually do this, like, okay, this is, I'm going to build this business.
29:50
Megan Sumrell: I'd worked in enough software startups that I've seen.
29:53
Megan Sumrell: I've lived on the 80 hour a week sleeping on the couch in the office.
29:57
Megan Sumrell: I did that in my twenties.
29:58
Megan Sumrell: I'm like I don't want this and I don't want to build something that isn't in alignment with the harmony I want in my life.
30:06
Megan Sumrell: And so what that looked like for the business early on because it was just me.
30:11
Megan Sumrell: You know, as every business starts, it's always just you.
30:14
Megan Sumrell: I was a true solopreneur and I'd be in rooms and masterminds and courses with other women building businesses.
30:20
Megan Sumrell: And what it meant for the first couple years is my business was built slower than theirs because I knew my core value was I wasn't going to get sucked into the hustle.
30:32
Michelle Gauther: Yeah.
30:33
Megan Sumrell: I would work during school hours and that was it.
30:35
Megan Sumrell: But because of that, it allowed me to be very intentional and thoughtful about what I said yes to.
30:45
Megan Sumrell: I have much better boundaries in business than I do in my personal life.
30:49
Megan Sumrell: I execute your love and fit well with the business because I'd get this great idea and go well, hang on.
30:54
Megan Sumrell: Do I love it and can I fit this in in a 25-hour work week, or am I creating something that I'm going to hate?
31:02
Megan Sumrell: And so that meant I moved slow but very intentional for the first couple years.
31:08
Megan Sumrell: But what I find fascinating is, over this last year in particular, a lot of those women that were building businesses alongside of me.
31:17
Megan Sumrell: They're all they're done.
31:19
Megan Sumrell: They've burnt out, they've taken a sabbatical.
31:22
Megan Sumrell: They've all been like I burned it down.
31:23
Megan Sumrell: I hate this.
31:24
Megan Sumrell: I'm miserable, and now my business has, you know, 10x'd, yeah, and I haven't worked any more than I did starting it,
31:36
Michelle Gauther: yeah, yeah.
31:37
Michelle Gauther: So that's a great case for practicing what you preach and following your own system has really worked for you, which is amazing.
31:42
Michelle Gauther: When I first switched from corporate to my own business, I really had to catch myself, because I had such a habit of overworking and at the beginning, when I had basically no clients you know, maybe one here or there and I'd be going back to my office after my kids went to bed, I was like I literally don't have anything to do.
32:00
Michelle Gauther: But my body is like okay, the kids are in bed, it's time to do some work.
32:04
Megan Sumrell: I'm like, wait, I could just go watch TV or like yeah, or like bring the laptop to the couch, we'll all work while we're.
32:10
Megan Sumrell: Whatever They'd be like, what am I doing?
32:13
Michelle Gauther: And now I mean you couldn't pay me a million dollars to do that, but it was really a habit that I had to break.
32:18
Megan Sumrell: Yes, I think we all, I think any woman that's leaving a corporate environment where there's just so much expectation put on you.
32:25
Megan Sumrell: Yeah, I had to rewire.
32:27
Megan Sumrell: Yeah, absolutely.
32:29
Megan Sumrell: I had to rewire my self-worth right we are.
32:32
Megan Sumrell: We live in a society where our worth is intrinsically implied by how productive somebody else thinks you are, and so we feel like if I'm not quote producing, I'm not worthy.
32:46
Michelle Gauther: You are, and so we feel like, if I'm not quote producing, I'm not worthy.
32:48
Michelle Gauther: Yeah, so it's a lot to do.
32:48
Michelle Gauther: Yes, and I used to always tell people what I used to do.
32:51
Michelle Gauther: Oh, I used to have this insert whatever impressive job instead of like what I am because I didn't feel good enough about it or something I don't know.
32:57
Michelle Gauther: It was weird.
32:58
Michelle Gauther: I Right, yes, it was a very strange transition.
33:01
Michelle Gauther: I'm glad I got here, but it was a strange transition.
33:04
Michelle Gauther: Okay, we are just about out of time.
33:06
Michelle Gauther: I just want to ask you the same two questions that I ask every guest on the podcast.
33:10
Michelle Gauther: The first one is what is something you do when you feel overwhelmed to help yourself feel better?
33:15
Michelle Gauther: I do puzzles, oh that's a good one.
33:19
Megan Sumrell: I love like either jigsaw puzzles or logic puzzles, or I go practice I started taking cello lessons two years ago or I go play my cello.
33:28
Michelle Gauther: Okay, and does that just take your mind off the overwhelm?
33:31
Michelle Gauther: Yeah, that just makes you focus on something else.
33:33
Michelle Gauther: I mean, doing a little sounds like total overwhelm to me.
33:37
Megan Sumrell: So that is such a good example.
33:39
Michelle Gauther: Yes, it's such a good example, like everybody has their thing and you just have to know what your thing is.
33:45
Michelle Gauther: Okay, and then you've already answered this in a couple of different ways that you may have even more.
33:50
Michelle Gauther: What is something that you do in order to enable yourself to do less or same time?
33:56
Megan Sumrell: I honor my plan.
33:57
Megan Sumrell: Okay, I really honor the time I spend building.
34:01
Megan Sumrell: My weekly plan includes the things I have to do, includes the things I want to do and it includes me.
34:09
Megan Sumrell: I'm in my calendar every day, all week long, and so what I do for myself is I honor the plan that I built.
34:19
Megan Sumrell: I don't go back and work just a little bit more because, maybe because I know that Am I perfect?
34:26
Megan Sumrell: Of course not.
34:27
Megan Sumrell: I know whenever I don't, I am not who I like.
34:31
Michelle Gauther: Yeah, absolutely.
34:33
Michelle Gauther: Even a little bit of overworking, and I find I'm annoyed with my kids that have nothing to do with it or whatever.
34:39
Michelle Gauther: That's great.
34:40
Michelle Gauther: I love that so much.
34:41
Michelle Gauther: Ok, so tell us.
34:42
Michelle Gauther: If people are like I'm going to learn that feminine time management system, tell us where they can find your program or whatever else where they can find you.
34:51
Michelle Gauther: You have a great podcast, so tell us everything.
34:54
Megan Sumrell: Okay, well, I do.
34:55
Megan Sumrell: If you're listening to this, obviously you're probably a podcast fan, so you can come find me at Work Life Harmony.
35:00
Megan Sumrell: It's on all the podcast players and we also put it out on YouTube if you like more video type format.
35:06
Megan Sumrell: I will say my signature program is called the Top Program.
35:10
Megan Sumrell: Top stands for time management, organization and productivity.
35:13
Megan Sumrell: You just look up thetopprogramcom and read all about the program.
35:16
Megan Sumrell: I always tell people I know the program's great, but let's be honest, every teacher is not a great fit for every student, and so I actually also have an app in the app store.
35:26
Megan Sumrell: It's a free app and it's called the Pink Bee.
35:29
Megan Sumrell: All one word B-E-E, and in there I have two free trainings.
35:34
Megan Sumrell: So it's a great way for you to I kind of introduce you to the whole top framework.
35:39
Megan Sumrell: In there you can see the three core pillars, all nine components, but also introduces you to me and my style of teaching and how I do that as kind of a.
35:48
Megan Sumrell: I think it's a great first step to decide if you know, investing your energy and learning a new time management system is the right thing for you as well.
35:57
Michelle Gauther: Yeah, I love that.
35:58
Michelle Gauther: That's great.
35:59
Michelle Gauther: Okay, we'll put the links to all of that in the show notes and thank you so much for being on today.
36:03
Michelle Gauther: I really admire your work and what you're putting out into the world.
36:07
Megan Sumrell: Oh, thank you.
36:14
Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
36:17
Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegauthier.
36:21
Michelle Gauthier: com.
36:23
Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.