Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #257| The Secret Hack Intentional Women Know About Overwhelm That You Don't - And How This 1 Shift Will Finally Get You Off The Productivity Hamster Wheel
Transcript
- 0:00Michelle Gauthier: In this episode, you will learn the secret hack that intentional women know about overwhelm that you don't.
- 0:08Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:20Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach.
- 0:25Michelle Gauthier: On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's working woman experiences.
- 0:30Michelle Gauthier: And in each episode, you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease, and relaxation to your life.
- 0:37Michelle Gauthier: Hi, friend.
- 0:40Michelle Gauthier: Thanks for joining today.
- 0:41Michelle Gauthier: If you're constantly looking for that next productivity hack or convinced that the answer is getting more organized or managing your calendar better, or finally finding the perfect planner, this might be a little uncomfortable because what if the reason you're overwhelmed isn't any of those things?
- 0:58Michelle Gauthier: It isn't that you need to get more organized and productive.
- 1:01Michelle Gauthier: What if it's because you've become addicted to doing more?
- 1:05Michelle Gauthier: When you listen to this episode today, you will learn why the women who are the most productive are often the most overwhelmed.
- 1:13Michelle Gauthier: The hidden reason why no amount of planning, scheduling, or time management seems to create more space in your life.
- 1:21Michelle Gauthier: What is beneath all of this and a mindset shift that can solve this problem entirely?
- 1:26Michelle Gauthier: Maybe your life feels a little bit like this.
- 1:28Michelle Gauthier: You have a to-do list that never ends.
- 1:30Michelle Gauthier: You wake up exhausted and start the day already feeling behind.
- 1:35Michelle Gauthier: You say yes to things before you even think about whether you want to do them or not.
- 1:39Michelle Gauthier: And then you're productive and you finally finish one project, but you immediately replace it with three more.
- 1:45Michelle Gauthier: And you always are telling yourself, once I get through this summer, this school year, this project at work, whatever the time period is, things will calm down.
- 1:55Michelle Gauthier: But somehow there's always another busy season just around the corner.
- 1:59Michelle Gauthier: I know when I had my busy big deal corporate job, I did exactly what I'm describing.
- 2:03Michelle Gauthier: I had this job where I traveled a lot, I had big responsibilities, I also had two young kids, and I was busy every minute of every day.
- 2:12Michelle Gauthier: If I wasn't working, I was making a healthy dinner, helping with homework, going out for a run at 5 a.m., reorganizing closets, volunteering at my church, signing up to be the room mom.
- 2:23Michelle Gauthier: I was basically addicted to getting things done.
- 2:26Michelle Gauthier: I was and am really good at getting things done.
- 2:29Michelle Gauthier: And when other people notice that, they want you to be in charge of things.
- 2:32Michelle Gauthier: And I love to be in charge of things.
- 2:34Michelle Gauthier: So it was the perfect combination.
- 2:36Michelle Gauthier: I am responsible and capable and dependable and people trust me.
- 2:40Michelle Gauthier: So I kept saying yes and adding more and more and more until I was so overwhelmed I could barely move.
- 2:47Michelle Gauthier: And then I'd tell myself, this will end as soon as she starts kindergarten, or this will end as soon as this big implementation ends.
- 2:54Michelle Gauthier: But it didn't because it wasn't the situation or the circumstance that was causing the problem.
- 2:59Michelle Gauthier: It was me.
- 3:00Michelle Gauthier: People kept asking me to do more things and take on more.
- 3:03Michelle Gauthier: And I kept proving that I could handle it by saying yes.
- 3:07Michelle Gauthier: On the outside, it probably looked like I was this ultra-productive person who could do a million things.
- 3:12Michelle Gauthier: But what nobody sees is what this cycle is doing to you emotionally, because eventually you start living in one of two modes.
- 3:18Michelle Gauthier: Mode number one is frozen.
- 3:20Michelle Gauthier: You sit and stare at everything that needs to get done, and you're overwhelmed and paralyzed and unable to start because there's just so much.
- 3:28Michelle Gauthier: What do I even do?
- 3:29Michelle Gauthier: Or there's mode two, which was frantic, just running from task to task, never stopping, never breathing, never feeling finished.
- 3:37Michelle Gauthier: Eventually, when you're in either the frozen or frantic mode, you start carrying around a constant feeling that you're failing.
- 3:45Michelle Gauthier: No matter how much you do, and you're doing so much, but no matter how much you do, there's always more left.
- 3:51Michelle Gauthier: And carrying around that feeling inside you has consequences in other parts of your life too, because I think this is where it becomes dangerous.
- 3:58Michelle Gauthier: It's not just the stress, it costs you your actual life.
- 4:02Michelle Gauthier: Every time you say yes to something that doesn't matter, you're saying no to something that does.
- 4:07Michelle Gauthier: You miss conversations even though you're there for them.
- 4:10Michelle Gauthier: You rush through dinners.
- 4:12Michelle Gauthier: I can remember when I was in the most overwhelmed mode.
- 4:15Michelle Gauthier: It was my birthday one year, and all my sweet friends wanted to meet me for lunch for my birthday, about 15 minutes from where I lived.
- 4:23Michelle Gauthier: And they all showed up right in the middle of a workday.
- 4:26Michelle Gauthier: And one of them had even baked me a homemade cake.
- 4:29Michelle Gauthier: That was my favorite cake.
- 4:31Michelle Gauthier: And the whole time I kept thinking, I need to get back to my office.
- 4:35Michelle Gauthier: And I was worried about what I was missing and checking my instant messages on my phone to try to keep up with what was going on at work.
- 4:42Michelle Gauthier: And even though I was there, I missed my own beautiful lunch.
- 4:47Michelle Gauthier: And later that same night, same birthday, same thing happened, but it was dinner with my family.
- 4:52Michelle Gauthier: We went to my favorite pizza place and it was great.
- 4:55Michelle Gauthier: But then I just needed to hurry up and get home so I could put the kids to bed, go back to my office, and I ended up working until midnight.
- 5:02Michelle Gauthier: I remember logging off at midnight and thinking, that is not how I wanted to spend my birthday.
- 5:06Michelle Gauthier: My entire birthday, and I love birthdays, was a frantic rush.
- 5:10Michelle Gauthier: That might sound familiar to you.
- 5:11Michelle Gauthier: Maybe you're working during baseball practice or on vacation or you get up at 4 a.m.
- 5:17Michelle Gauthier: to get your emails all cleared before everyone wakes up.
- 5:20Michelle Gauthier: One of my clients told me a story about how she watched her kids build a sandcastle on the beach from the balcony while they were on vacation because she was on a conference call.
- 5:29Michelle Gauthier: Another one of my clients said, I don't even pause and say hi to people at work anymore.
- 5:34Michelle Gauthier: I'm just always rushing from place to place because I have so much to do.
- 5:38Michelle Gauthier: And when you live in this mode long enough where you're constantly balancing 12 things all at the same time, it starts to feel like it's normal.
- 5:46Michelle Gauthier: You believe this is normal and this is how life works.
- 5:49Michelle Gauthier: Here's what nobody told us high-achieving women who are really good at getting things done.
- 5:53Michelle Gauthier: You're not overwhelmed because you don't know how to manage your time.
- 5:56Michelle Gauthier: You're overwhelmed because you never learned how to stop adding more and more things.
- 6:00Michelle Gauthier: Every new responsibility, every new project, every new volunteer role, every new commitment, it gets added to a life that was already full.
- 6:08Michelle Gauthier: So you don't have a productivity problem.
- 6:11Michelle Gauthier: It's an accumulation problem.
- 6:13Michelle Gauthier: As you know, we talk about this all the time on the podcast.
- 6:16Michelle Gauthier: Our actions begin with the way that we're thinking about things.
- 6:20Michelle Gauthier: So somewhere in your mind, you believe that life will just magically slow down when X happens, whatever X is, or that if you can just become more efficient, maybe it's the right app or planner, or you just need the right assistant, you'll finally feel caught up.
- 6:34Michelle Gauthier: And that belief sounds reasonable, but look at the evidence.
- 6:38Michelle Gauthier: You and all of my clients who I work with are already people who are responsible, productive, high performers, accomplished professionals, organized, yet you're still overwhelmed.
- 6:49Michelle Gauthier: And the reason why is because efficiency doesn't solve overcommitment and a change of seasons, like we've just switched into summer, doesn't solve it either.
- 6:58Michelle Gauthier: If your strategy is I just need to get things done faster, you'll just create room to take on more things, which means you'd stay trapped in that overwhelm.
- 7:07Michelle Gauthier: The real problem isn't that you can't handle everything.
- 7:10Michelle Gauthier: The real problem is believing that you should be able to handle everything.
- 7:15Michelle Gauthier: Here's the reality check.
- 7:16Michelle Gauthier: You cannot calendar your way out of saying yes to everything.
- 7:20Michelle Gauthier: You cannot productivity hack your way into a peaceful life.
- 7:24Michelle Gauthier: At some point, you have to stop asking, how can I get more done?
- 7:28Michelle Gauthier: and start asking, why do I keep believing that I need to get more done?
- 7:33Michelle Gauthier: I've been a full-time life coach since 2018.
- 7:36Michelle Gauthier: If you were to look at the difference in the before and after of a woman who has gone from being constantly overwhelmed and addicted to always feeling like she needs to do more, more and more to the after of a woman who's feeling calm and intentional most days, you would see a huge difference.
- 7:55Michelle Gauthier: In the before, the woman's energy is frantic and jarring and on edge.
- 8:00Michelle Gauthier: She is the one walking down the hall at work at a lightning speed, hardly noticing anyone walking by.
- 8:06Michelle Gauthier: And in the after, she's calm and confident and intentional.
- 8:10Michelle Gauthier: She asks questions, she listens to the answer, she takes great care of herself and she doesn't apologize for it.
- 8:17Michelle Gauthier: So, how do you get from that frazzled, frantic before to the calm and intentional after version of yourself?
- 8:25Michelle Gauthier: It all starts with mindfulness.
- 8:27Michelle Gauthier: The thoughts you think over and over become beliefs.
- 8:30Michelle Gauthier: A belief like, I need to prove that I can do it all and say yes to everything will always create a chaotic, overwhelming life.
- 8:38Michelle Gauthier: Most of the clients who I work with understand this, but they really struggle to integrate it into their already busy life.
- 8:45Michelle Gauthier: They also don't know how to get rid of their old thoughts and behaviors that are holding them back and shift into these new, more empowering thoughts.
- 8:54Michelle Gauthier: And this is where most people end up staying stuck.
- 8:57Michelle Gauthier: And the reason why is that when you don't have someone providing outside perspective consistently, helping you stay accountable and supporting you through the change you know you need to make, it's really hard to make that change.
- 9:09Michelle Gauthier: That's why my one-on-one coaching includes one-on-one support, consistent weekly accountability so that you're continually progressing, staying committed, and creating long-lasting change.
- 9:21Michelle Gauthier: The women who finally escape overwhelm don't actually become more productive.
- 9:25Michelle Gauthier: They become more intentional and they stop measuring their success by how much they completed, how many boxes they checked, how many people they help, how much they sacrifice, and they start measuring their success by asking: Did I focus on what mattered most?
- 9:39Michelle Gauthier: Did I protect my energy?
- 9:41Michelle Gauthier: Did I stick with my priorities?
- 9:44Michelle Gauthier: Did I leave room for my actual life?
- 9:46Michelle Gauthier: The goal is not to fit more into your life.
- 9:49Michelle Gauthier: The goal is to make room for your life again.
- 9:51Michelle Gauthier: Remember that you used to like to do fun things that you maybe can't even remember what those fun things are anymore?
- 9:57Michelle Gauthier: Peace is not found at the bottom of your to-do list.
- 10:01Michelle Gauthier: When you get all the way down to the bottom and you check off every last thing, you are not going to feel peace.
- 10:06Michelle Gauthier: So if you're exhausted from trying to do it all and you've convinced yourself that the answer is another planner, another system, another productivity strategy.
- 10:14Michelle Gauthier: And deep down you're realizing that no matter how organized you become, you're still overwhelmed.
- 10:19Michelle Gauthier: This is exactly the work that I do with my clients.
- 10:22Michelle Gauthier: Inside my one-on-one coaching program, I help high-achieving women like you stop living in survival mode, stop carrying the weight of impossible expectations, stop trying to prove that they can handle everything, and finally create a life that feels calm and sustainable and enjoyable again.
- 10:37Michelle Gauthier: Because the goal is not to become better at doing more, the goal is to finally feel free from the pressure to do everything.
- 10:44Michelle Gauthier: If that sounds like exactly what you need, click the link in the show notes and book a consultation.
- 10:49Michelle Gauthier: We'll figure out what's actually creating the overwhelm and build a plan to finally break free from it.
- 10:55Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 11:02Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at MichelleGauthier.com.
- 11:08Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.