Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #296| Why Trying to Get All of Everything Done Before You Leave Work Will Block Your Productivity (Plus a Simple Hack to Use Instead)
Transcript
- 0:00Michelle Gauthier: When you listen today, you'll learn why trying to get everything done before you leave work will actually block your productivity and a simple hack to use instead.
- 0:14Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:21Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach.
- 0:26Michelle Gauthier: On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's Working Woman experiences.
- 0:31Michelle Gauthier: And in each episode, you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease, and relaxation to your life.
- 0:41Michelle Gauthier: Hi, friend.
- 0:41Michelle Gauthier: Thanks for joining on Monday's episode number 295.
- 0:45Michelle Gauthier: We talked about the difference between being busy and being productive.
- 0:48Michelle Gauthier: And here's something that I see all the time with women who are productive.
- 0:52Michelle Gauthier: They get a ton of stuff done, the important stuff that actually moves things forward.
- 0:56Michelle Gauthier: And when they get home, their brain just never clocks out or shuts off.
- 1:00Michelle Gauthier: If you find yourself answering emails from the couch, just a quick reply in the evening that ends up taking 45 minutes, or you're replaying your to-do list while you're lying in bed, or you're half listening to the people you love, even though your kids are telling you about their day, you're mentally drafting tomorrow's meeting agenda.
- 1:17Michelle Gauthier: If any of those made you nod your head, today's episode is for you.
- 1:21Michelle Gauthier: When you listen today, you'll learn why finish everything before you leave for the day is keeping you from ever switching off or turning your brain into home mode.
- 1:29Michelle Gauthier: How my client Natalie got her evenings and her weekends back, and a simple shutdown ritual that you can start using today.
- 1:36Michelle Gauthier: Before I jump into the whole thing, we have a lot of new listeners and we also have lots of longtime loyal listeners.
- 1:43Michelle Gauthier: If you are in either one of those categories and you have not subscribed and left a rating or a review, would you take a minute and do that?
- 1:51Michelle Gauthier: I would so appreciate it.
- 1:52Michelle Gauthier: You can't imagine how much it helps in terms of our podcast getting shown.
- 1:57Michelle Gauthier: For example, if you go to Apple Podcasts and you search for overwhelm, when we have a lot of subscribers and reviews, it shows this podcast as one of the top choices.
- 2:06Michelle Gauthier: And my goal is to help every single overwhelmed working woman out there.
- 2:10Michelle Gauthier: And that is one thing that you can do to support this otherwise free podcast.
- 2:15Michelle Gauthier: Okay, let's first talk about why the idea of finishing absolutely everything before you leave for the day can backfire.
- 2:21Michelle Gauthier: I feel like in the perfect world, and maybe many of us were just taught this, that a good day ends with everything being wrapped up.
- 2:28Michelle Gauthier: Your inbox is cleared.
- 2:29Michelle Gauthier: You always hear about inbox zero, every loop is closed, nothing is left hanging, you've got tomorrow perfectly planned.
- 2:36Michelle Gauthier: But here's the problem at the place where you are now in life, there will always be more.
- 2:40Michelle Gauthier: Your work doesn't really have a natural finish line.
- 2:43Michelle Gauthier: So if your rule is I can't stop until it's all done, you literally might never stop.
- 2:47Michelle Gauthier: If right now you're trying to do that but end up leaving the office, your brain does not stop.
- 2:52Michelle Gauthier: It keeps holding on to every open thing because you have this old story that you had to close every loop and that you couldn't put anything down until it was finished.
- 3:00Michelle Gauthier: But the good news is you can make your own stopping point anytime that you want, and it will result in so much better connection and better evenings and weekends.
- 3:09Michelle Gauthier: I want to tell you about my client Natalie, who has given me permission to tell her story.
- 3:13Michelle Gauthier: She used to work everywhere.
- 3:15Michelle Gauthier: She worked at her son's baseball practice.
- 3:17Michelle Gauthier: She'd rush out of the office every day, and she hated the feeling of leaving anything unfinished or leaving open loops.
- 3:24Michelle Gauthier: So she made a change that was a really big deal for her.
- 3:27Michelle Gauthier: She started leaving her laptop at work.
- 3:29Michelle Gauthier: She didn't just start doing it all of a sudden and did it nonstop.
- 3:32Michelle Gauthier: We tried one day and then the next week she was going to try a couple days and she ended up just doing them all.
- 3:37Michelle Gauthier: At the end of the day, she closes her laptop and has this intentional thought.
- 3:42Michelle Gauthier: I'm tidying up for the day, so I'll be fresh tomorrow.
- 3:44Michelle Gauthier: I have some things that are open and they'll still be here tomorrow.
- 3:48Michelle Gauthier: She lets herself know that she will have better energy tomorrow if she closes it down and that it's okay that some things are still open, that they will still be there for tomorrow.
- 3:57Michelle Gauthier: And she just reported to me that she had the most amazing weekend when she left her laptop at work.
- 4:02Michelle Gauthier: She felt relaxed and present.
- 4:04Michelle Gauthier: She had coffee with her husband and watched a TV show on Sunday morning.
- 4:09Michelle Gauthier: She played in the backyard with her son.
- 4:10Michelle Gauthier: She spent some great time with her daughter, and nothing has changed except the way that she is looking at it.
- 4:15Michelle Gauthier: She has the same job and the same workload, but has created for herself completely different evenings and weekends.
- 4:22Michelle Gauthier: So I encourage you to take a note from Natalie and create your own shutdown ritual.
- 4:28Michelle Gauthier: A ritual is different than a routine because it's meant to make you feel good and signal a shift.
- 4:34Michelle Gauthier: And that's exactly what a shutdown ritual does.
- 4:36Michelle Gauthier: It's a bridge from work mode to home mode.
- 4:40Michelle Gauthier: And here are a couple simple things you can try.
- 4:42Michelle Gauthier: I want you to just listen and think, oh yeah, that sounds really appealing to me, or I'd love to do that.
- 4:46Michelle Gauthier: One thing that you can do is tidy up.
- 4:48Michelle Gauthier: I'm laughing because it's at the end of my workday and I have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven cups on my desk.
- 4:55Michelle Gauthier: So I will be very happy with myself if I tidy those up tonight instead of coming back to my desk tomorrow.
- 5:00Michelle Gauthier: So tidy up your office space.
- 5:02Michelle Gauthier: Say the words, I'm done for today.
- 5:05Michelle Gauthier: What's open will still be here tomorrow.
- 5:07Michelle Gauthier: I had another client who would say the shop is closed, her office being the shop.
- 5:13Michelle Gauthier: You can signal the switch by physically closing your laptop or turning off your computer.
- 5:18Michelle Gauthier: You can change your clothes when you're finished with your workday into something more comfortable.
- 5:24Michelle Gauthier: You can listen to a certain kind of music to transition out of work and into home.
- 5:29Michelle Gauthier: Just pick something that you'll do the same way every day so your brain learns work is over and it's time to go into home mode.
- 5:37Michelle Gauthier: Even if you work from home, you can totally do this.
- 5:40Michelle Gauthier: I go into my room and I usually meditate for about 10 to 15 minutes and close the door in my office.
- 5:45Michelle Gauthier: It only takes a few minutes, but it signals to your body and your brain that you are finished with working for the day and you're moving into being present with your family mode.
- 5:54Michelle Gauthier: In summary, the idea of finishing everything first just means you'll never finish.
- 5:59Michelle Gauthier: And a simple shutdown ritual will give your brain permission to put work down so you can actually be present for the people and the life that you're working so hard for.
- 6:08Michelle Gauthier: And as a bonus, you'll be so much more refreshed in the morning when you don't work all night in your mind or literally.
- 6:14Michelle Gauthier: Okay, that is it for today.
- 6:16Michelle Gauthier: I hope you have a fantastic week.
- 6:17Michelle Gauthier: I want to remind you again to subscribe and leave a rating or review in order to help this podcast keep growing.
- 6:25Michelle Gauthier: Thank you.
- 6:26Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 6:34Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegauthier.com.
- 6:40Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.