Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #181| Declutter Challenge Day 4: Calendar Clean Up
Transcript
- 0:04Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:12Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach.
- 0:17Michelle 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.
- 0:31Michelle Gauthier: Hi friend, welcome back to the declutter challenge.
- 0:34Michelle Gauthier: Today, we're going to be focusing on taking back your time.
- 0:36Michelle Gauthier: We're literally going to declutter your time today.
- 0:39Michelle Gauthier: So yesterday we talked about digital clutter, and I loved hearing how freeing it was to clear out your inboxes, delete old photos, finally get rid of those apps you never use.
- 0:49Michelle Gauthier: It's amazing how much mental space opens up when your digital world is lighter.
- 0:53Michelle Gauthier: So, for today, we're going to declutter something that is sometimes not even visible but equally draining, which is your time.
- 1:01Michelle Gauthier: So your calendar can get just as overloaded as a closet, and every commitment carries weights that can weigh you down.
- 1:08Michelle Gauthier: So taking even one thing off your schedule can give you a huge sense of relief.
- 1:12Michelle Gauthier: What I want you to think about, though, when you review your schedule.
- 1:17Michelle Gauthier: Let's say you whip out your calendar right now on your phone and you look at it.
- 1:20Michelle Gauthier: How does it make you feel?
- 1:22Michelle Gauthier: And then second follow-on question to that is what is not on your calendar that takes up your time?
- 1:29Michelle Gauthier: So, for example, if you were to look at my calendar tonight, it would be blank.
- 1:34Michelle Gauthier: There's nothing special on there tonight, but what I will be doing is making dinner and picking my daughter up from golf practice and probably helping my son with some homework, and lots of things like that.
- 1:47Michelle Gauthier: So think about what your calendar reflects and what it doesn't, and how your calendar makes you feel, and then I want you to ponder, of those things, which commitments feel heavy or unnecessary.
- 2:02Michelle Gauthier: So if you were to look at my calendar right now, it's pretty slim and trim.
- 2:05Michelle Gauthier: I do not have a lot of commitments on there.
- 2:07Michelle Gauthier: I have nothing on there that I don't want to do, but, man, I used to.
- 2:12Michelle Gauthier: I had a ton of things that felt like I needed to do them Volunteering in my kids' classrooms all the time, getting up and running every day of the week, those kinds of things.
- 2:23Michelle Gauthier: So what are the commitments that you're doing that feel heavy or unnecessary?
- 2:27Michelle Gauthier: When I work with my clients, a lot of times it's like oh, I'm on this board, but I don't want to be on this board anymore, but I don't know how to get out of doing it.
- 2:35Michelle Gauthier: Or I'm always going to the meetings that my team members are having when I really don't need to be there anymore, or I'm still running this meeting when I could really hand it off to someone on my team to manage.
- 2:46Michelle Gauthier: So think about that and choose one, .
- 2:49Michelle Gauthier: and for your action today,.
- 2:50Michelle Gauthier: declutter Declutter your calendar and your time by making at least one small adjustment.
- 2:55Michelle Gauthier: So take the time to look through and maybe list out things that you're doing that don't show up on your calendar.
- 3:01Michelle Gauthier: And do something like cancel a meeting that no longer serves a purpose, reschedule a call for a less stressful time I just did move a call out a whole month because I was like I don't have to do this right now and it's making me feel stressed to be able to prep for it in time.
- 3:16Michelle Gauthier: Delete a recurring event that doesn't fit anymore.
- 3:18Michelle Gauthier: Or, if you have one of those things on your calendar where you've blocked yourself so that you have free time but you never actually use it, just take.
- 3:25Michelle Gauthier: Or, if you don't want to like, delete stuff and stop doing them.
- 3:30Michelle Gauthier: What's one thing you could skip this week, just this one week, to make some more space for yourself.
- 3:35Michelle Gauthier: Or say no to a social obligation, a social invitation that feels like an obligation, or maybe adding something to your calendar like time off for yourself, like time off for yourself.
- 3:52Michelle Gauthier: So, for example, I was just talking to one of my clients who was spending 30 minutes on her lunch hour just sitting in her car and meditating and journaling.
- 3:56Michelle Gauthier: So could you block off some time like that and, after you decide what your thing is, I would love to hear from you, either via email, if you're doing the challenge you got an email from me this morning, so reply back to that or send me a voice note and tell me what you did to declutter your time in your schedule today and how it made you feel.
- 4:15Michelle Gauthier: I would love to share your win or I would love to answer any questions you have about how to do this.
- 4:21Michelle Gauthier: So, just like we've talked about on the other days, you take everything out.
- 4:25Michelle Gauthier: So in this case, look at everything on your schedule.
- 4:28Michelle Gauthier: Just like the digital decluttering, think about the delete step first.
- 4:32Michelle Gauthier: So what can you delete?
- 4:34Michelle Gauthier: Is there something that you can literally just say, I'm not going to do this anymore and then look at?
- 4:39Michelle Gauthier: Is there something I could move to a time that feels less stressful to me, and then just straighten up your calendar, make sure you've got white space in there and let me know how you feel.
- 4:50Michelle Gauthier: Just a reminder every time you share with me, you get entered for one of our prizes.
- 4:55Michelle Gauthier: Our prizes are the Sunday Basket Organizing System, a cutesy little label maker.
- 5:00Michelle Gauthier: It's like the size of a phone and it just prints out automatically.
- 5:04Michelle Gauthier: It's so fun, it just makes me happy.
- 5:06Michelle Gauthier: And then the last one is a half hour coaching session with me.
- 5:09Michelle Gauthier: So that's it for day four.
- 5:11Michelle Gauthier: Declutter your calendar, reclaim your time, and tomorrow we'll wrap up the challenge with a reset and a celebration and a plan for going forward with this.
- 5:21Michelle Gauthier: All right, talk to you tomorrow.
- 5:27Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 5:30Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegauthier.
- 5:34Michelle Gauthier: com.
- 5:36Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.