Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #244| Why Organizing Your Tasks Won’t Reduce Overwhelm (And What Actually Will)
Transcript
- 0:00Michelle Gauthier: You're not doing the task just the one time, you're thinking about it five times.
- 0:04Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:16Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach.
- 0:21Michelle Gauthier: On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's Working Woman experiences.
- 0:26Michelle Gauthier: And in each episode, you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease, and relaxation to your life.
- 0:35Michelle Gauthier: Hi, friend.
- 0:36Michelle Gauthier: Thanks for joining.
- 0:37Michelle Gauthier: On this quick Thursday episode, I am going to teach you a tip that you can do in two minutes or less that will help you reduce your overwhelm.
- 0:45Michelle Gauthier: It's a simple rule and it can really change and shift the way that you're feeling.
- 0:50Michelle Gauthier: Today you're going to learn why small tasks are actually sometimes the thing creating overwhelm.
- 0:55Michelle Gauthier: It's not always the big projects, but the hidden reason that your to-do list feels so heavy and long, and how this two-minute rule can help you feel immediate relief.
- 1:04Michelle Gauthier: I think sometimes we have the assumption, or I do anyway, that big projects and big things create overwhelm.
- 1:10Michelle Gauthier: And sometimes that's true, but often it is the constant presence of little tiny unfinished things that make us feel stressed.
- 1:19Michelle Gauthier: And let me explain what I mean by that.
- 1:21Michelle Gauthier: Let's say there's an email in your inbox and you've opened it like three times and thought about it but haven't replied to it, or that appointment that you need to schedule, but you just keep putting it off.
- 1:31Michelle Gauthier: Someone was just telling me the other day that they've been meaning to schedule their mammogram for like six months.
- 1:36Michelle Gauthier: The form or paper sitting on your counter that needs a signature, or that mess that you just keep walking by.
- 1:42Michelle Gauthier: The reason why these feel overwhelming is because it's like keeping a tab open when you haven't done the thing.
- 1:49Michelle Gauthier: So for example, if you need to schedule something like a mammogram and you're thinking about it for six months, how much time do you think you have spent having that come to mind and thinking, oh, I need to do that and maybe set an alarm to do it and not doing it, imagine how much time that takes up.
- 2:05Michelle Gauthier: And then when you think about that and add in that email you haven't replied to, the form or paper sitting on your counter that needs a signature, that little mess that you keep walking by without cleaning it up, it takes up so much time in our brain every time we have to see it again, think about it again, and then decide what to do about it again.
- 2:23Michelle Gauthier: It just continues to ask continues to add to our mental load.
- 2:27Michelle Gauthier: So you're not doing the task just the one time, you're thinking about it five times.
- 2:31Michelle Gauthier: Every time you touch something, like if you have a task that you wrote down for today and you move it tomorrow, and then tomorrow you move it to next week, every single time you're rereading it, redeciding, and thinking about it.
- 2:42Michelle Gauthier: And this really simple rule can create instant momentum and help you start checking off those small things that are just hanging around, getting on your nerves and distracting you from the big things that you really want to focus on.
- 2:55Michelle Gauthier: This is a concept from a book called Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity by David Allen.
- 3:01Michelle Gauthier: And in that book, he talks about something called the two-minute rule.
- 3:05Michelle Gauthier: And it's just like it sounds if something takes less than two minutes, just do it immediately.
- 3:09Michelle Gauthier: Don't write it down on your to-do list, don't organize it or plan a time to look back at it.
- 3:14Michelle Gauthier: Just do it.
- 3:15Michelle Gauthier: Send the quick email instead of saving it for later.
- 3:18Michelle Gauthier: If you're checking your emails and someone asks you a quick question that you can immediately respond to, do it.
- 3:23Michelle Gauthier: Open your calendar and schedule that appointment.
- 3:26Michelle Gauthier: Pick up your phone and make that call and reply to that text as soon as you think about it.
- 3:31Michelle Gauthier: And when you do this, a couple things start to happen.
- 3:34Michelle Gauthier: Your to-do list, especially the one in your head, gets lighter and your brain can just be more quiet because it's not carrying around all of those open tabs, so to speak, because you just close the loop.
- 3:45Michelle Gauthier: Something that I have a really bad habit of doing, I'm always moving on to the next thing and I don't even notice that I'm doing it.
- 3:51Michelle Gauthier: If I take off my workout clothes, get in the shower, get out and get dressed, I am very likely to leave my workout clothes on the floor of the bathroom.
- 3:59Michelle Gauthier: And when I come back to the room later, I'm like, oh, that's so annoying.
- 4:03Michelle Gauthier: Or I will leave cabinet doors open, or I'll not finish my coffee, but just leave it on my desk.
- 4:08Michelle Gauthier: And if I find that I get in the habit of doing this two-minute thing and I focus on, wait, what can I quickly finish so I don't ever have to think about this again?
- 4:16Michelle Gauthier: Let me clear my coffee.
- 4:18Michelle Gauthier: Let me pick up my clothes off the floor, let me close that cabinet door.
- 4:21Michelle Gauthier: It just makes my brain feel so much calmer.
- 4:24Michelle Gauthier: And if you're already doing that, if you're the kind of person who just closes the cabinet after you open it, kudos to you.
- 4:31Michelle Gauthier: I don't know how you do it.
- 4:32Michelle Gauthier: Definitely not my strong suit.
- 4:35Michelle Gauthier: Once you start doing this and you do a couple of them in a row, you really start to feel momentum instead of pressure.
- 4:41Michelle Gauthier: I've probably shared this with you guys already on the podcast, but I check my email just a few times a day.
- 4:46Michelle Gauthier: And when I check my email, I apply this concept and I just quickly go through.
- 4:51Michelle Gauthier: And if there are things that are going to take me a while, then I mark them as important.
- 4:55Michelle Gauthier: I reply immediately to those that I can reply to in the moment.
- 4:59Michelle Gauthier: And then I delete.
- 5:00Michelle Gauthier: I don't think I'm going to come back and delete these later.
- 5:03Michelle Gauthier: I delete those immediately.
- 5:05Michelle Gauthier: So if you cruise through your inbox a couple times a day and do that, and then set aside some time later in the week or whenever you want to do it to answer the ones that take more time, then you're consistently applying this two-minute rule and your inbox does not become overwhelming.
- 5:19Michelle Gauthier: So instead of organizing your list today, just scan it and try to finish anything that takes less than two minutes.
- 5:26Michelle Gauthier: That is my quick and easy Thursday tip for you.
- 5:29Michelle Gauthier: I hope you have a great day, and I hope you take two minutes to do something really quick so that you can feel productive.
- 5:36Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 5:42Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at MichelleGauthier.com.
- 5:48Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.