Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #209| The Invisible Holiday Workload Is Exhausting—Here's What To Do About It
Transcript
- 0:00Michelle Gauthier: 95% of holiday magic is simply the invisible workload of women.
- 0:10Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:17Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach.
- 0:22Michelle Gauthier: On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's Working Woman experiences.
- 0:27Michelle Gauthier: And in each episode, you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease, and relaxation to your life.
- 0:36Michelle Gauthier: Hi, friend.
- 0:37Michelle Gauthier: Everybody knows the end of the year is usually a crazy time.
- 0:40Michelle Gauthier: Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, neither one of those, at some point throughout the year, if it's not right now, you probably still have birthdays or sometimes when you are in charge of gift giving.
- 0:55Michelle Gauthier: And if I were to list out all the things that the average woman who does celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah does, there's, you know, 78 different things that we do.
- 1:04Michelle Gauthier: But if we just zoom in on gift giving alone, just the purchasing and the presenting of gifts, it's wild how much invisible workload we are carrying, whether you're a mom or not.
- 1:15Michelle Gauthier: And the point of today's episode is just to talk about this invisible workload that we are taking on at this time of the year and to give you some tips on what to do about it and how to possibly make it easier for yourself.
- 1:30Michelle Gauthier: Again, I'm just zooming in on gift giving, just one aspect of this time of year that is usually crazy for women.
- 1:37Michelle Gauthier: Here's what most women are juggling just in the gift department: keeping the running list of who needs gifts.
- 1:43Michelle Gauthier: Friends, family, coworkers, teachers, service workers, neighbors, whoever that you are getting a gift for, tracking the important dates.
- 1:53Michelle Gauthier: When are the gift exchanges?
- 1:54Michelle Gauthier: When are the shipping deadlines?
- 1:56Michelle Gauthier: Are there secret Santas?
- 1:58Michelle Gauthier: Are there school parties?
- 1:59Michelle Gauthier: Are there travel?
- 2:00Michelle Gauthier: Do we need to take gifts on that travel?
- 2:03Michelle Gauthier: Mentally juggling the budget while trying not to spend like your entire 401k savings on all of the gifts that you have to purchase, finding time to shop.
- 2:12Michelle Gauthier: I'm great at shopping online, but even that, I'll think at the end of the day, sometimes, oh shoot, I didn't get to that.
- 2:18Michelle Gauthier: I gotta lie in bed tonight and do that.
- 2:20Michelle Gauthier: Watching sales, remembering coupon codes or store policies, buying something at Lululemon.
- 2:26Michelle Gauthier: Love you, Lululemon, but your return policy sucks.
- 2:29Michelle Gauthier: So I know I have to buy it, and then it has to be either returned or exchanged within 14 days if the person doesn't like it.
- 2:35Michelle Gauthier: Trying to keep it fair, like did I spend equally on all the kids or all my siblings?
- 2:40Michelle Gauthier: Will my sister feel left out?
- 2:42Michelle Gauthier: Whatever.
- 2:43Michelle Gauthier: Keeping track of sizes and wish lists, coordinating gifts with a partner or ex or extended family.
- 2:50Michelle Gauthier: In my case, I've got gifts for the handsome man's friends, kids.
- 2:54Michelle Gauthier: I help my kids get something for my ex-husband's fiance.
- 2:58Michelle Gauthier: There's all kinds of crazy coordination in a divorced family.
- 3:02Michelle Gauthier: If you want to get everybody gifts, planning ahead so nobody's forgotten or duplicated.
- 3:06Michelle Gauthier: I'm always afraid that I'm gonna forget.
- 3:07Michelle Gauthier: I'm sure I probably have.
- 3:09Michelle Gauthier: And then there's the presentation of the gifts, the wrapping, the labeling, the hiding the gifts.
- 3:14Michelle Gauthier: My kids are older now, so I just have them sitting in boxes in my bedroom.
- 3:17Michelle Gauthier: Like, don't look at them or you're gonna wreck your own Christmas, okay?
- 3:20Michelle Gauthier: We're also carrying the pressure to get it right and make it feel thoughtful and magical and meaningful and basically doing all this on our own, because you know, if you don't do it, it's probably not gonna get done.
- 3:32Michelle Gauthier: And that's just the gift giving.
- 3:33Michelle Gauthier: We haven't talked about like meal planning or cards or outfits or travel or hosting or school concerts or work deadlines or whatever.
- 3:39Michelle Gauthier: So let's just pat ourselves on the back for all of the things that we are carrying and doing.
- 3:44Michelle Gauthier: If you're like me and it gets to be about 7:30 at night and you're really barely able to keep your eyes open, this is why.
- 3:52Michelle Gauthier: It's wild the amount of things that we have just running around in our head that we're carrying.
- 3:57Michelle Gauthier: So I just want you to hear me say, this is a lot.
- 3:59Michelle Gauthier: You're doing a lot.
- 4:00Michelle Gauthier: It's not your imagination.
- 4:02Michelle Gauthier: You're basically like a project manager, event planner, gift concierge, budget analyst, emotional support coach, logistics coordinator, all while trying to smile and stay present.
- 4:13Michelle Gauthier: And nobody else sees that labor or acknowledges that labor, it starts to feel like it doesn't count, but it does.
- 4:20Michelle Gauthier: Even if you didn't finish the list or you forgot something or it wasn't perfect, you are doing an amazing job.
- 4:26Michelle Gauthier: Here are a couple tips that I have to potentially help you and make this easier.
- 4:31Michelle Gauthier: This one might be painful for you, but delegate imperfectly.
- 4:35Michelle Gauthier: Ask your partner or your kids to help, even if they don't do it right.
- 4:39Michelle Gauthier: Okay, this for me would be the gift wrapping.
- 4:42Michelle Gauthier: I am very particular about gift wrapping.
- 4:44Michelle Gauthier: I actually loved gift wrapping, but when I run out of time, it really stresses me out.
- 4:49Michelle Gauthier: And my handsome man friend is very cute, but he is not a good rapper.
- 4:53Michelle Gauthier: So I have to be really desperate to ask him for help.
- 4:56Michelle Gauthier: So be better than me.
- 4:57Michelle Gauthier: Ask someone else to help you wrap the gifts or even just put them in the boxes that you're going to wrap, or stop by and pick something up, or get a gift card somewhere, or whatever.
- 5:07Michelle Gauthier: Another good tip is to buy duplicates on purpose.
- 5:11Michelle Gauthier: So maybe there's a fun game.
- 5:14Michelle Gauthier: I got a bunch of people the same hoodie this year.
- 5:17Michelle Gauthier: Just think about how you can save time in your mind by thinking of a cool idea and giving that same good idea to multiple people.
- 5:25Michelle Gauthier: Okay, I was just about to wrap up this suggestion, but I just remembered one random thing that I used to do when my kids were little that they absolutely loved, and it was so easy for me is Santa's gifts would be in a Santa sack, in this big, huge sack, and it would be all their gifts and none of them were wrapped.
- 5:44Michelle Gauthier: So we would just put everything from Santa in this big Santa sack.
- 5:47Michelle Gauthier: And then they would reach in there with their eyes closed one at a time and get their gifts out.
- 5:51Michelle Gauthier: So if you want to not wrap as many presents and you have little kids who believe in Santa, there you go.
- 5:55Michelle Gauthier: Try that one.
- 5:56Michelle Gauthier: That one was amazing for years and years.
- 5:59Michelle Gauthier: And the last thing to do is pat yourself on the back.
- 6:01Michelle Gauthier: If nobody else tells you, I'm telling you today, you're doing a great job, pat yourself on the back.
- 6:06Michelle Gauthier: You got this, not too much longer, and we will be all the way to the new year.
- 6:11Michelle Gauthier: Yay!
- 6:12Michelle Gauthier: Which reminds me, on January 6th, I am teaching my annual class that is called Your Best Year, and it is a planning workshop.
- 6:22Michelle Gauthier: I give the best tips on how to create goals for the year that are actually doable, fit into your lifestyle, the type of life that you're trying to create for yourself.
- 6:32Michelle Gauthier: It's a one-hour workshop, and you will leave the workshop understanding exactly what you need to do to create your goals to get what you want this year.
- 6:40Michelle Gauthier: The class is $26.
- 6:42Michelle Gauthier: It's a bargain, it's a no-brainer.
- 6:45Michelle Gauthier: You get some pre-work videos from me and you get a workbook so that you can do all of your planning for 2026.
- 6:54Michelle Gauthier: I would love to see you there.
- 7:01Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 7:04Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegauthier.com.
- 7:10Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.