Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #124| 5 Small Steps You Can Take Today To Make Big Progress On Your Goals With Ease
Transcript
- 0:00Michelle Gauthier: In doing that and spending five minutes on it, you have taken away the fear of starting.
- 0:11Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:18Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach.
- 0:23Michelle 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.
- 0:38Michelle Gauthier: Hi, friend, and welcome to Quick Hit Thursday.
- 0:40Michelle Gauthier: You know the goal of these Thursday podcasts is to give you a quick tip.
- 0:45Michelle Gauthier: Well, today I'm actually giving you five.
- 0:47Michelle Gauthier: I'm going to share five specific, tangible actions you can take right now to move from overwhelm into action.
- 0:55Michelle Gauthier: I'm going to help you break through mental clutter, celebrate your wins and make progress with minimal effort.
- 1:00Michelle Gauthier: I don't know why, but and this is true for me too I have been having clients, friends.
- 1:06Michelle Gauthier: People just tell me that the beginning of the year was just tough, especially February, that people weren't getting the things done they wanted to, and that things were derailed with sickness and snow days and just things being hard right now.
- 1:21Michelle Gauthier: So if you have felt stuck and you just need to break free and get back to what you wanted to accomplish this year, these are five great tips to help you get started.
- 1:31Michelle Gauthier: Tip one is set a five minute timer.
- 1:33Michelle Gauthier: Yes, it's only five minutes.
- 1:35Michelle Gauthier: No, you probably can't finish most tasks in five minutes, but I promise you you'll be amazed at how, when you set a five minute timer for yourself, the small nudge to even just get started can create the momentum to help you keep going.
- 1:51Michelle Gauthier: So here's what you can do in five minutes you can tackle a small chore.
- 1:55Michelle Gauthier: You can fold laundry for five minutes.
- 1:57Michelle Gauthier: You can wipe down your counter.
- 1:58Michelle Gauthier: You can sort one stack of papers or part of a stack of papers For a work project.
- 2:04Michelle Gauthier: You can spend five minutes drafting an email or starting a presentation slide For yourself.
- 2:11Michelle Gauthier: If you feel like I haven't done anything to take care of myself, you can do five minutes of self-care.
- 2:15Michelle Gauthier: You can take five minutes to stretch or meditate or just take deep breaths.
- 2:20Michelle Gauthier: In doing that and spending five minutes on it, you have taken away the fear of starting.
- 2:27Michelle Gauthier: I know that a lot of times the hardest thing to do on anything especially if it's something you don't want to do is just getting started.
- 2:34Michelle Gauthier: I recently did this when I was going through every single paper in my house.
- 2:38Michelle Gauthier: It felt like it was going to be overwhelming and I thought I'm just going to sit down here on the floor of my TV room while I'm watching TV and I'm just going to do this first little pile of paper.
- 2:48Michelle Gauthier: And sure enough, three episodes later, I was still sorting papers and it felt great to get that task done.
- 2:55Michelle Gauthier: Tip number two is to create in your mind.
- 2:58Michelle Gauthier: You don't even have to write this down on a piece of paper, but create a done list instead of a to do list.
- 3:02Michelle Gauthier: Instead of focusing on what's left to do and what you haven't done, just take a second to shift your mindset into what you have done today.
- 3:12Michelle Gauthier: This shift helps you celebrate and realize what you have already done and builds confidence, especially on days when you feel like you're just getting absolutely nothing done.
- 3:23Michelle Gauthier: This concept comes from the book of the Gap in the Gain.
- 3:25Michelle Gauthier: By the way, I have mentioned that on this podcast before.
- 3:28Michelle Gauthier: It is an amazing way to change your mindset.
- 3:31Michelle Gauthier: So let's think about on just a regular day at home, if you're focusing on, what did you do?
- 3:36Michelle Gauthier: So let's say you feel like your house is a mess, but you can say, oh yeah, I emptied the dishwasher, I made my bed this morning, I made my kids breakfast, whatever it was.
- 3:46Michelle Gauthier: Work-wise.
- 3:48Michelle Gauthier: I know that I used to often feel like I hadn't gotten anything accomplished because I had been in meetings all day.
- 3:53Michelle Gauthier: So what did you get done in those meetings?
- 3:56Michelle Gauthier: Did you send an email that you have been waiting to send?
- 3:59Michelle Gauthier: From a personal perspective, let's say you are thinking, oh, I didn't do, didn't take care of myself today.
- 4:06Michelle Gauthier: Think about did you drink water?
- 4:08Michelle Gauthier: Did you take a walk?
- 4:10Michelle Gauthier: Did you connect with a friend?
- 4:11Michelle Gauthier: That's amazing for self care.
- 4:13Michelle Gauthier: Just focus on what you did get done.
- 4:17Michelle Gauthier: And then tip number three is taking the smallest possible action.
- 4:21Michelle Gauthier: So this is even smaller than the first tip of doing it for five minutes.
- 4:24Michelle Gauthier: Just take the smallest possible action.
- 4:27Michelle Gauthier: Again, this will help you fight against that.
- 4:29Michelle Gauthier: I can't get started energy.
- 4:31Michelle Gauthier: That sometimes happens when you need to do something and it feels too big.
- 4:35Michelle Gauthier: Break it down into a smaller action and see if that smaller action feels too big and then break it down even smaller.
- 4:43Michelle Gauthier: Just keep going smaller and smaller and smaller.
- 4:45Michelle Gauthier: So let's talk about if you're trying to go to the gym or you're trying to get outside and take a walk.
- 4:51Michelle Gauthier: Think about the steps that that would take.
- 4:53Michelle Gauthier: Okay, I have to get my workout clothes on.
- 4:57Michelle Gauthier: I have to put on my shoes.
- 4:58Michelle Gauthier: I have to tell my family I'm leaving.
- 5:00Michelle Gauthier: I have to get my phone and my headphones.
- 5:02Michelle Gauthier: I have to think about where I'm going.
- 5:03Michelle Gauthier: Blah, blah, blah.
- 5:03Michelle Gauthier: There's many, many steps to taking a walk.
- 5:06Michelle Gauthier: If you were to do just the one first step, it could be like, okay, I'm going to put on my sports bra or I'm going to put on my whole workout clothes.
- 5:16Michelle Gauthier: If the whole workout clothes feels too big, just put on your sports bra.
- 5:19Michelle Gauthier: It's funny that is a little now that I'm saying this to you guys.
- 5:22Michelle Gauthier: I'm laughing because sometimes on Saturday mornings, when I get up and I don't really have a plan to work out or take a walk, but I know I would like to I'll put on my sports bra.
- 5:30Michelle Gauthier: It's like my indicator of we're not kidding around.
- 5:32Michelle Gauthier: We're going to need this at some point today.
- 5:34Michelle Gauthier: So take the smallest possible action that you can take.
- 5:38Michelle Gauthier: If you're trying to clean up, just put one item where it actually belongs, instead of trying to clean up the whole thing.
- 5:45Michelle Gauthier: If, work-wise, you're trying to brainstorm an email, just open up a document and type one sentence.
- 5:51Michelle Gauthier: Just take one tiny step in the right direction.
- 5:56Michelle Gauthier: Tip four is to automate just one decision that you're making every week or every day, so that you don't have to think about it anymore.
- 6:03Michelle Gauthier: Just last week on my Instagram, I was asking people what do you do to make weekday meals easier?
- 6:10Michelle Gauthier: And someone said we have the same five meals every week.
- 6:15Michelle Gauthier: It's something that our whole family likes and we just know exactly what we're going to have, and I love that.
- 6:22Michelle Gauthier: I love that, especially if you have kids and you know that they'll eat it.
- 6:25Michelle Gauthier: That's amazing.
- 6:26Michelle Gauthier: You could switch up the days if you wanted to, but you know what the groceries are.
- 6:29Michelle Gauthier: You know exactly what you need.
- 6:31Michelle Gauthier: Where can you set up an auto ship for any household essentials?
- 6:37Michelle Gauthier: So, for example, at my house.
- 6:38Michelle Gauthier: I love the method soaps and dish soap and cleaning supplies and I just have them on an auto ship and I never, ever have to think about it.
- 6:46Michelle Gauthier: Sometimes they come right when I'm running out, sometimes they come a little early, but then I can just put them under the kitchen sink and they're always there and it's just one less thing that I have to think about.
- 7:01Michelle Gauthier: And then the last tip is to do a two minute brain dump.
- 7:02Michelle Gauthier: Clear that mental clutter by spending like two minutes writing down everything on your mind.
- 7:06Michelle Gauthier: This is actually something that I do every single morning.
- 7:09Michelle Gauthier: I usually do it for more than two minutes, but just two minutes will be a great start for you.
- 7:14Michelle Gauthier: It helps to get out any thoughts that are holding you back, any negative thoughts that are holding you back.
- 7:20Michelle Gauthier: You can write down the to-do list that always seems to be running around in your head.
- 7:24Michelle Gauthier: You can write down errands that you need to run, whatever, but if you just pause and get it out on a piece of paper or into your phone notes or wherever you want to put it, your brain can rest easy that it's already written down somewhere.
- 7:39Michelle Gauthier: Okay, so today we covered five tips to reduce overwhelm setting a five minute timer, celebrating your progress with a done list, taking the smallest possible action, automating one small decision and doing a quick two minute brain dump.
- 7:58Michelle Gauthier: I would love to know which one of these that you try.
- 8:01Michelle Gauthier: Send me a message, tell me which ones you try and how it was.
- 8:04Michelle Gauthier: If you've got something good that worked for you, I would love to share it with the rest of the audience as well.
- 8:09Michelle Gauthier: Did you know that I sometimes work with businesses, specifically usually women's networks, to do speaking engagements or workshops, or even my group coaching?
- 8:21Michelle Gauthier: Right now, I'm doing my group coaching with a women's network at a business.
- 8:25Michelle Gauthier: If you work at a business and your women's network is looking for a speaker or a workshop, reach out to me.
- 8:32Michelle Gauthier: Just send me a message.
- 8:33Michelle Gauthier: I will share with you the kinds of things that I do, and I love doing those things.
- 8:37Michelle Gauthier: When I had my corporate job, I led the women's network and was always looking for speakers and good ideas, so if that's you reach out to me, have a great week to me, have a great week.
- 8:56Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 8:58Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegauthier.
- 9:01Michelle Gauthier: com.
- 9:01Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.