Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #118| Why Organizing Won’t Save You From Overwhelm or Increase Your Productivity—and What Will
Transcript
- 0:00Michelle Gauthier: If you've ever thought, once I get organized, I'll finally feel less overwhelmed, I've got some news for you: Organizing alone won't fix your overwhelm.
- 0:13Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:20Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former overwhelmed working woman and current life coach.
- 0:25Michelle 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.
- 0:41Michelle Gauthier: Hi, friend, thanks for joining today.
- 0:43Michelle Gauthier: I feel sad to tell you this real truth that cute organizing bins, even if they're from the container store, will not solve your overwhelm.
- 0:51Michelle Gauthier: I hate to share this with you because nobody loves a cute, organized bin or basket more than I do.
- 0:59Michelle Gauthier: My dad always teases me that my containers have containers and my bins have bins, and it's true.
- 1:05Michelle Gauthier: Even when I walk through the section in the store with my kids, they try to like block my eyes and be like don't look, mom, don't look.
- 1:10Michelle Gauthier: You know that section in Target where they have all new baskets and cute bins and holders.
- 1:15Michelle Gauthier: I just love them.
- 1:17Michelle Gauthier: But when I truly, truly decluttered my home for the first time because I had always previously just organized things, but when I truly decluttered my home for the first time because I had always previously just organized things, but when I truly decluttered it for the first time, what I found is that I gave away like 30 to 50 organizing bins because, unfortunately, organizing alone doesn't solve overwhelm.
- 1:40Michelle Gauthier: And when you listen to this episode today, you will learn why that's the truth.
- 1:44Michelle Gauthier: And then what does actually solve your overwhelm.
- 1:48Michelle Gauthier: Let's get started.
- 1:50Michelle Gauthier: So the first reason that organizing doesn't solve overwhelm is because overwhelm comes from too much, not disorganization, so overwhelm is a volume problem.
- 2:02Michelle Gauthier: There are too many things.
- 2:04Michelle Gauthier: So even if you think about this in terms of your closet, if you reorganize it just picture that you have this giant, spacious closet and you reorganize the whole thing and it's all on matching hangers and you have a hundred shirts.
- 2:18Michelle Gauthier: If you don't declutter those and get rid of some, it's really no easier to get dressed, because if you have 100 shirts and 30 of them don't fit you anymore and 50 of them you just don't like, but yet you have to look through all of them to find the one that you want to wear, you really haven't reduced the number of decisions that you have to make.
- 2:38Michelle Gauthier: You've just made it look pretty, and the same is true for your calendar.
- 2:42Michelle Gauthier: If you've ever tried the method I definitely have, where you color, code and schedule everything and it looks like a rainbow threw up on your computer when you look at your schedule, it's very organized, but there's still too much stuff on there.
- 2:56Michelle Gauthier: Things are still double scheduled, double booked, so that doesn't make you feel less overwhelmed either.
- 3:02Michelle Gauthier: Again, it makes it look pretty, but it doesn't actually take anything away from your jam-packed schedule.
- 3:09Michelle Gauthier: The other trouble is, the more that you organize, the more decisions that you have to make.
- 3:15Michelle Gauthier: So every time you rearrange or sort or store something, you're making more choices instead of just eliminating the excess.
- 3:23Michelle Gauthier: For example, if you think about a drawer in your kitchen that has not like your main you know forks and knives and spoons but the utensil drawer, where you have a spatula and you have a can opener and you have kind of all those things that you need to use in your kitchen, why would you ever need more than one of those things?
- 3:41Michelle Gauthier: So let's just imagine that you have three of everything and that drawer can never be clean because you have three spatulas and three knives that you use to cut a cake and four different sizes of soup spoons.
- 3:55Michelle Gauthier: Whatever it is in there, when you have too many of something, it's just really hard to keep organized and I'm sure, especially if you have kids, if you have ever done this, you've gone through the painstaking exercise to get everything organized and put into a place and it makes sense for you, and then it lasts like a week because when anybody else uses it it's not obvious where it's supposed to go.
- 4:16Michelle Gauthier: So when you do that, you have created an extra job for yourself by having too many things, and then you have to spend the time organizing them and then it doesn't work anyway.
- 4:27Michelle Gauthier: Let's talk about what actually does work, though.
- 4:30Michelle Gauthier: What you really need to do is declutter first and then organize.
- 4:35Michelle Gauthier: The very first step is to get rid of what's unnecessary, so that you have less to organize.
- 4:41Michelle Gauthier: One helpful way to think about this is what items do I want to keep?
- 4:46Michelle Gauthier: Look at your stuff with an eye for what you love or what is super useful.
- 4:52Michelle Gauthier: So I'm looking right now at the bookshelf in my office.
- 4:55Michelle Gauthier: If you've ever seen a picture of my office, you know that I have like rainbow ordered books, and I previously lived in a house that had literally a whole entire library and we just had books and books galore, and we like to buy books because we have this huge bookshelf.
- 5:09Michelle Gauthier: But then you get to the point where you're like I don't need any of these anymore and I have a Kindle and I much prefer to read my Kindle books from the library, and then they're not even cluttering up my Kindle after a while.
- 5:20Michelle Gauthier: So the way that I chose is I went through and I thought what books do I want to keep?
- 5:26Michelle Gauthier: And for me, that was what am I going to refer back to.
- 5:29Michelle Gauthier: So, as a coach, there are probably 20 to 30 books that I will still look things up in or refer clients to, and those are the kind of books that I love to keep.
- 5:39Michelle Gauthier: Even now, now that I have set that rule for myself, I will get a book from the library and listen to it, or I will buy a book on Audible and listen to it, and if I really love it and think that I can use it for coaching, I will buy a paper copy and put it in the library.
- 5:54Michelle Gauthier: In my office that probably happens like twice a year.
- 5:57Michelle Gauthier: So when you start thinking in this way of what do I really want to keep, it also helps you buy less on the flip side.
- 6:07Michelle Gauthier: Another good question to ask yourself is would I buy this today for what I spent on it?
- 6:11Michelle Gauthier: So sometimes you will keep, or maybe you wouldn't.
- 6:15Michelle Gauthier: I'll say I I would keep a pair of jeans that I paid $220 for.
- 6:21Michelle Gauthier: Because I paid $220 for them, would I buy them today for $220?
- 6:26Michelle Gauthier: Nope, they're not in style anymore.
- 6:27Michelle Gauthier: They don't fit me anymore.
- 6:28Michelle Gauthier: Whatever the reason is, if you have already spent the money, the money is gone.
- 6:32Michelle Gauthier: Holding onto the jeans that you don't wear and keeping them in the bottom of a drawer doesn't bring your money back, so think about it.
- 6:40Michelle Gauthier: Would I buy this today for what I spent on it?
- 6:44Michelle Gauthier: Another great place to simplify and remove things is your calendar and your to-do list.
- 6:48Michelle Gauthier: This podcast is full of ways to do less, to organize your calendar, to manage your time, so I'm going to put a link at the end of a couple different episodes you can listen to if your goal is to simplify your to-do list or your calendar and then just give yourself permission to do less.
- 7:07Michelle Gauthier: So the goal isn't to manage everything perfectly, but to have less to manage.
- 7:12Michelle Gauthier: So imagine if your house like just close your eyes unless you're driving close your eyes and imagine what your house would feel like when you walked into it If suddenly it could have only the things that are necessary for you to manage and feel good in your household.
- 7:29Michelle Gauthier: It doesn't mean that you have to be a full minimalist.
- 7:32Michelle Gauthier: Like, for example, I love comfort items, I love blankets, I love throw pillows.
- 7:36Michelle Gauthier: I have a bunch of them For me.
- 7:38Michelle Gauthier: I consider those to be essential.
- 7:40Michelle Gauthier: So I'm not saying get rid of everything in your house, but imagine if it was just only the essential things.
- 7:45Michelle Gauthier: I have all the blankets that I love sitting out on my couch or in a hallway closet.
- 7:50Michelle Gauthier: I also have a ton of them stored in the basement.
- 7:53Michelle Gauthier: Why?
- 7:53Michelle Gauthier: Why do I need those down there?
- 7:54Michelle Gauthier: So what are those items for you?
- 7:56Michelle Gauthier: What are the things that are multiples and are just hanging around in your house, taking up space, requiring you to organize them?
- 8:05Michelle Gauthier: Okay, so, to wrap it up, if you think about an hour that you might spend organizing something, instead spend that hour decluttering and then organizing.
- 8:16Michelle Gauthier: It will be so much easier because you'll have so much less stuff.
- 8:19Michelle Gauthier: That's the challenge that I have for you today.
- 8:22Michelle Gauthier: Spend an hour or, if that's too much, 15 minutes or, if that's too much, five minutes, truly decluttering something small, and just see how that feels for you.
- 8:34Michelle Gauthier: I would love to answer any questions you have about this topic or any topic that I've talked about on the podcast.
- 8:39Michelle Gauthier: We have a new way for you to contact me no more texting, because I didn't like that option.
- 8:45Michelle Gauthier: Now you can send me a message just by clicking on the link in the show notes, which will take you to my Instagram DMs, and you can send me a message with what question you have.
- 8:54Michelle Gauthier: That way I can clarify what your question is and I can answer it on the podcast for you.
- 8:59Michelle Gauthier: I would also love, if you have enjoyed this episode, if you shared it with your bestie and left a rating and review.
- 9:08Michelle Gauthier: That really helps us get shown to more overwhelmed working women.
- 9:12Michelle Gauthier: Okay, have a great week.
- 9:13Michelle Gauthier: See you soon.
- 9:19Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 9:21Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegothiercom.
- 9:27Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.