Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #300| 3 Productivity Killers That Keep You Busy All Day While Your Real Work Waits
Transcript
- 0:00Michelle Gauthier: When you listen today, you'll learn the three productivity killers that keep you busy all day while your real work waits.
- 0:11Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:19Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach.
- 0:24Michelle Gauthier: On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's Working Woman experiences.
- 0:29Michelle 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.
- 0:40Michelle Gauthier: Guess what?
- 0:41Michelle Gauthier: We are on episode 300.
- 0:43Michelle Gauthier: When I started this podcast back in April of 2023, I honestly didn't know if anyone would listen.
- 0:49Michelle Gauthier: And now here we are 300 episodes later in the top 1.5% of podcasts in the whole world.
- 0:56Michelle Gauthier: How crazy is that?
- 0:57Michelle Gauthier: That is because of you.
- 0:59Michelle Gauthier: So thank you for listening on your commute and your walks and while you're folding laundry.
- 1:04Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for sharing episodes with your friends and writing reviews.
- 1:07Michelle Gauthier: Every single one of those helps another overwhelmed woman find this show.
- 1:11Michelle Gauthier: And I think what we can just know is true based on the success of the podcast so far is that women need this.
- 1:17Michelle Gauthier: Women need these tips and they need the validation of knowing that they are not alone.
- 1:23Michelle Gauthier: I also want to give a big thank you to Kari, who's my podcast producer.
- 1:26Michelle Gauthier: She has been with me since before episode one.
- 1:29Michelle Gauthier: Before there was even a single episode, she was there helping me figure out how to make this work.
- 1:34Michelle Gauthier: And Kari is the magic here.
- 1:36Michelle Gauthier: She makes every episode sound great.
- 1:38Michelle Gauthier: She keeps everything running behind the scenes.
- 1:41Michelle Gauthier: She catches all my mistakes, and there would be no episode 300 without her.
- 1:45Michelle Gauthier: So, Kari, thank you.
- 1:46Michelle Gauthier: I'm so grateful for you.
- 1:48Michelle Gauthier: Okay, let's get to it because I want to celebrate 300 by giving you something really useful.
- 1:52Michelle Gauthier: And that is to share with you the top three productivity killers.
- 1:57Michelle Gauthier: One of the things that I work on with all of my clients in my group coaching and in my regular one-on-one coaching is how to make the most of the time that they have because every day only has 24 hours and some of those have to be sleeping.
- 2:10Michelle Gauthier: So we talk a lot about how to make the time that you are focusing productive time.
- 2:15Michelle Gauthier: Over the past eight years, when I have been coaching, I have found that there are many things that kill productivity.
- 2:20Michelle Gauthier: But when you listen today, you'll learn the top three things that are killing your productivity before you even have a chance to get started, how to recognize those and what to do about them.
- 2:29Michelle Gauthier: Killer number one is the automatic yes.
- 2:33Michelle Gauthier: I'm sure you have your own example of this, but here's what happens.
- 2:37Michelle Gauthier: Let's just say you're in a meeting at work and your big boss says, Hey, we need somebody to take care of, insert extra project, some kind of special work lunch, covering for somebody who's on vacation, whatever it is, and you say yes without even thinking about it or doing the love and fit test to decide if it's actually a great fit for you.
- 2:58Michelle Gauthier: And what happens then is you have that yes on your calendar and you have to put time towards that and it paws on top of everything else you have.
- 3:06Michelle Gauthier: So if you just said yes that one time, it probably wouldn't be that big of a deal.
- 3:10Michelle Gauthier: But if you're a person who is in the habit, and again, it's just a habit, but if you're in the habit of saying yes before you even pause to think about what you want to say, that's not the only yes you're gonna say in a week.
- 3:20Michelle Gauthier: You're gonna be saying automatic yeses to everything.
- 3:23Michelle Gauthier: And that kills your productivity because you have way too much to do.
- 3:26Michelle Gauthier: You have way too many things on your to-do list that can never be done in a regular workday or even in a 24-hour period.
- 3:34Michelle Gauthier: So the fix for this one is to put a pause between the task and the answer.
- 3:39Michelle Gauthier: So your new automatic response could be something like, let me check my calendar and get back to you.
- 3:44Michelle Gauthier: And then you decide on purpose if you really want it instead of defaulting to yes.
- 3:49Michelle Gauthier: Productivity killer number two, you might find kind of surprising because it's not directly related to the calendar, but it is negative self-talk.
- 3:56Michelle Gauthier: First of all, everyone has negative self-talk.
- 3:58Michelle Gauthier: When clients tell me that their brain says some really mean things to them and they always think it's something weird about them and they don't understand why it's happening, I just want you to know that everyone's brain does this sometimes.
- 4:08Michelle Gauthier: But here's how negative self-talk kills your productivity.
- 4:12Michelle Gauthier: Let's just imagine that you blocked an hour to do some kind of quarterly compliance report or something.
- 4:17Michelle Gauthier: And you open the document and you look at the blank page and your brain's like, you should have started this two weeks ago.
- 4:22Michelle Gauthier: Everyone else would have had this done by now.
- 4:25Michelle Gauthier: And you feel your shoulders tighten and you think, you know what, I should have gotten this done by now.
- 4:29Michelle Gauthier: I'm just gonna check my email real quick.
- 4:31Michelle Gauthier: And then you answer a Slack message, and then someone walks in your office and needs a quick answer, and then you look up and your hour is just gone, and you haven't even started on the thing you're supposed to be doing.
- 4:40Michelle Gauthier: So then the voice in your head says, see, you're so behind.
- 4:44Michelle Gauthier: And that is the productivity killer loop.
- 4:46Michelle Gauthier: Your brain is taking up so much space with negative thinking that you're not able to get things done.
- 4:54Michelle Gauthier: The fix for this one is learning to catch that negative thought and to put some space between you and that thought.
- 5:01Michelle Gauthier: And here's what I mean.
- 5:02Michelle Gauthier: When you open that document and your brain says you should have started this two weeks ago, instead of saying, I should have started on this two weeks ago, you could say, My brain is suggesting that I should have started this two weeks ago, or I'm noticing that my brain is suggesting the thought that I should have started this two weeks ago.
- 5:21Michelle Gauthier: And doing that just puts a little space between you and the thought and reminds you, I didn't think that thought on purpose.
- 5:27Michelle Gauthier: That thought just popped into my brain and I don't have to listen to it.
- 5:31Michelle Gauthier: And then choose the one small thing you can do.
- 5:34Michelle Gauthier: Just start typing something, anything into the document.
- 5:37Michelle Gauthier: Just start getting the momentum going.
- 5:40Michelle Gauthier: Productivity killer number three is deciding too many times.
- 5:44Michelle Gauthier: Imagine this.
- 5:44Michelle Gauthier: Your alarm goes off at 5 45 in the morning and you wake up and think, should I work out today or sleep in?
- 5:50Michelle Gauthier: I'm gonna lie here for a few minutes and decide.
- 5:51Michelle Gauthier: I think I'll feel better if I don't work out because I'm really tired.
- 5:54Michelle Gauthier: Or no, I think I feel better if I do work out because I'm tired now.
- 5:57Michelle Gauthier: But if I go work out, I'll be less tired.
- 5:59Michelle Gauthier: And then at work, you open your to-do list and spend 20 minutes redeciding what to do first, even though it's the same list from yesterday.
- 6:06Michelle Gauthier: And then at 4 p.m., the family group text starts, what's for dinner?
- 6:11Michelle Gauthier: And you get home and you're standing in front of the fridge looking to see what do we have?
- 6:15Michelle Gauthier: What would I need to go to the store for?
- 6:17Michelle Gauthier: Should I maybe order something?
- 6:19Michelle Gauthier: How are we doing on our budget this month?
- 6:22Michelle Gauthier: Is that part of the budget?
- 6:23Michelle Gauthier: And by the end of the day, you're just too tired to think.
- 6:27Michelle Gauthier: Deciding too much can cause decision fatigue.
- 6:31Michelle Gauthier: And so you can feel at the end of the day like you've gotten nothing done, but you've just decided things all day.
- 6:36Michelle Gauthier: Another culprit for the same kind of thing is you make a decision, you're like, okay, here's the thing.
- 6:41Michelle Gauthier: I'm going to go work out.
- 6:42Michelle Gauthier: And then you're on your way to work out and you're like, actually, I'm so busy at work.
- 6:45Michelle Gauthier: I'm just going to drive to work.
- 6:46Michelle Gauthier: So you make decisions all the time, but you double back on them or you change them.
- 6:50Michelle Gauthier: This is a major productivity killer because this takes so much time.
- 6:54Michelle Gauthier: Every time you have to make a decision, you are wasting time.
- 6:57Michelle Gauthier: A great fix for this one is deciding once ahead of time, making a to-dont list.
- 7:02Michelle Gauthier: And I have a whole episode on the to-dont list, which we'll link in the show notes here.
- 7:05Michelle Gauthier: But a to-dont list can help you so you don't even have to decide.
- 7:09Michelle Gauthier: I just talked to a client today who used to get up at four in the morning when she was feeling behind, and she decided that she doesn't get up before five.
- 7:16Michelle Gauthier: And this morning she said, I was so overwhelmed last night.
- 7:18Michelle Gauthier: I want to get up at four in the morning and catch up.
- 7:20Michelle Gauthier: And I reminded myself, oh, I don't get up before five.
- 7:23Michelle Gauthier: She has a rule and she followed her own rule.
- 7:26Michelle Gauthier: Okay, so if you want to be productive, keep in mind these three productivity killers.
- 7:30Michelle Gauthier: The automatic yes that puts too much on your calendar, that mean voice that distracts you from the task at hand, and deciding the same things over and over.
- 7:39Michelle Gauthier: If all three of those resonate with you, just choose one and try the fix for it this week.
- 7:44Michelle Gauthier: And I think you'll really be amazed about how much room it opens up for the work that actually matters.
- 7:49Michelle Gauthier: Since we are in episode 300, if you have been a listener to one or 300 episodes or anywhere in between, and you have not left a review yet or a star rating yet, I would so appreciate if you would do that.
- 8:03Michelle Gauthier: Either on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or wherever you listen, every little bit helps.
- 8:08Michelle Gauthier: Thanks, have a great week.
- 8:10Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 8:17Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at MichelleGauthier.com.
- 8:23Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.