Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing
Are you sick of juggling a million things, and pleasing everyone BUT you?
What if I told you that you could achieve more and find your calm by doing LESS?
In this podcast for accomplished working women, discover where you're going wrong with managing your overwhelm and the exact steps to feel more composed and productive.
Tune in to learn unlikely time management hacks, tips to feel less overwhelmed, and surprising ways to do less with your host Michelle Gauthier, who has over 6 years of experience coaching hundreds of overwhelmed working women.
If you want to to start reclaiming your time, setting better boundaries, and nurturing your mental well-being, you're in the right place.
Get started by listening to fan-favorite episode "The Power of a To-Don't List."
Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing
#119| Why Slowing Down is the Ultimate Productivity Hack Nobody Talks About: Overwhelm, Productivity, Time Management & People Pleasing
Are you constantly feeling like you need to do more, yet never seem to accomplish enough? What if the secret to real productivity is actually doing less?
In a world that glorifies hustle culture, many of us believe that productivity means working faster and doing more. But what if this mindset is actually keeping you stuck? This episode uncovers the surprising truth about how slowing down can make you more effective and help you reclaim your time.
In this episode, you will:
- Discover why the belief that "more is better" is actually sabotaging your productivity.
- Learn the science-backed reason that working beyond a certain point leads to diminishing returns.
- Get simple, actionable strategies to create time for yourself without adding more to your to-do list.
Hit play now to break free from the busy trap and unlock the power of focused, intentional productivity!
Featured on the podcast
Ep #48: How Your Closet Can Shape Your Day with stylist Laura Sawyier
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Life can be overwhelming, but on this podcast, you'll discover practical strategies to overcome overwhelm, imposter syndrome, and negative self-talk, manage time effectively, set boundaries, and stay productive in high-stress jobs—all while learning how to say no and prioritize self-care on the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
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I think the truth of this is that productivity isn't about how much you do. It's about doing the right things with focus. You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less. I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach. 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. Hi, friend, thanks for joining today. In today's episode, we're going to break the myth that productivity is all about working faster and doing more. If you've ever felt like, no matter how much you do, it's never enough, this episode is for you. In this episode, you'll discover why the belief that more is better is keeping you stuck, and the surprising reason that slowing down actually makes you more productive, and I will give you a couple simple ways to create time for yourself, even when life feels really busy. So by the end, you'll have a couple tangible strategies to reclaim some of your time and be more present and more productive without adding more to your to-do list. Let's jump into it. So, somewhere along the way at least, I got the story and I'd imagine that most of you did too that doing more makes you more productive. So if you want to produce more, you have to do more, and I think that our society, especially for women, kind of glorifies the hustle culture and rewards busyness. If you think about when you run into someone in public that you haven't seen in a while and they're like how's it going? How have you guys been that you always say like busy, oh, we're busy, oh, super busy, crazy busy. It's like part of our culture is that we all agree that we're too busy and doing too much, and I think the truth of this is that productivity isn't about how much you do. It's about doing the right things with focus. So, instead of doing you know 15 things and working on each of those things for 10 hours, maybe it's about working on 10 of those things and working on those for five hours, and maybe you will be more productive by doing that. For example, have you ever had a day where you were just busy all day long, like you finish the day and your brain hurts, but at the end of it you still feel like I got nothing meaningful done, like I was doing stuff all day but nothing meaningful actually got accomplished, and I know everyone's had days like that, and that's because activity doesn't always equal progress, even though you're doing things like when I think about myself how many hours I used to have to spend just responding to emails. That always felt like I wasn't getting anything done Because as soon as I would get to the bottom of the email inbox it would fill right back up and it was so frustrating. So I think doing fewer things with more focus will always beat doing more.
Michelle Gauthier:I looked up a study on this because I'm fascinated by the idea of diminishing returns, meaning when you work on something for a while, you're definitely being productive and probably getting good results, but at a certain point your productivity starts to drop off and your performance starts to drop off. I was always a runner and I ran a couple marathons, and a marathon is a perfect example of when you start off and you're feeling really good and you're running a mile. Maybe you cover a mile in eight minutes, and then you cover mile two in eight minutes and mile three in eight minutes, but you get to a point where you are continuing to cover more miles but it's just taking you longer and longer and it's probably beating up your body more and more after, say, mile 20 or so, and that makes so much sense for a marathon. But sometimes people feel like for work or taking care of your house or the combination of both that there is no point of diminishing returns. But there is.
Michelle Gauthier:I found the study from Stanford that backs up what I'm talking about here, and the basic idea, if you look at the chart that they show, is that if when you start working, the more hours that you work, you become more and more productive and your output becomes better and better, until you reach about 35 to 37 hours in a week and that's when the curve starts to go back down the other side that your productivity starts to go down. But it doesn't go down slowly, it's like a cliff. At a certain point Between 40 and 55 hours it is a quick decline and after working more than 55 hours it just literally falls off a cliff. So there are studies that are even backing this up that if you're working more than 35 to 37 hours, you have gone beyond your maximum productivity hours. So think about that in terms of when you're working those additional hours.
Michelle Gauthier:Is it worth it and what are you getting done, or would it be better for you to just call it a day and say, okay, I put in my hours for today, there's more that I can do, but I will do it better and more effectively tomorrow, instead of staying now and keep trying to do more and more and more? So think about that for yourself. Is there just a small place in your life where you could say I'm going to stop now and I'm going to come back to this later? I've never regretted the stop and come back to this later, because by the time I feel like I need to do that, it's because I'm just burned out and my brain is not working at its best capacity, and I'm not even going to be doing good work if I continue to work. The other thing that gets a bad rap is doing anything slowly, unless you sign up for a slow flow yoga class or something like that. Other than that, pretty much speed is praised and doing things slowly is not, and I think it's interesting to ponder how slowing down can actually make you more productive rather than less.
Michelle Gauthier:Think about what happens when you're in a rush. So if I'm running out the door and I know that I'm going to be late for something and I realize, oh my gosh, I can't find my keys. I can't find my keys. I have no idea where my keys are. I'm running around my house. I'm like yelling at my kids Does anyone know where my keys are? Has anyone seen my keys? Blah, blah, blah. And if my brain wasn't feeling rushed and I was feeling slowed down, I would be like wait, let me just think about this. Oh yeah, I put them in my workout bag. They're hanging up in my closet. I know right where they are. Our brain just works better when it's not rushed and I think, if you can imagine in your life where that happens, that's probably true for you as well.
Michelle Gauthier:The other thing is, when you're not in a rush and you're not trying to do things really quickly, you make smarter, more intentional decisions. For example, have you ever responded to an email really quickly and regretted it later? That's what happens when we rush. You might dash off a quick response. That is, either, if you know it's something that you're irritated with, might be in a more irritated, non-problem-solving tone. And the other thing is, when we answer things quickly, we're not thinking all the way through it, so you might give a confusing answer, which means you're just going to get another reply back. So think about if you were in a not-rush state of mind when you answered an email. The difference in the quality of the communication that you would have.
Michelle Gauthier:The other downside to never slowing down is that you just miss so much of life. It doesn't let you be present for the little things like that first sip of your morning coffee or a great conversation with someone or fresh air. So if you're a person who's always rushing from one thing to the next, so if you're a person who's always rushing from one thing to the next, I've given you a couple examples here of why slowing down could be better. Think about one area where you could slow down. Sometimes, when I feel really probably I will just calmly walk. Or instead of like throwing my shoes on while I'm also trying to walk, I'll just sit down and put my shoes on. If you can slow down your body, it helps you slow down your brain, and that will truly not only allow you to enjoy life more, but do better quality work and have better quality interactions with everyone your kids, your family, your boss, your co-workers, whoever Okay. So we've talked about the myth that doing more is not true. We've talked about why slowing down actually makes you more productive, and now I want to give you a couple ideas for how you can make time for yourself and slow down instead of rushing everywhere all the time.
Michelle Gauthier:If you're a person who's not spending a lot of time on things for yourself, you can schedule time like it's an appointment. If you had just even like a 10 minute check in with your boss or someone who works for you, would you ever skip it? Probably not. I have a client right now who just schedules 15 minutes of reading before bed or first thing when she works up, and it's non-negotiable and it's something that she loves to do, and it doesn't have to be, you know, reading to learn something. It can just be a book that you find interesting, but spending time for yourself doing something slow and, in theory, non-productive.
Michelle Gauthier:Another thing you can do is just slow down during the rituals that you already have. So if you already have a morning routine to have coffee or tea or whatever you have, instead of just like pouring it into the cup and running out the door or taking it straight to your office and barely even noticing it, take just a minute to create more of a slow down ritual where you pour the coffee and you pour the cream and you're not doing anything else. You're not checking your phone, you're not listening to anything, you're just paying attention to the coffee and take a sip of it and take a couple breaths and just notice how differently you feel and just notice how you feel after that, after you've taken one minute 30 seconds to slow down and actually drink your coffee. Another way to slow down is to have less to do. So this week, I challenge you to try to say no to something, anything, even just a tiny thing, like if your kid says will you come in here and watch me do this dance for the sixth time? I challenge you to say no, I saw it before, it was great. Whatever, I'm not going to do that right now. Give yourself the gift of one no If you do this, if you try any of these so scheduling a time for yourself to do something that you enjoy, creating a slow ritual for your coffee or whatever kind of rituals you have in your day or say no to one thing this week. Would you send me a message and tell me what it was? I would love to share your examples and ideas on next week's podcast.
Michelle Gauthier:Okay, let's wrap up with Michelle's do less for more success tip. This is a tip that I learned from a stylist, laura Sawyer. She was on a previous episode of the podcast. If you want to listen to it, it's a great episode, but it's something that I've been doing and is so helpful. She suggested, if you put on an outfit and you really like it, to take a picture of yourself in the outfit, because you know sometimes when you're trying to figure out like, will this sweater go with these pants? Do I need to wear boots with this, or should I wear tennis shoes with this?
Michelle Gauthier:When you put together an outfit that you really like, if you take a picture and then you can remember, oh yeah, I liked last time I wore it, let me just look back, let me flip through my pictures and see what I did, you don't have to rethink through the whole outfit every time. This has been so helpful to me because I have been going to an office. I have a corporate client right now and I see them. It's a group coaching thing and I see them at their office. So normally when I'm working from home and seeing my clients on Zoom, I definitely shower and get ready, but I always wear like comfy pants on the bottom and I don't put together like a whole outfit. So since I've been having to leave the house in a real outfit, it's taken me quite a bit of time to figure out what do I wear. I literally never wear shoes, so what shoes go with this outfit? So it's been really helpful to me to use this little trick that Laura taught me a while ago. Now let's just review what you've learned today.
Michelle Gauthier:Productivity isn't about doing more. It's about doing what matters with focus, and slowing down makes you more effective. Remember that cliff I talked about where you're productive until you're not, and when you're not, it just falls off a steep, steep cliff. So give yourself permission to do less and you will be more productive. And the last one is taking time for yourself is not selfish, and if you can slow down and take a few minutes for yourself, I think you'll see an increase in your satisfaction and your ability to be present throughout the whole day.
Michelle Gauthier:If you've been listening to the podcast and wondered what it's like to work with me one on one, to have me be your one on one coach for some of the things that we're talking about on the podcast, I would love to talk to you. If you're curious about what this would look like, you can click on the link in the show notes to send me a message and I'll tell you how to set up a free session where we'll talk about what's going on with you, what's feeling stressful in your life, and then I will talk about how we would approach that in coaching, and we will no pressure see if it's a good fit or not in coaching, and we will no pressure see if it's a good fit or not. So if you've been thinking about it and you've kind of had the urge to reach out to me, do it. It's free, even if you don't end up coaching with me. I promise you you will get some great tips in that one-on-one session.
Michelle Gauthier:Okay, see you later this week. Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast. If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegothiercom. See you next week.
