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
#122| Why Your Phone Is Hurting Your Productivity (And How to Fix It) : Overwhelm, Productivity, Time Management & People Pleasing
Have you ever found yourself mindlessly scrolling on your phone, only to realize you've wasted hours of your day? What if you could turn your phone into a tool for focus instead of distraction?
In today's fast-paced world, our phones have become both a productivity powerhouse and a time-wasting trap. If you've ever felt frustrated by how often you pick up your phone or wished you could use it more effectively, this episode is for you.
In this episode, you will:
- Discover how to assess your actual phone usage (and why you're probably underestimating it).
- Learn simple tweaks to transform your phone from a distraction machine into a focus-enhancing tool.
- Get three actionable strategies to use your phone for productivity instead of mindless scrolling.
Hit play now to take control of your phone habits and start using your device in a way that supports your goals!
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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 feel like phones have the potential to be our greatest productivity tool and also our biggest distraction.
Michelle Gauthier: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.
Michelle Gauthier:Hey friends, if I sound like I have a little bit of a cold today, I think it's just spring allergies, so pardon my less than ideal voice this week. I'm happy to report, though, that we have had some warm and sunny temperatures in St Louis, and I've had the windows open, which is probably causing allergies, but I don't even care because I'm so happy for the sun. But I digress. Okay, here's what we're here to talk about today.
Michelle Gauthier:I was pondering the other day as I was using my phone at my daughter's horse lesson and it ended up dying when I still had like 20 minutes left to wait for her. If anyone's kid out there does horse lessons, you know that it is a several hour endeavor, like I am gone for four hours. You have to get there early and get all these things done and then you do the actual lesson and then you have to undo all the things for the horse and blah, blah. But anyway, I spend a lot of time waiting and I try to be productive during the time that I'm just sitting in the car waiting for her, and I use my phone all the time, and I was marveling at all of the things that we can do on our phone. I mean, I can essentially do my entire job on my phone if I had to. I'd prefer not to, but I could if I had to. But then on the flip side, you can just totally waste so much time. I'm sure we can all think of someone right now in our mind who we spend a lot of time with, who's basically addicted to their phone and is constantly picking it up and is not present, and maybe that person is you, or maybe it's somebody who you spend a lot of time with. But I feel like phones have the potential to be our greatest productivity tool and also our biggest distraction. So what I want to talk about today is how to make your phone work for you in a good way. I'm going to talk about how you can transform your phone from a distraction machine into a focus machine, and we'll do a quick reality check on your phone habits and I'll give you three easy ways to make your phone work for you and not against you.
Michelle Gauthier:So first of all, let's think about how often are you using your phone? I would bet that 100% of people think they use their phone less than they actually use their phone. It's funny if you have an iPhone you can check under screen time, like settings, screen time, and apparently, if you have an Android I don't have one, but I looked this up for you Android people there's a digital wellbeing where you can look and see how much time you're actually spending on your phone. So I went to go check this for myself and it wasn't turned on, like the feature wasn't turned on. So I turned it on because I knew I was going to do a podcast on this.
Michelle Gauthier:I don't have like a long history that I can share with you, but I can tell you for sure today and the day is almost done now but I have picked up my phone 99 times and if you would have asked me, I mean literally 99, like I looked at the setting on the phone, sounds like just a number I'd make up, but for real that was it. And if you would have asked me how many times did I pick up my phone today, I would have said like 30 maybe so I think that we are unconsciously a lot of times picking up our phone.
Michelle Gauthier:I notice it in other people. In fact, I kind of called out the handsome man friend on this and he's like, you totally do it too, and I don't think he was wrong. I just think it's easier to notice about other people. Anytime there's a moment of silence, you're just picking up your phone. So the first thing that I recommend that you do is just to see how often you're actually using your phone and, if you dare, ask your kids or your significant other how much time you think you're spending on your phone, and then you'll also be able to see in there your most used apps. Are they helping you or are they just keeping you busy? Like, for example, today I spent two hours on social media. I would say for me, about an hour of that is legitimate work and another hour is just, you know, checking on stuff, scrolling through reels, whatever. So once you figure out how you're spending your time on your phone and if you like that because let's just say I picked up my phone 99 times today and it was all related to you know things that were productive for me and things that I wanted to do. Do I really need to be picking it up that much? In general, I mean, that just feels like so much.
Michelle Gauthier:Anyway, you have the opportunity to do a couple things to really make your phone more of a productivity tool. The first one is optimize your phone for focus, not for distractions. Everyone knows, like my family, if you really need to get a hold of me, just call me twice and then it will actually ring, because otherwise I won't see it. And when I'm coaching my clients, my phone is near me but it's turned upside down because I don't even want to see it. Like if somebody's calling or whatever, it doesn't matter, I'm not going to answer and I just don't want to be distracted. So where can you turn off the notifications? And think about if you've got an Apple Watch too. One of my clients was telling me that she was doing a good job at putting her phone in the other room and I said that is good because that was something she was working on. I'm like what about the watch? She's like well, I haven't taken the watch off yet. So I feel like if the phone's not distracting you, the watch could be distracting you. I actually got rid of my Apple Watch. For that reason it's like I don't really need to know 24-7. So think about what works for you. Turn off all the non-essential notifications and you're in charge of how often you pick it up and how often you look at it. Then the other tip is to rearrange your home screen so put your productivity things front and center, like your calendar, your note, the focus timer, and then make the time wasting apps. You can set time limits on them. You can put them on the second or third screen so you have to scroll to get to them and then utilize the settings on the phone where you can be on do not disturb or focus mode during work hours and at night, so you're not constantly being interrupted.
Michelle Gauthier:The other thing that I recommend is to evaluate if you're using your phone first thing in the morning, if that works for you. I've written articles on this before and I've had people come up to me and say what I just really enjoy that time in the morning. That's kind of my chill time and I like to look at my phone first. So if it works for you, that's cool. But if you end up just scrolling and then you just get sort of that yucky feeling, consider just, I know most of us use our phone for an alarm.
Michelle Gauthier:So turning off the alarm on your phone and then going and doing something else Like my requirement for myself is before I play around on the phone. This does not include weekends. On weekends I love to lay in bed and just scroll through reels and, you know, do mindless things. I like it. I enjoy it. It's part of my fun time. But during the week, when I have to get up and get going, I have to drink a full glass of water and do my journaling before I use my phone. So you could make up a rule like that for yourself.
Michelle Gauthier:If you feel like it doesn't serve you to use your phone first thing, you could even put it in another room. One of my clients was trying not to use her phone at night and she found it really hard when it was on her bedside table. So we had the funniest conversation because she's like I don't mind putting it in another room, but how am I going to wake up? So she had to buy an old school alarm clock. I only ever see those anymore in hotels.
Michelle Gauthier:So you can think about a solution like that for yourself if you feel like it's really distracting you, to have it at your bedside table in the morning and then think about how you can use your phone as a productivity tool to get more things done. Something that I like to do is use the voice memos when I have ideas for things. If I'm driving, I'll use the voice memos to like record ideas for an email I want to send out or a podcast idea that I have. You can also use the timers and the reminders and the calendar to set up time blocking type things to say I'm going to work on only this for 20 minutes. I'm going to set a. So there are lots of ways that you can really make your phone work for you.
Michelle Gauthier:So, in summary, look at how you're using your phone and see if you like it. Then think about optimizing your phone to reduce distractions. I know some people who get notifications on their Facebook and their Instagram and LinkedIn and all this stuff and that your phone is just constantly dinging and our bodies respond to that like it's some sort of emergency, when it's clearly not. And then we talked about trying to use the phone for true productivity. The biggest thing I use mine for is the timer when I'm just doing really focused time trying to work on something. So, for today, make just one little change. Whether it's silencing your notifications, moving your apps to another screen, checking your screen time, whatever it is, make one little change. Whether it's silencing your notifications, moving your apps to another screen, checking your screen time, whatever it is, make one little change and see if you can make your phone work for you instead of against you.
Michelle Gauthier:Speaking of phones, if your phone is in your hand right now because you're listening to this podcast, I would love if you would rate the podcast and write a review. That would be amazing if you would take a minute to do that. And I would love if you would rate the podcast and write a review. That would be amazing if you would take a minute to do that. And I would also love to hear from you. Remember, on Thursdays, I can also answer listener questions. So if you send me a message in the show notes, there's just a link there that says send me a message. If you send me a message, you will DM me on Instagram and tell me what kind of questions you have and what kind of podcast you'd like to see. I love to answer your questions. All right, have a great week.
Michelle Gauthier: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 michellegauthier. com. See you next week.
