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
#123| The Surprising Truth About Productivity and Reaching Big Goals (& Why It Isn't What You Think!): Overwhelm, Productivity, Time Management & People Pleasing
What if the secret to getting more done isn’t pushing harder but actually… slowing down?
In a world obsessed with hustle and productivity, we often overlook the power of rest. This episode explores why relaxation—through meditation, stillness, and even napping—might be the ultimate productivity hack. If you're feeling drained, unfocused, or overwhelmed, these counterintuitive strategies could be the key to working smarter, not harder.
In this episode, you will:
- Discover how meditation can rewire your brain for less stress and more clarity.
- Learn how stillness activates creativity and problem-solving abilities.
- Find out why power naps (and even coffee naps!) can boost focus and performance.
Take a break that actually fuels your success—hit play now and start making productivity effortless!
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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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Meditating, over time, can actually change your brain. But you don't even have to worry about changing your brain, just change your day. 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:Hi, friend, I love today's podcast topic. It's so much fun for me because I do this and I really believe in this and it has to do with taking naps, which is one of my favorite things. So today I'm gonna talk about why the most effective productivity tool around might just be chilling out. We're gonna talk about meditation. We're gonna talk about how, when your brain's default mode network activates, and I'll tell you what that is, how that can make you feel more creative and allow you to solve problems better. And then, finally, we're going to talk about naps, power naps and coffee naps, which is something that I have just discovered. But before we jump in, I want to tell you that I have a one-on-one coaching spot open. I know I said this a couple weeks ago too, and that spot did fill really quickly with a podcast listener. So if you have been thinking about potentially coaching with me or learning more about it, take this as your sign. Send me a message and I will tell you the next steps for us to get together and just have a conversation about it. All right, let's dig into all the ways that chilling out and relaxing is what we need to do to help us hit our goals.
Michelle Gauthier:First, I want to talk about meditation. I was just talking about this in my Simple Sunday newsletter, the last one that went out. By the way, if you like this podcast and you don't get that newsletter, you should get on my email list. It comes out every other Sunday. It's always got tips and tricks and just fun stuff. Actually, we were talking about the white lotus on there as well. So there is a link in the show notes for you to sign up for that simple Sunday email newsletter if you're interested in that. Okay, but I digress. So I was just talking about this in the newsletter that I meditate almost every day.
Michelle Gauthier:It's a pretty rare day when I don't do it and I wear an oura ring, If you don't know what that is. It's a ring that tracks. It tracks your sleep, it tracks your activity, it tracks your daytime stress. It just gives you all these metrics about yourself throughout the day, which I love because I'm a nerd and I love that kind of stuff. And when I meditate it is so fascinating. The way the aura ring classifies daytime stress is you're either you're being restored or you're engaged or you're stressed. So engaged is like you know you're awake and you're working and you're doing productive things, or you're talking to a client or whatever it is, and you know your heart rate's not too high. And then stress, which it always nails it on the stress, it can always tell when I'm feeling stressed about something. It shows that. And when I meditate it goes just it's like it goes off a cliff, from stressed or engaged right down to restored, and I can see that on the ring, which is cool. But I can also feel it If I meditate in the afternoon.
Michelle Gauthier:My most often meditation time is to meditate between work and you know, like dinner or being a mom, the being the mom phase of the night, and I can tell you it gives me renewed energy. It just makes me feel clear. It is so, so powerful and there's so much proof scientific proof that meditation is good for you. But something I found really interesting is a study at Harvard found that meditation increases the gray matter in your hippocampus, which is where your learning and memory is, and decreases the size of the amygdala, which is where we feel stress. So I thought that was interesting that meditating over time can actually change your brain. But we don't even have to worry about changing your brain, just change your day by trying a five minute meditation. And if you're thinking, I cannot sit still and empty my mind for five minutes, me neither. I always use a guided meditation. There's tons of free ones on YouTube. I use the Breathe app. There are like 10 other apps that you can use. So if you feel like you could just use a stress break during the day, give it a try, Okay.
Michelle Gauthier:My other counterintuitive productivity tool is stillness, just in general stillness. What I'm talking about here is think about when you are taking a shower and it's just quiet and you get these great creative ideas that come through. That's because when you are doing a low focus, relaxing task like taking a shower, your brain's default mode network, DMN, activates and it helps you process thoughts and make creative connections. So when you're in that low, focused, relaxed state, your brain can help you really think of things. I don't know about you, but I always get great ideas in the shower. Many a podcasts are written in the shower.
Michelle Gauthier:So how do you do that? In the middle of the day? You probably can't run and take a shower unless you work from home, like me. I guess you could, but other ways to create that stillness in your life are to sit and focus on something, something in nature, for example. Can you go outside?
Michelle Gauthier:This probably sounds really weird, but one of the things that I do. I have several plants in my office and one of the things that I will do is just stare at one of the plants. I'll like notice how the leaves are on it, see if it looks a little dry, observe any new things that are growing, appreciate the fact that it's growing so well in my office and I just, you know, sort of have a soft focus on it and just let my brain relax and observe. You can also get stillness just by will move away from my desk. I have a swing in my office, which is so fun, and I will move away from my desk and over to the swing, with no technology, and I will just sit there and take deep breaths and just allow my brain and my body to think for a second. So try that, Try five minutes of stillness, which is different from meditation because it's not a guided, you're specifically thinking about something else, it's just letting your brain chill out like you would when you're in the shower. And then the third point, and then the third way that you can allow your brain to relax in order to be more productive is to take a nap.
Michelle Gauthier:I love naps. I feel like I've. I come from generations of nappers. My grandfather took a nap every day. He was a pilot and he, just in the afternoon, would always take a little 20 minute nap and he would always say naps are so delicious. My mom takes a nap every day. Now we're just meant to be nappers, I think. If you're like I'm not a napper, okay, then you can try the first or the second idea to meditate or just to have some stillness. But if you're a person who does nap or could nap, there is real evidence. The National Sleep Foundation says a 10 to 20 minute nap boosts our alertness and performance, and I totally believe that to be true. Many famous people like Einstein and Churchill took naps every day to boost their productivity. If you're feeling like your brain is so full and you have so many things to do, it might feel counterintuitive to take a nap, but taking a short nap can totally reset your mind and your body and lead you to having more focus and creativity.
Michelle Gauthier:I've got to tell you guys this hot tip that I just heard about and I think it's so interesting. So it's called a coffee nap, and the idea of a coffee nap is that you drink a small cup of coffee and then you take a nap for 20 minutes and while you're taking that nap, the caffeine kicks in along with the benefits of the nap. It's like a double boost. I think this is hilarious because all this time that I have been dating the handsome man friend, on the weekends he'll have a cup of coffee and go back to sleep, and I'm like maybe he's been doing the coffee nap all along. Anyway, I honestly haven't tried this one. I just found it when I was researching for this podcast, so I'm going to give it a try. If you try it, or if you already do it, send me a message. I want to hear about it.
Michelle Gauthier:Okay, so let's move on to Michelle's do less for more success tip. I feel like this entire episode is a series of how to do less for more success, but I want you to choose one of these three things that I have just talked about. That's my challenge for you this week. So either try a five minute meditation, try stillness, or try taking a power nap or a coffee nap for bonus points, and just observe what happens. Notice how you feel before and notice how you feel after, and you might be surprised just how much clarity and energy comes from taking a few minutes of intentional stillness of any kind. That's it for today. I hope you have a calm and relaxing day and week where you are getting everything done that you want to get done without feeling overwhelmed. See you Thursday. 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 michellegauthiercom. See you next week.
