#128| The One Habit That Instantly Maximizes Your Workday Productivity: Overwhelm, Productivity, Time Management & People Pleasing

Do you ever reach the end of your workday and wonder where all your time went—with nothing truly important checked off your list?

 If your mornings feel chaotic and your to-do list seems endless, you're not alone—and the constant scramble can leave you feeling scattered, unproductive, and overwhelmed. This episode offers a simple daily habit that helps you cut through the noise and take back control of your time, so you can start each day with clarity and purpose.

In this episode, you will:

• Discover how a quick 3–5 minute morning planning ritual can instantly reduce overwhelm and boost focus.
• Learn why prioritizing just three tasks each day can help you accomplish more with less stress.
• Hear real-life success stories from professionals who regained control of their day using this simple method—no complicated systems or apps required.

 Hit play now to learn the easy habit that will make your day more productive—starting tomorrow morning.

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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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Chapters

• 1:39 Setting Priorities to Maximize Productivity
• 6:42 Avoiding Indecision

Transcript

Michelle Gauthier: 0:00

Instead of feeling scattered, you start the day knowing exactly what to focus on.

Michelle Gauthier: 0:09

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: 0:37

Hi friend. Thanks for joining today. I have a serious question for you. When I open the podcast, I always say hi friend, and apparently last week I said hi friends because someone messaged me and said I noticed that you said hi friends, and I really liked it because it made me feel like I'm part of the community, versus like you were just talking directly to me. I literally want to know what you guys prefer, because I do think about it as a big community of people who I'm talking to. But do you prefer to think that I'm just talking to you or do you like being part of this community of overwhelmed working women? I'd love if you'd tell me. Send me a message. It's in the show notes.

Michelle Gauthier: 1:14

Okay, now that we have that super important piece of business behind us, let's talk about a habit that can instantly make your workday more productive. Now you know that I love all things about setting yourself up for success in the morning, so there's an episode that talks about a morning routine that you can have. There's an episode that I did just recently that talks about starting your day off with a mantra. In today's episode, we're going to talk about taking like three to five minutes at the beginning of the day, when you first sit down at your desk or wherever you start your day, and listing out your top three priorities for the day. None of these ideas. The morning routine, the mantra doing this none of them contradict each other. And, in fact, best case scenario, you're doing all three of them but, as we know, if you're overwhelmed, you don't want to add on three new things for the morning. So if you're feeling overwhelmed and you're looking for just one quick way to make yourself feel better, try this one and see how it changes your day. So today I'm going to talk about how to do this quick three to five minute daily plan, why it works, how to do it effectively and how it really helps to eliminate overwhelm, so that you can stay focused and in control of your time.

Michelle Gauthier: 2:30

I don't know about you, but sometimes when my mornings are a little bit hectic like getting up and going to work out and then I come back and make my kids breakfast and get them out the door and make sure everybody has what they need and then I always take a few minutes to clean up the kitchen because, even though I can't see the kitchen from my office, if it's messy it just like weighs on my brain. So sometimes getting to my desk especially if my desk is clean and organized, which I always try to have it be, but sometimes that's not the case. But if I get to my desk and it's clean and organized, and because I love my job, I have this feeling of okay, I made it. I made it to the part of the day that's going to be relaxing and great. And then, if I don't have a client right off the bat which there are two days a week, three days a week, I have a client at nine. Two days a week, I don't have a client first thing.

Michelle Gauthier: 3:16

So when I have those days, I think, okay, the world is my oyster. What should I do? And I always have a long to do list of things that I could do. There's always content to create podcasts, to record ideas for things that I can put together for my clients, etc. Etc. Etc.

Michelle Gauthier: 3:34

So you can really waste. Let's say, I've got two hours in the morning to work on things. You could waste that whole time just working on something random or, you know, starting on something that's not that important. And that's where this plan comes in. Instead of feeling scattered, you start the day, knowing exactly what to focus on. So let me tell you about one of my clients. We'll call her Sarah.

Michelle Gauthier: 3:58

Every morning she'd sit down at her desk and open her email first thing, because you know you have to check your new emails, or your brain tells you you have to check your new emails first thing in the morning, and then she would get sucked into responding to messages and then kind of try to work on tasks but then go back to answer those emails. So she ended up feeling like she was putting out fires all day instead of having any strategic work time. So by the time she got to the actual work she needed to do, the day was like half gone and she felt exhausted and unaccomplished. So I suggested that she just try this little shift that we're working out, where she would spend five minutes every morning, before she even opened her email, to map out her top three priorities, and within a week she started to feel more in control and less scattered and way more productive. So even if she did open her inbox after that, she knew that responding to emails wasn't her number one priority for the day, that maybe she would check in, but then she was going to get to her number one priority right away, and it made a big difference in her day.

Michelle Gauthier: 5:00

So here's how to do it effectively. If you sit down at your desk or maybe you have the kind of work where you're standing somewhere or arriving somewhere or whatever it is whatever indicates that you're at the beginning of your workday you can either set a timer for three minutes or five minutes, however long you think it will take, and then just look at your schedule, look at your to-do list. If you're telling me right now I don't have any place to look at those, everything's just kind of in my head or on my phone Do your best, find it wherever it is, think about it in your head and just ask yourself what are my top three things to do? Today I have another client we'll call her Rachel who always felt like her to-do list was never ending and it really was, because she'd write down way too many tasks and then get overwhelmed by all she had to do and end up procrastinating. Because that happens a lot when you have too much to do and you just get overwhelmed, you don't do anything at all. So she worked on this same idea of limiting herself to just three key priorities each day and at first it felt weird not writing that massive list. Now she did keep that massive list somewhere else, so it's not like she threw that list away. It made her feel secure to still have that list somewhere else, but she would write down her three tasks for the day. I put mine on a sticky note and stick it on the page of my planner. That's how I do it. You do it however you want. She realized that focusing on fewer things made her feel way more accomplished. It also helped her really identify where she was underestimating the amount of time that things would take. So even if she would get it down to a top three some days, she would only get to the top one, and that's really good for her to know that it's not realistic to plan to do three things in one day when she can really get one thing done in a day.

Michelle Gauthier: 6:42

The third example of real life people who have used this method is my client we'll call her Kelly who is a manager, and her whole day was just a marathon of meetings, literally. Sometimes she'd have like nine meetings in one day, and so by the time she had a minute to breathe it was like, okay, now it's late in the afternoon, I have 15 or 30 minutes to work on stuff. I don't even know what I'm supposed to work on because I've been in meetings all day. So I just suggested she spend this five minutes prioritizing, in her case, just one thing that she absolutely wanted to accomplish between meetings, and she started blocking off little chunks of time for those priorities and then she felt like she made progress besides the meetings. Also in that, that case, if that's you and you're in meetings all day, put on your priority list, attend and be present in all of the meetings on my schedule as one of your priorities, because that is what is taking up the majority of your day, and you need to acknowledge that most of that time has already been spent. So, in summary, if you want to boost your productivity and make your brain feel less overwhelmed so you can be more productive, just start each day with a five minute daily plan, clarify your top priorities before you dive into work, open your inbox, jump into a meeting and write down your one to three non-negotiables for the day, and then just use this plan as a guide to stay focused. So when you have downtime from meetings or other things and you're like, okay, I'm gonna do something right now. What should I work on? You'll know it's right there.

Michelle Gauthier: 8:15

If this episode helps you, or any of the episodes on this podcast have helped you, I would love if you would send this podcast to a friend and or do a review and a rating.

Michelle Gauthier: 8:28

Right now, this podcast is in the top two percent globally of all podcasts. There are 3.5 million podcasts and we are in the top two percent and my goal for this year is to get to the top one percent, and that is based on a listen score that is assigned and our listen score keeps inching its way up and our way to get to top 1%, which means when somebody searches for overwhelm or people pleasing, that our podcast is going to be the first one that comes up. The way to do that is by putting out great content that lots of people download, and then they also weigh heavily on how many reviews you get. So if you love it and you would write a review and leave me a rating, I would so appreciate it and so would all of the future women who don't even know this podcast exists today, but we'll start seeing it in their search results. Have a great week, see you soon.

Michelle Gauthier: 9:24

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.