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
#137| How to Manage Morning Anxiety, Balance Parenting and Work - Your Questions Answered (Part 2): Overwhelm, Productivity, Time Management & People Pleasing
If you’ve ever woken up overwhelmed by anxious thoughts, struggled with confronting your teenager, or felt like you're balancing life on a tightrope, this special two-year anniversary episode will feel like a deep breath of fresh air. Hear listener questions answered with heart and honesty — plus a few fun surprises about Michelle's personal life — so you can see you're not navigating this alone.
In this episode you will:
- Discover simple, practical tools to calm morning anxiety and start your day with more peace.
- Learn how to navigate tricky parenting moments using your intuition — not guilt or fear.
- Get inspired by personal stories of growth, connection, and the reminder that B-minus work is often more than enough.
Press play now to celebrate two years of growth with us — and walk away feeling lighter, braver, and more connected.
Send Me a Message - Have a question, comment, or just want to say hi? Message me here, I'd love to chat!
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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.
Thank you for listening! If you love the podcast, please subscribe and leave a review. 💗
Michelle, what is a habit that you struggle to break, Like? Is there one thing that you've just been trying and trying and trying to stop doing that? You can't quit.
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. Hey friend, thanks for joining today. I'm coming to you from St Louis where it is raining so hard I'm afraid you're going to be able to hear it in the background of this podcast. Hopefully not Today.
Michelle Gauthier:I'm welcoming you back to our birthday celebration, part two for the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast. This is year two and if you caught episode 136, which would have been last Thursday you know we started something a little different Hearing straight from you the amazing listeners who tune in every week, sharing what resonates with you, what's helped, and then asking some really great questions. This is part two of that celebration, so I've got more listener questions to answer. Today we'll talk about everything from anxious thoughts when you wake up in the morning to my dream podcast guest Spoiler alert. I'm putting it out into the universe right now, and then a little dishing on the handsome man friend, because why not? So, whether this is your first episode or you've been here since day one, I'm so glad you're here. Thank you for listening. Let's keep the celebration going, because two years of growth and connection and learning how to do less and live more that is what we are here for.
Michelle Gauthier:If you have not done a review, I would love if you would take a few minutes to do that. Our podcast here is in the top 2% of podcasts. There are 3.5 million podcasts and we are in the top 2%, and the reason why we got there is because you are listening and you are leaving reviews. Also, if you know somebody who would love this podcast, who isn't a listener, if you would pass it along, that would be amazing as well. I truly, genuinely appreciate that. Okay, let's dive in. I think the first question up is about the handsome man friend.
Angie:Hey, Michelle, just wanted to wish a very happy birthday to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast. This is Angie from St. Louis, and my favorite concept that you teach is that our thoughts are just like something that we can step back from and kind of look at from afar. So it might be that they're floating clouds or whatever you want to imagine, and they are just floating by and we get to choose the ones that we want to keep. And that was so powerful for me. And I guess my question to you would be tell us more about Handsome Manfriend. You don't mention him very much on the podcast. What could we know about him?
Michelle Gauthier:Hey, Angie, thanks for the question. I love this one. Okay, so I'll tell you about the Handsome Manfriend we met on Tinder, where all true love happens Just kidding, but I think sometimes it actually does. We're not the only ones. He's super tall, he's like 6'4". He's a big guy, but he immediately the first time I ever saw him, before I even talked to him, I immediately felt at ease. So he's like a big teddy bear. He's super sweet and kind. That's like the first words that I would say about him.
Michelle Gauthier:He is a dad of three kids. He's also divorced. He is much better than I am about details and how long things will actually take, so we're a good match that way. For his career, he's a wealth manager and he has the exact personality of the person who you would want to manage your money for you, whereas I'm like the big idea girl like, hey, let's go on this great vacation. And then he's the one who knows what time we should actually arrive at the airport and he will pack like six different kinds of sunscreen and things that I would never think to do. He's just the best guy. I'm lucky to have him. We've been together five and a half years.
Tasha:Hey, Michelle, it's Tasha from Maryland. I just want to let you know that my favorite podcast that you've ever done is everything about people pleasing, because you taught me how to not people please. And all your other podcasts are just real and relatable and they're all amazing and I love listening to all of them. And I'm going to ask two questions because I'm a rule breaker. You know that is what. Are you coming to Maryland? And I'm going to ask two questions because I'm a rule breaker. You know, that is when are you coming to Maryland? Because I would love to have dinner with you. And two, it's about parenting. How do you confront your son who you, who's a teenager who most likely skipped school, and you know about it, but he doesn't know? You know about it.
Michelle Gauthier:Hey, Tasha, I'm so glad that you've been able to stop or slow down your people-pleasing. That is awesome To answer your two questions. You're such a rebel. First of all, I don't have any plans to come to Maryland anytime soon, but one of my best friends lives in DC, so maybe I could swing that. Maybe I could make that happen.
Michelle Gauthier:And your second question about your son. It sounds like what you're trying to decide is do you confront him or do you not confront him about this? And I suspect you found out in a way that you might not want to share with him. So my advice to you if I was doing a coaching session with you, I would ask you a bunch of questions, but not knowing any more than what I heard in your question, I would suggest to you that you check your gut on this. So ask yourself should I confront him or should I just let this one go? Is this a situation where you feel like he needs to be corrected and you really want to make sure that you know what he's up to? Or is this a situation where you just want to keep that under the radar and then just kind of have your antenna up for something else happening?
Michelle Gauthier:Similar to this. I feel like, as moms, the answer is almost always there for us, like we have our intuition, but sometimes we tune it out or we listen to what other people say we could do. So I would turn it back to you and say what does your gut say? You know your kid best. You know probably what he needs. Does he need to be disciplined or called out for this, or is this a situation where you're just going to let it go? And also remember I have to tell myself this often with my own teenagers that the job of teenagers is to separate from their family and they start to make their own decisions, and making bad decisions and doing things that they're not supposed to do or against the rules is actually part of their development. You get to decide what you do about it, but don't forget that part.
Simonetta:Hi everyone. I am Simonetta. I am from Italy, near Milan, and my favorite thing about the ideas that Michelle shares in her podcast is the B minus idea. So I always thought that we don't need to be perfect, also because we can't be perfect, and I liked it so much to find a way to express this idea with just two little letters, or one letter and one sign I don't know the English name for that. I also have a question for Michelle, which is among all the advices and the ideas that you give to your listeners, that you will give to your listeners, which one is the one that changed your own life, the best one that fits for you and that helped you change, improve your life? Thank you very much and happy birthday. Michelle's podcast.
Michelle Gauthier:Hi Simonetta, thank you so much for your question. So the number one thing that has changed my life is the idea that we don't have to believe all of the thoughts that come into our head. When I was first transitioning to becoming a life coach, the thought would come into my head a lot that was like you're never going to make it as a life coach, you need to go back to a corporate job. How are you going to support your family? All those kinds of thoughts would come into my head like every day. So, for example, if a thought came into my head like you're never going to make it as a life coach and you need to go back to a corporate job, being able to evaluate that, and ask myself okay, my brain offered that thought because it's always trying to keep me safe and it perceives that it's safer for me to have a corporate job.
Michelle Gauthier:But is that thought really true and do I need to believe that thought and does it help me to believe that thought? So just the idea that the thoughts that pop into my head aren't necessarily true and that I can change them and work on changing them permanently over time is the most life-changing tool that I use, and I use it almost every day in the morning. I write down all of my thoughts. If there are any that aren't serving me, I either see if I can just let them go or if I can change them into a new and better thought. Thanks for your question and I love your feedback on the concept of B-minus work.
Abby:Hello, I'm Abby Francis and I'm from St Louis Missouri. Congratulations, Michelle and O-W-W, for your second birthday. What a celebration. So my favorite thing about your podcast, Michelle, is that I can access your voice anytime, anywhere, so when I can't see you in person, I can hear you and I feel like you are talking to me. The other thing I love I know I was supposed to say one, but there's two I love that your podcasts don't overwhelm me by their length. I love that you keep it short, concise and simple, and I don't have to listen for an hour and a half to hear your message. So thank you for keeping your episodes to an appropriate, non-overwhelming length. And my question for you is who is your dream podcast guest and what are you doing to get that guest on your show?
Michelle Gauthier:Hey, Abby, I love this question and I was cracking up because I would immediately say Mel Robbins would be my dream guest. What I admire the most about her is that she has such a simple way of teaching these cool concepts, like the let them theory and just how to be less anxious, and she says it so simply. I would love to meet her. I admire so much the concepts that she teaches and how vulnerable she is in saying that she still, to this day, struggles with things. It just makes her so relatable. The second part of your question what are you doing to get her on the show? I was like, oh dang nothing. I have pitched some big people to be guests on the show, but I haven't gone that big yet. So I'm going to commit to you right now, Abby, before this episode goes out, I'm going to reach out to Mel Robbins and ask her to be a guest on my podcast. What can it hurt, right?
Atavia:Hey, Michelle, my name is Atavia and I live in Leeds in the UK and I absolutely love your podcast. It's helped me in so many ways. You wouldn't believe if I told you.
Atavia:My favourite one so far, I think, has been the advice around how your mobile phone can hurt your productivity, and something I've started doing is purposely not looking on my phone for the first half hour of the day, which has really helped to not make me feel as overwhelmed in the morning. But something I'm struggling with that I'd love your advice on is as someone who gets a lot of anxiety and a lot of intrusive anxious thoughts in the morning when I first wake up. I feel like sometimes that can still happen even if I'm not going on my phone, although going on my phone definitely made it worse. So I would love any advice or tips around what to do when you are just a very highly anxious person and you get quite a lot of intrusive anxious thoughts which can really derail your day and make you feel very overwhelmed, because then I feel like I don't really know where to start or what to do. So yeah, I would love any advice you could give me on that and I also want to say happy two year anniversary to the podcast.
Atavia:Thank you for everything that you do and all the amazing advice you give us. And, yeah, happy birthday to the podcast.
Michelle Gauthier:Hey Atavia, thank you so much for your feedback and for the question. What I would say to your question about waking up with anxious thoughts is, first of all, you are not alone. You probably already know that, but this is something that I hear all the time and something that I experienced myself. I don't know what it is about our brains. They just waiting until we open our eyes to throw out all of those anxious thoughts in the morning. Great job on noticing that your phone causes anxiety and not using that right away in the morning. But if you're still feeling those anxious thoughts, a couple of things that I would recommend. The first thing I would do is give your brain a name. Maybe it's like Jessica. So let's say we name your brain Jessica and then observe what's happening from the outside. Like Jessica is really talking loudly. Today, she has a lot of anxious thoughts that she wants to share with me. Today, jessica is telling me that, whatever the thing is, whatever anxious thought that you're having in your mind that day, when you talk about it in this way, it just makes you once removed from the thoughts themselves and it makes you be able to talk about your brain as a separate entity from yourself, and I think giving your brain a name is a quick and easy way to do that to remind yourself that the thoughts that your brain offers are separate from you as a person. And then, normally, the way that I think about anxious thoughts, especially the ones that come in the morning the best thing to do with them is to try to acknowledge them and deal with them right away. So step one would be boy Jessica is really offering a lot of anxious thoughts today. Let's take a look and see what they are.
Michelle Gauthier:I would recommend that you just get out a piece of paper or type a note in your phone oh wait, you don't have your phone in the morning Get out a piece of paper and write down all of those anxious thoughts. A hundred percent of the time, in my experience and the experience of my clients, that makes the anxiety feel less. So it doesn't. You don't write them down and they're just gone, but writing them down and just seeing them on a piece of paper sometimes I can honestly even laugh at the ones that I have, which helps me. Let them go, sometimes they feel more real but writing them down and just taking a look at them and deciding if there are any that you can just let go of or anywhere you need to change them to a different thought.
Michelle Gauthier:Or sometimes those negative thoughts or anxious thoughts, just hang on and just knowing it's there and telling yourself, like I'm having this anxious thought today, for example, sometimes I'll get really worried about my kids, especially when I'm not with them, in situations where I don't need to worry about them.
Michelle Gauthier:But I have kind of a recurring thought that comes up of what if something happens when I'm out of town, etc. And so when I'm on a trip I will say, ok, that's the thought that comes with me when I go on a trip and I can see it there, but I don't have to react to it. So it's either one see if you can just say I don't need to think that thought anymore, that one can just go away. Two, I can change that thought to something different, like I could try saying my kids are safe, I don't have to worry about anything right now. Or three, just know the thought's going to be there, but don't make it too meaningful. Send me a message and let me know if that helps you. If it doesn't, I can do a longer episode on this question, because it's a great one and it's something that I hear a lot from my clients. Thanks so much for your question.
Jen:Hi, my name is Jen and I'm based in Brooklyn, new York. I love Michelle's podcast so much. The tips and tricks that she's shared over the years have really helped me move further away from overwhelm during my day to day and into a state of balance. One thing that always resonated with me was how she convinced me that multitasking was actually hindering my efficiency, not to mention my sanity, and how to embrace single tasking. So thank you so much for that, Michelle. One question I have for you as I enter into motherhood I'm expecting any day now is how to embrace parenthood and working in a not overwhelming way. So anyway, thank you so much, excited for more episodes to come.
Michelle Gauthier:Hey Jen, thanks for your question and congratulations in advance on becoming a mom. That is so exciting To answer your question about how to embrace motherhood in a non-overwhelming way. I just have a couple things that I would suggest for that. Number one is to know and accept and have the expectation that at first it will be overwhelming. Just, I mean, I remember thinking who gave me this child? I have no idea what I'm doing. Do they know that? Do they realize that? And I sort of thought that it was because my kids were adopted. And then I realized from talking to my other mom friends, nobody knows what they're doing at first.
Michelle Gauthier:And you know, people act like there's this magical mothery thing that just happens upon you. But it does happen upon you. But it happens upon you because you spend a ton of time with your child. You start to understand like, oh, that means they're tired, or that means they need a new diaper, or yeah, he really likes to look out the window or whatever it is. So it is a little overwhelming at first, maybe sometimes a lot overwhelming without being able to get good sleep. But just remember that that is true of most brand new things and this is one of the bigger, brand new things in life. Totally worth it, but I would expect that at first it will feel overwhelming for sure.
Michelle Gauthier:And then the second thing is the idea of work life balance I think is kind of a myth. I don't think that there's like this state that you reach where you have balance between, like, your motherhood and your work. I think it's more of a day to day or a week to week strategy, and some days you feel like I nailed it, and some days you feel like, oh my gosh, I didn't get any work done, like, let's just say, your child is sick or you know, something comes up with your child, you don't get any work done, or you're on a deadline and you feel like you didn't see your child enough, and there will be days like that. So the advice that I would give you is just doing your best to plan ahead where you can and have specific boundaries and work hours and all of those things, and then just know that sometimes that's all going to go sideways and that's OK too. You are going to be such a great mom.
Cori:This is Kori and I'm from St Louis. I've been listening to the Overwhelmed Working Women podcast since the beginning. I love Michelle's sincere, relatable voice and I find the topics varied and interesting. Sometimes the episodes make me laugh out loud, Sometimes they move me to tears and very often they move me to take action. One of my favorite episodes that stands out is the one with Laura Sawyer, I think the stylist. I was so encouraged by that episode that I emptied my entire closet and the only things that went back in were items I loved and items that fit, and I could not believe how much decluttering my closet actually decluttered my brain. One question I have for you, Michelle, is where are you traveling next? What country do you want to visit most?
Michelle Gauthier:Hey, Corey, thanks for your question and I love that the episode with Laura Sawyer was so impactful. I agree it's amazing what a difference it can make in your life. Your question is about which country I want to travel to next. I just got home from Costa Rica, so if I would have answered this last week, I would have said Costa Rica, but my real answer is Japan. I am planning to take both of my kids to Japan next summer not this summer, but next summer after my son graduates high school. My son is really into Japanese cars and there's like a whole car culture there that I didn't even know existed, but now I know quite a bit about. And it's funny. Ever since I've been thinking about this trip and starting to plan for it in a very light way, it feels like my entire Instagram feed is going to Japan and I know so many people who have gone on vacation to Japan and it's just fun. So if anybody has tips on traveling to Japan, let me know.
Kari:Hi, my name is Kari Kaiser. I'm from Billings, Montana, and the thing I most appreciate about Michelle's podcast is just how efficient she is with her listeners' time. I feel like they get right in there and talk about things that are relevant and informative and useful to those of us listening. So I really appreciate that. And my question is, Michelle what is a habit that you struggle to break? Like? What is there one thing that you've just been trying and trying and trying to stop doing that you can't quit?
Michelle Gauthier:Hey, Kari, I appreciate the comment that I am very efficient with my listeners' time. I'm always thinking about the overwhelmed working woman who I'm talking to and trying to make it as impactful and powerful and as short as possible. Okay, your question is what's something that I've tried to stop doing and I just can't? The answer immediately popped into my head and it is flavored coffee creamer. I know you might be thinking, oh, that's not so bad, but the stuff I drink, which is like French vanilla flavored, it's very concerning. I think it's just all plastic in there, but it just tastes so good. And I have tried, like making vanilla creamer at home. I've tried all the organic, like the superfood ones or whatever, and it just doesn't do it for me. And I'm such a healthy eater and I could go from morning to night and really feel like, oh, I ate everything good except for that damn creamer. I just can't quit it. So that's my answer. Okay, friend, that's a wrap for today.
Michelle Gauthier:Thanks for listening. Not only did you learn what to do with your morning anxiety, how to have more balance as a mom, but you also learn that I'm addicted to flavored coffee creamer and that I met the handsome man friend on Tinder. What more can you ask for? Have a great week. I'll 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 michellegauthier. com. See you next week.
