#148| Beat Summer Overwhelm with Intentional Time Management - Here's How: Overwhelm, Productivity, Time Management & People Pleasing

Are you craving a slower, more intentional summer — but find yourself buried in chaos the moment June hits?

Most of us imagine summer as a season of rest, but without a clear plan, our calendars fill up with obligations before we even realize it. If your summer days keep slipping through your fingers, this episode delivers the exact strategy to reclaim your time.

In this episode, you will:

• Discover the 3-step Calendar Clean-Out Method to create space, sanity, and simplicity each week.
• Learn how to categorize your time (Locked, Open, and Off-Duty) to make smarter decisions.
• Find out why estimating task time can transform your weekly productivity — and your peace of mind.

Listen now to learn how to design a summer schedule that gives you both relaxation and results — without burning out or missing out.

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Calendar Clean Out

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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 Worki...

Chapters

• 3:01 The Calendar Clean Out Method
• 3:46 Understanding Locked, Open, and Off-Duty Time
• 7:41 Creating a Realistic To-Do List

Transcript

Michelle Gauthier: 0:00

Just like budgeting your money if you don't plan your time, it just gets spent by accident and suddenly it's all gone. 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, tell you what it's summer in my house, and here's how you know. Know, because I just had to ask three children to get out of my office so that I could record this episode. And I am recording this between taking my 14 year old to Starbucks and then later driving her to a pool party. So they are living their best life.

Michelle Gauthier: 0:57

Meanwhile, we all of us, I believe want our summer to be different than the rest of the year. We want it to feel relaxed and easy and open. I do, anyway, but that doesn't happen by accident. In fact, the only way to truly enjoy the slower pace of summer, or to make summer have a slower pace, is to intentionally plan it that way. So if you have had summers in the past where you really wanted it to feel relaxing and it just absolutely was not. I have got a great method for you to try. Today, I'm going to walk you through a simple strategy that I use every single week the calendar clean out method. It's the perfect way to protect your time and reduce your stress and make space for the kind of summer you actually want to have. You really don't need more hours. The hours are neutral. We have the exact same amount every week. You just need a better way to decide what fits. When you listen, today, you will learn a method that could change the course of your entire summer. It's called the calendar clean out method and it has three steps. I'm going to give you the details on each one. Number one you're going to look at your calendar, see what is already blocked or locked in and where you have open time. Then you're going to create or review your to-do list and give an estimated time for each one of those things. And then the third step, which I'm going to give you the full scoop on, is where the magic happens. That's the one where you overlay those two things together and create a realistic schedule for yourself so that you do not feel overwhelmed. You instead feel in control and productive, even if it's summer. Before I jump into all the details on that, though, I wanted to let you know that group coaching registration is still open. I am going to close group registration this week, so if you are interested, click on the link in the show notes to get all the information, all the details about what we do in group coaching, and set up a quick 15 minute consultation with me to see if it's a great fit for you.

Michelle Gauthier: 3:00

Okay, let's jump in. As you're listening to the podcast today, I'm following along and thinking oh, I hope I can remember all these steps. I just want to tell you that I did create a downloadable PDF that has all these steps in it so that when you're ready to plan your week and maybe you're listening to this and you want to do that right now you can go grab that document that will guide you through exactly how to do this calendar clean out method, that document that will guide you through exactly how to do this calendar clean out method. The first thing you're going to do is you're going to review what is already on your calendar. So these are the things that are meetings, doctor's appointments, kid logistics that you are involved in. For me it's coaching calls or group coaching anything that's already on the calendar where that time is already spoken for.

Michelle Gauthier: 3:46

Then I want you to think about breaking down your time in your mind into three types of time. The first type is locked time. If you have a teenager, you know how they say I'm locking in. This is like the locked in time things that have to happen and they have to happen at a very specific time. So for me, this would be a coaching session. Both I and another person have this time on our calendar. It's locked. I'm not going to be moving that. It could also be something like if you have to drive your kid to a camp before nine o'clock in the morning, or for me, workouts go into this lock time. I choose. I don't work out the same time every week, but I choose on Sunday which times I'm going to be working out and I put those on my calendar as locked time. So normally, if you look at your calendar, you'll see a lot of these things on there already. But what I want you to do right now is think about what do you have in the summer, if anything that is locked time that you don't have the rest of the year and is that on your calendar? So an example for me is that my daughter works at the barn where she takes her horse lessons, and she's only 14, so she can't drive. So when she has to work and in fact before she can even get on the schedule, she has to ask me if she can do it, because I need to block a half hour of my time even more, really, 45 minutes of my time to drop her off and then get back home and then pick her up and get back home. So both of those things have to be planned on my calendar. So that's an example of locked time where I I really in a normal week during the fall or something I wouldn't even have that on my calendar. Think about what that is for you that could be new for the summer. That needs to actually show up on your calendar and put that on your calendar.

Michelle Gauthier: 5:33

The second category of time is open time. So this is for flexible tasks that matter, but the timing of them isn't super important. So, for example, if you need to run some errands, I always use the example of returns, because I always have returns. I'm always shopping online and returning things. So for me that could look like errands. It could look like my. I just bought my daughter a bracelet and it broke the second she opened it. So we need to go back to the store and she's going to pick a different one. Things like that that don't have a very specific time.

Michelle Gauthier: 6:06

From a work perspective, for me this looks like creating time to write and record a podcast. I can really do that anytime that I have open that's not already locked. So what do you have in that open time category and then think about is that actually on your calendar? I'll tell you a tip that I do If you use a real planner. I love digital stuff, but there's something about using a real planner that just really helps me. I write on little post-it note flags. I write like write podcast number one, write podcast number two, and then I physically move them around as I need to. So I just have them on there as open time and I can put them in wherever I want. If you use a digital calendar, you can obviously just change the time and maybe make those a certain color.

Michelle Gauthier: 6:55

And then the third type of time is off duty time. This is where you're just recharging, having fun, resting, doing hobbies, whatever you want to do. For me, this is basically because I just work a traditional schedule. For me, any night during the summer where we don't have locked time like a specific event, it's pretty much off duty time. In fact, last night we played Taboo. I haven't played Taboo in forever. That is such a fun game.

Michelle Gauthier: 7:20

So once you've really taken a look at your calendar and seen not only what's on there the lock times but also try to account for the open time and then just think about your off-duty time. For me, I just leave that time as white space, but if you want to mark it on your calendar, if that feels good to you, you should definitely do that. Then you pull out your to-do list. Think about your to-do list as everything that's trying to get your attention and wants to have a place on your schedule. Make a full list of everything that's calling for your attention, both personal and professional. If you don't have this list going right now, this might take you a little bit to do, but if you get in the habit of doing this every week which I super recommend it's quick because you can just look and see what didn't make it on the schedule the week before add anything new, and it can be a really quick activity.

Michelle Gauthier: 8:11

Once you have a full list of what's on your to-do list also known as what's trying to get a spot on your schedule, like it's fighting for a spot on your schedule then I want you to do a high level estimate of time for those items and you can group things together if you want to Be real and be generous about how long things are going to take. I am a famous underestimator and I know this about myself. What I have learned in owning a business that things that I think will take one hour will definitely take two hours, and if I think something's going to take four hours, it's probably going to take more like eight. So be generous with your time estimates for how much you think things are going to take, and then we're just going to take more like eight. So be generous with your time estimates for how much you think things are going to take, and then we're just going to do some simple math. So now you're going to take your already existing calendar that has everything blocked off that needs to be blocked off, all of your lock time, any open time that you've chosen to put on there and then see how many hours you have left.

Michelle Gauthier: 9:07

I just did this with a client on a session the other day and she had this huge to-do list and she estimated her time for it and she had about 50 hours of things that she wanted to do for the week and when we looked through and saw how much space there was on her calendar for her to do these things, she had five hours. So that is literally 10x. Her to-do list contained 10 times the amount of things that she could actually accomplish in a week. If you don't take time to do this exercise just every week, you're going to think I didn't get enough done. Why am I not getting anything done? Why did this 50 hours worth of stuff keep staying on here? It's because you literally don't have time for it. So then you have to decide what? How much time do you have left? Let's just say for an example that in any given week I have 25 hours of locked time. Then I have 10 hours of open time where I'm doing some other things. So I have five hours left that I can do things on my to do list. I'm going to go ahead and choose those based on importance for that week.

Michelle Gauthier: 10:10

Usually, I suggest, if you have a big old to-do list, just look at your top three schedule the first one, first, second, one second, obviously third, one third and then just see what is left over. This is the magic, you guys. This is like where the rubber meets the road, because if you don't make the decision here and prioritize and are realistic about how long things take, you're going to become overwhelmed and you're not going to have any flexibility in your schedule. But if you are realistic and really put the amount of things that you can accomplish in a week on your calendar, you're going to feel so much better because you're going to be successful. You're going to execute on the things that you have actually put on the calendar for yourself and instead of thinking, why didn't I get anything done? At the end of the week, you can go back. I like to just check stuff off, even on my calendar and my planner. I'm like look at that, I executed on all the stuff I put. That doesn't always happen, by the way. Sometimes I have to push things to another week or move the time on them or something, but it feels really good to look back when you have actually thoughtfully planned your week.

Michelle Gauthier: 11:13

So if you desire to have a more relaxing summer, the way to do it is actually to get strategic and specific about your planning. I highly recommend that you try this method. There's a link in the show notes where you can get the calendar clean out worksheet. It will walk you through, step by step, what I just described to you, and if you try this method and your week isn't better, I don't know what I'll give you a million dollars. Seriously, it will be so much better just to try it. I really want you to have a good summer and I want you to feel relaxed and productive at the same time, so give it a whirl. If you have ever gotten anything from this podcast that was beneficial to you, would you please leave a review? It would mean so much to me if you would take the time to do that. Thank you so much and have a fantastic 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 michellegauthier. com. See you next week.