Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing
Overwhelmed Working Woman is a podcast for accomplished women who want to feel more calm, in control, and focused without adding more to their already full plate.
This top 2% podcast is hosted by Michelle Gauthier, who has over 7 years of experience coaching hundreds of overwhelmed working women.
Each episode offers simple, practical strategies to help you reduce overwhelm, improve productivity, and stop people pleasing. You’ll learn surprising time management hacks, how to do less without guilt, and why the path to calm begins with changing how you think.
If you're ready to reclaim your energy, focus, and peace of mind you’re in the right place. Start with listener favorite: “The Power of a To-Don’t List.”
Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing
#161| Why Motivation Doesn’t Work - and How to Really Achieve Peak Productivity Without Overwhelm: Overwhelm, Productivity, Time Management & People Pleasing
Feeling stuck because you’re just not motivated enough to start?
This week, Michelle explains why waiting for motivation actually keeps you overwhelmed and unproductive — and introduces a science-backed concept to help you begin tasks without feeling drained.
In this episode, you will:
- Discover why “activation energy” matters more than motivation itself
- Learn practical ways to make starting feel effortless, even on your hardest days
- Get simple strategies to lower resistance so you can finally make progress on big goals
Listen now to transform how you start projects and beat overwhelm for good.
Wondering why you're overwhelmed? Take my "why am I overwhelmed" quiz to find out the source of your overwhelm, and what to do about it.
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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...
Even if it seems like it, you don't need more motivation.
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:Hi, friend, thanks for joining. Today we're going to talk about motivation and why motivation actually isn't the key to productivity. I'm going to teach you about a science-based concept that helps us get started on tasks even better than this airy-fairy concept of motivation, and then I'm going to talk to you about three ways to reduce the resistance to getting started without feeling overwhelmed. So the first thing that I want to talk about here is the idea of once I feel motivated, I'll get started on that. But motivation isn't the thing to rely on for productivity, and it's because motivation is flaky. Sometimes we feel motivated and sometimes we don't, and if you just let what you get done be dependent on that like I wasn't in the mood or I just didn't feel motivated so I didn't do it it's going to be very hit or miss whether you accomplish the stuff that you want to accomplish. So I want to introduce you to this concept called activation energy, which is actually a chemistry concept, and I learned about this in this book that I highly recommend it's really great called Atomic Habits by James Clear. The concept of activation energy is how much energy you need to get started on a task, and the example that he uses is the idea of if you have a match in your hand and you want to start a fire, so get a flame on that match. The activation energy is the act of striking the match against the side of the matchbook. What's that called Flint or something that you strike the match against and then it starts the fire and then, once the fire is burning, it keeps going. You only have to have that activation energy one time. So let's make the assumption that in order to do anything, we have to have that activation energy, and instead of trying to boost your motivation, your job have to have that activation energy and instead of trying to boost your motivation, your job is to lower the activation energy required to get started. So let's think about a couple tasks that you might do that would require high activation energy Anything you've never done before. So let's say that you want to learn how to do 20 push-ups and today you know how to do zero push-ups. It's going to take a lot of activation energy. If your idea is okay, I've got to get to 20, so I'm just going to practice doing 20 every single day. Versus, if you think of your job as lowering activation energy, you could lower your activation energy by having the first step of. You know what I'm going to do. I'm going to watch a video about how to learn to do a push-up and then the next day I'm going to try to do one and I'm going to do one push-up a day for 30 days. That is so much lower activation energy, which means let's picture yourself doing one push-up, and if you're doing one push-up and it's the 28th day, you can probably do more than one and you're probably going to do it.
Michelle Gauthier:So the concept is, if you lower the activation energy once you get started on something, you're much more likely to keep going on that. The same can be true for a project at work. Or let's just say, like I have a dream to write a book, the activation energy required for me to get started on that feels overwhelming. Where do I even start? What do I even do, maybe to lower the activation energy? What I want to do is set up a coffee with my friend who's already written a book and just talk to her about it, instead of saying, oh yeah, I'm just going to sit down with a blank piece of paper and start typing out my book.
Michelle Gauthier:So think about the places in your life where you're feeling unmotivated and try to lessen the resistance by lowering that activation energy. So, in summary, even if it seems like it, you don't need more motivation. You just need to lower the activation energy in order to get started, and that's how you get things done without feeling overwhelmed. Speaking of overwhelmed, if you want to understand more about why you're feeling overwhelmed, take my free quiz the link is in the show notes and you will get personalized insights to explain exactly why you're feeling overwhelmed and what to do about it. 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.
