#165| Why the 5AM Club Won’t Save You — Plus What Will *Actually* Increase Your Productivity: Overwhelm, Productivity, Time Management & People Pleasing

Ever tried the 5AM club and felt like a failure when it didn’t stick? What if the problem isn’t you, but the system itself?

So many working women try to boost productivity by copying someone else's "perfect" routine—only to end up overwhelmed, exhausted, and frustrated. This episode reveals why one-size-fits-all productivity hacks don’t work and how to start designing a system that actually supports your energy and life.

In this episode, you will:

• Learn why popular productivity methods often fail—and why that has nothing to do with your worth or willpower.
• Discover how to find your personal productivity rhythm by asking 3 simple questions.
• Understand how to balance flexibility and structure in a way that supports your unique brain and lifestyle.
  
  

Press play now to finally stop forcing yourself into rigid routines—and learn how to build a productivity system that actually fits your life.

Featured on the podcast
Ep #10: How To Achieve A Truly Fulfilling Life by Reducing Overwhelm with Kari Kaiser
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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

• 1:41 Why the 5 AM Club Isn't Universal
• 2:31 When Do You Naturally Have Energy?
• 4:45 How Much Structure Do You Need?

Transcript

Michelle Gauthier: 0:15

If you've ever tried them and felt like a failure. When they don't stick, you're not the problem. The system just wasn't made for you. 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: 0:53

Hi friend, today we're talking about productivity and why the 5am club won't save you. If you don't know what the 5am club is, it's essentially the concept that if you want to be at all successful in life, you need to do it by getting up at 5 AM every morning and doing very specific things. Now I'm not saying that that doesn't work. That may very well work and I think, does work for lots of people, but if that doesn't work for you personally, then it's a waste of your time and energy to try to implement something like that. So today you're going to learn why no productivity method works for everyone, why copying someone else's routine usually backfires, and then I'm going to give you some key questions to ask yourself to find out what actually works for you and how to stop forcing yourself into a system that doesn't fit your life or your energy.

Michelle Gauthier: 1:41

Why doesn't this concept of the 5am club work for everybody? Every system, any system out there you pick one, works for some people with a certain kind of brain. If you've ever tried them and felt like a failure when they don't stick, you're not the problem. The system just wasn't made for you. It doesn't take into consideration what kind of brain you have. Do you have a neurotypical brain? Are you super creative? Do you need more structure? When do you have the most energy? Are you a morning person? Are you an evening person?

Michelle Gauthier: 2:15

Two of the clients who I worked with in this past week were feeling sort of defeated and overwhelmed and feeling like they weren't getting up early enough and just weren't getting enough done. So I'm going to give you a couple questions that you can ask yourself to figure out what works for you. Question number one is when do I naturally have energy? So, for example, you will know right off the bat if you are a morning person or an evening person. Earlier this week, my client was telling me that her most energetic time of the day is 10 pm, and I almost fell out of my chair because if I had to do anything that required my brain at 10 pm, it just absolutely would not work. I naturally have energy in the morning I'm a good fit for the 5 am club, in fact and she was saying, oh, I probably should get up earlier. But no, what we ended up deciding is she should not get up earlier. She should take better advantage of the time at 10 pm when she does naturally have energy. So think about that when is your best energy? And then plan your hardest tasks where you need to use the most creativity or the most brainpower around when you do have that energy.

Michelle Gauthier: 3:23

The next question to ask yourself is what is working about my current routine? So, even if you're feeling frustrated like you're not getting enough done, it's very unlikely that you're literally getting nothing done during the day. So what is working and what should you keep during your day? So, for example, one of the things that I do I have a whole system for managing my email, which I will tell you about in a separate episode, because it's something that I've been talking to my clients a lot about too, and I want to talk about that specifically. But, for example, I go through my email inbox on Mondays and I have a whole process that I go through and that really works for me. So that is totally working. Another thing that really works for me is that I schedule my clients. When you're my client, you have a specific time that we meet every week. So you know every Wednesday at 10 o'clock you're having a meeting with me and if that needs to change you can text me and we'll move it. But that level of structure works for me, you know, with the exception if we need to change things. So when I think about those things, I really have the vast majority of my week is already in the working no-transcript. As you're trying to figure out what type of routine works for you, focus on what is already good and what you should keep.

Michelle Gauthier: 4:40

And then the last question to ask yourself is how much flexibility do I need? And what I mean by that is I think people need a certain amount of structure. When I have tried in the past to do a complete time blocking, where every single thing on my to-do list has a time on the calendar very specifically and I can break it down by 15 minutes, that is too much structure for me, but I really like and need structure. So for me I would say I'm about like an 8 out of 10 on the structure scale, but I want to have some flexibility built in there.

Michelle Gauthier: 5:16

I had a client named Kari. There's an episode that she recorded on the podcast. We'll link that in the show notes. She's an artist, she's a graphic designer, so she has a very creative mind. So when she came to me she was feeling stressed about how much work she was and how much more work she wanted to get done, but feeling resistant to the structure. And what we figured out was, even though she's an artist, it was good for her to have about a five out of 10 structure. So we came up with rules for what time she should get to her office in the morning. The first thing she did was a morning routine. When she gets new clients and they want an estimate from her, she puts an hour on her calendar to get started on that, because the getting started part was hard. So she implemented structure to the level that felt good to her.

Michelle Gauthier: 6:03

So are you a 2 out of 10 structure person? Are you a 10 out of 10 structure person? Another client who I was talking to just today said I really have always wanted to be a 10 out of 10 structure person, but I think I'm actually a 5. So I spent all this time trying to create this structure, but I really crave just a little more freedom in my day. So think about for you, if a 10 is the ultimate totally structured and a one is no structure whatsoever, which one actually works for you in terms of productivity, and then what does that mean for the kind of work that you do in the kind of life that you lead? The moral of the story today is that the 5am club totally works for some people and that the 9am club also totally works for some people. There is a structure out there that works for you, and it starts with you knowing a couple things about yourself. When are you naturally most energetic, how does your brain work best and how much structure do you feel like you need?

Michelle Gauthier: 7:03

I help my one-on-one clients with this all the time. If this is something that you feel like you're struggling with, set up a discovery session with me to learn more about one-on-one coaching. Thanks for listening today and don't forget, by the way, that I have a quiz. The link is in the show notes. I have a quiz that will help you figure out why you're feeling overwhelmed. Time management may be the reason why you're feeling overwhelmed. Take the quiz and find out more. Not only does it tell you what the problem is, but it gives you some potential solutions worksheets, videos. You can watch podcast episodes that I recommend to solve your problem. Thanks, and have a great 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.