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
#168| 3 Reasons Your Clutter Is Hurting Your Productivity & Causing Overwhelm —and How to Regain Control: Overwhelm, Productivity, Time Management & People Pleasing
Do you ever sit down to work but feel too distracted to focus—only to realize your cluttered desk is silently sabotaging your productivity?
If you're constantly overwhelmed, burnt out, or avoiding your to-do list, the root cause might not be your workload—it might be your environment. This episode dives into how physical clutter leads to mental chaos and why small messes have big consequences for your stress levels and output.
In this episode, you will:
- Discover the science behind how clutter increases stress hormones and drains your focus
- Learn 3 powerful yet simple strategies to reduce overwhelm without a weekend-long cleanup
- Understand why “visual noise” is silently costing you mental energy and motivation
Start feeling calmer and more in control by listening now to learn how a clean space can unlock a clearer, more productive mind.
Join the Declutter Challenge Here
Featured on the podcast
Ep #8: Clear the Clutter To Transform Your Life & Find Your Calm
Ep #77: The Power of Decluttering to Reduce Overwhelm and Increase Productivity
Ep #117: The Incredible Power Of Decluttering To Increase Peace In Your Home
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...
Do you ever sit down at your desk to get to work, but then your desk is cluttered and you end up just scrolling on your phone? Instead, 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, I just sat down to record this podcast and it's late afternoon, and what late afternoon means for me is that my desk is usually pretty messy Throughout the day. I get food, I get snacks I always have about six cups on here by the time the day is finished A couple wrappers, pens, etc. All over my desk. And I sat down to record this episode and I thought, oh, how ironic that I'm talking about decluttering and how it has a mental toll, even though it's a physical thing. So I did set a short alarm and spent two minutes decluttering my desk and I feel a whole lot better and a whole lot clearer. So when you listen, today we're going to dive into why clutter is overwhelming and why that impacts your productivity. That example I gave it's just the very beginning of the episode where you sit down at your desk and it's cluttered so you scroll on your phone instead. That tanks your productivity. Or you walk into your kitchen and you're thinking about cooking dinner and you're like let's just order takeout. No thanks, I don't want to be here. So in this episode you'll learn the science behind why clutter causes stress and how it's affecting your productivity it's not in a good way, I'll tell you that for sure and some small but powerful ways to take back your space and your peace. So let's talk first about the science behind clutter and overwhelm and how those two are connected, and I think we could say overwhelm or stress or even anxiety for some people. So let's start by talking about why clutter feels so heavy.
Michelle Gauthier:When your space is messy, your brain has to work overtime. Even if it's unconscious and you don't realize it, visual clutter competes for your attention. So I gave you an example at the beginning that my desk has all this stuff all over it. When I sit down and it's like everything in your space is silently saying look at me. There's just so many places for your eyes to look and for your attention to go, and this is just a waste of your brain power. It just leads to more mental fatigue and less focus. And I know for sure, as overwhelmed working women. We do not need any more mental fatigue or any more decisions or processing to happen in our brains. Research even backs that clutter increases your cortisol, which is your stress hormone. So all those little decisions where to put this, what to do with that, even just the thoughts of I can't believe this is such a mess. I need to clean this up they just all add up to decision fatigue.
Michelle Gauthier:And here's what I know is true for me. I think this is varying degrees by person, but I think clutter really affects everyone in some way. But when I sleep in a messy room, I wake up and I already feel behind. But when I clear off my bathroom counter at night and lay out my workout clothes clothes and I wake up and my room is clean I feel completely calm. It's that simple. Same with my desk when I get to work and my desk is already cleaned off.
Michelle Gauthier:And it's not just about the physical stuff. The mental clutter and the physical clutter are totally linked. Your environment influences your thoughts. A cluttered kitchen makes it harder to cook. A cluttered schedule makes it harder to think clearly. It all is linked and it affects the way that you're thinking and therefore how productive you can be. Let's talk about the hidden ways that clutter hurts your productivity. We just talked about this a little bit in point one. It creates this mental noise, so more distractions means less focus.
Michelle Gauthier:I read this quote that said trying to work at a cluttered desk is like trying to meditate in the middle of a parade. And it made me remember a funny story that one time I did. I was with my kid, my sister and I had taken our kids on a trip, so it was just us, two adults, and then four kids, and the kids were all in the TV room and they were like playing a game and being loud and I really wanted to meditate, but I didn't feel like getting up. So I said, hey, I'm going to meditate. And right in the middle of this parade, so to speak, I decided I was going to try to meditate and I did, and I tried and I eventually got to the point where I was really focused on my meditation, but it took so much longer than it would have taken if I just went into a quiet bedroom and shut the door and just did a 10 minute meditation.
Michelle Gauthier:So I think that is a perfect example of it's not that you can't work at a desk that is full of stuff. It just takes more time and effort for you to focus. And then every time you get up go get a glass of water, you come back, you come back to that cluttered desk. You have to again readjust and just waste your mental capacity readjusting to. I have to focus even though it's a mess here.
Michelle Gauthier:The other way that it affects your productivity when there's clutter is that it leads to avoidance and procrastination. Too much stuff makes everything feel overwhelming. Back to the example about the kitchen. So if you walk into the kitchen and it's messy, what are the chances that you're going to actually cook? Just going to lead to avoidance or procrastination, right. And another thing that I notice is when a room is clean and cozy, everyone wants to be in there. No one goes into the cluttery rooms. Nobody wants to be there. That's not a coincidence. I think we just gravitate towards organized and calm. And the last way that clutter can just steal your productivity is it takes your time and your energy because you waste time looking for things that you already own or buy duplicates because you didn't realize you had one buried in a drawer somewhere.
Michelle Gauthier:Cluttered spaces are usually full of tiny unfinished projects and those are just quietly whispering to us. Look what you haven't done. You're behind. You still need to do this, and that takes a toll on our mental and emotional energy. So, even though I know you're busy, here are a couple ways that you can regain control, have less clutter and therefore have better productivity. You don't have to do a full weekend long overhaul and if you're like, yes, I actually do, maybe you have enough clutter that you need to do that, but what I want to encourage you to do is just start small. So here are a couple of small but mighty things you can start with.
Michelle Gauthier:Number one is pick a really high impact area. So ask yourself the question what small space would make a total difference if it was clear and clutter free, like your purse or your desk or your email inbox, or we have this area. When you walk into our house. That's kind of like you come in the garage door and there's just kind of a little landing area where we end up having, like backpacks and shoes and all that stuff, and every time you walk in the house you see it. So it's a really high impact area. So think about what that is for you and start with that area. Just make one little space clean and then another approach you can take is setting a declutter timer.
Michelle Gauthier:One of my clients decluttered her entire office in five minute chunks during her breaks and it completely changed how she felt about work. I don't remember how many sessions of five minutes it took, but she just consistently would work on it for five minutes and you just make a little bit of progress, and you know a little bit of progress always encourages more and makes you feel so much better. Another quick thing to do is use the one minute rule. So if something takes less than 60 seconds to put away, just do it right now. This is something. This is my downfall right here. If I take something out, I'm terrible at remembering to put it away. So if I can focus on this and just put things away right away, and even if something like when I just decluttered my desk, like I told you I did there were a pair of earrings on my desk those go in my bedroom it took me less than 60 seconds to walk them in there and set them in my jewelry box. So if you can use that one minute rule, you'll find yourself putting things back away much more consistently.
Michelle Gauthier:Okay, so here's what we covered today. Clutter creates stress by overloading your brain and your body. When that happens, it takes your productivity down because it causes distractions and procrastination and mental drain. And here's the good news you can start regaining control with small, simple steps. So the three that I suggested were starting with a high impact area, setting a declutter timer and using that one minute rule to put stuff back. So pick your one small area and declutter it today and see what a difference it makes in your life. If decluttering is a big source of overwhelm in your life.
Michelle Gauthier:There are a couple other episodes that you can listen to that have more information about them. There's episode 117, episode 77, and episode 8. Episode 8 specifically has a printable decluttering guide that you can grab, so we will link that in the episode as well, to go back and listen to episode 8 and then get the free guide that goes along with it. Okay, thank you so much and have a great week.
Michelle Gauthier:If you found this episode helpful, would you please be so kind to leave a review, either on Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen, every time you leave. A rating rating is where you just click the stars. It takes like literal one second, or review, which probably takes more, like two minutes, because then you do the stars and you write your review. It makes a big difference to where the podcast is shown and how we get ranked and more people see it and hopefully can feel less overwhelmed. All right, have a great week. See you soon. 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.
