#209| The Invisible Holiday Workload Is Exhausting—Here's What To Do About It: Overwhelm, Productivity, Time Management & People Pleasing

Have you ever collapsed into bed at the end of the day wondering why you’re so exhausted—before the holidays even arrive?

If the holidays feel overwhelming, it’s not because you’re doing something wrong—it’s because you’re carrying an enormous amount of invisible work. From tracking gifts and budgets to coordinating schedules and making everything feel “magical,” this episode speaks directly to the mental load working women quietly manage every holiday season.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• Why holiday stress feels so heavy even when “nothing big” is happening
• How to reduce mental overload without needing everything to be perfect
• Simple, realistic ways to make gift-giving and holidays easier on yourself

Press play to feel seen, validated, and supported—and walk away with practical ways to lighten your holiday mental load starting today.

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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

• 0:41 The Invisible Workload Of Gift Giving
• 3:32 Pat Yourself On the Back
• 4:27 Practical Ways To Lighten The Load

Transcript

Michelle Gauthier: 0:00

95% of holiday magic is simply the invisible workload of women.

Michelle Gauthier: 0:10

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: 0:36

Hi, friend. Everybody knows the end of the year is usually a crazy time. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, neither one of those, at some point throughout the year, if it's not right now, you probably still have birthdays or sometimes when you are in charge of gift giving. And if I were to list out all the things that the average woman who does celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah does, there's, you know, 78 different things that we do. But if we just zoom in on gift giving alone, just the purchasing and the presenting of gifts, it's wild how much invisible workload we are carrying, whether you're a mom or not. And the point of today's episode is just to talk about this invisible workload that we are taking on at this time of the year and to give you some tips on what to do about it and how to possibly make it easier for yourself. Again, I'm just zooming in on gift giving, just one aspect of this time of year that is usually crazy for women. Here's what most women are juggling just in the gift department: keeping the running list of who needs gifts. Friends, family, coworkers, teachers, service workers, neighbors, whoever that you are getting a gift for, tracking the important dates. When are the gift exchanges? When are the shipping deadlines? Are there secret Santas? Are there school parties? Are there travel? Do we need to take gifts on that travel? Mentally juggling the budget while trying not to spend like your entire 401k savings on all of the gifts that you have to purchase, finding time to shop. I'm great at shopping online, but even that, I'll think at the end of the day, sometimes, oh shoot, I didn't get to that. I gotta lie in bed tonight and do that. Watching sales, remembering coupon codes or store policies, buying something at Lululemon. Love you, Lululemon, but your return policy sucks. So I know I have to buy it, and then it has to be either returned or exchanged within 14 days if the person doesn't like it. Trying to keep it fair, like did I spend equally on all the kids or all my siblings? Will my sister feel left out? Whatever. Keeping track of sizes and wish lists, coordinating gifts with a partner or ex or extended family. In my case, I've got gifts for the handsome man's friends, kids. I help my kids get something for my ex-husband's fiance. There's all kinds of crazy coordination in a divorced family. If you want to get everybody gifts, planning ahead so nobody's forgotten or duplicated. I'm always afraid that I'm gonna forget. I'm sure I probably have.

Michelle Gauthier: 3:09

And then there's the presentation of the gifts, the wrapping, the labeling, the hiding the gifts. My kids are older now, so I just have them sitting in boxes in my bedroom. Like, don't look at them or you're gonna wreck your own Christmas, okay? We're also carrying the pressure to get it right and make it feel thoughtful and magical and meaningful and basically doing all this on our own, because you know, if you don't do it, it's probably not gonna get done.

Michelle Gauthier: 3:32

And that's just the gift giving. We haven't talked about like meal planning or cards or outfits or travel or hosting or school concerts or work deadlines or whatever. So let's just pat ourselves on the back for all of the things that we are carrying and doing. If you're like me and it gets to be about 7:30 at night and you're really barely able to keep your eyes open, this is why. It's wild the amount of things that we have just running around in our head that we're carrying. So I just want you to hear me say, this is a lot. You're doing a lot. It's not your imagination. You're basically like a project manager, event planner, gift concierge, budget analyst, emotional support coach, logistics coordinator, all while trying to smile and stay present. And nobody else sees that labor or acknowledges that labor, it starts to feel like it doesn't count, but it does. Even if you didn't finish the list or you forgot something or it wasn't perfect, you are doing an amazing job.

Michelle Gauthier: 4:26

Here are a couple tips that I have to potentially help you and make this easier. This one might be painful for you, but delegate imperfectly. Ask your partner or your kids to help, even if they don't do it right. Okay, this for me would be the gift wrapping. I am very particular about gift wrapping. I actually loved gift wrapping, but when I run out of time, it really stresses me out. And my handsome man friend is very cute, but he is not a good rapper. So I have to be really desperate to ask him for help. So be better than me. Ask someone else to help you wrap the gifts or even just put them in the boxes that you're going to wrap, or stop by and pick something up, or get a gift card somewhere, or whatever. Another good tip is to buy duplicates on purpose. So maybe there's a fun game. I got a bunch of people the same hoodie this year. Just think about how you can save time in your mind by thinking of a cool idea and giving that same good idea to multiple people. Okay, I was just about to wrap up this suggestion, but I just remembered one random thing that I used to do when my kids were little that they absolutely loved, and it was so easy for me is Santa's gifts would be in a Santa sack, in this big, huge sack, and it would be all their gifts and none of them were wrapped. So we would just put everything from Santa in this big Santa sack. And then they would reach in there with their eyes closed one at a time and get their gifts out. So if you want to not wrap as many presents and you have little kids who believe in Santa, there you go. Try that one. That one was amazing for years and years.

Michelle Gauthier: 5:59

And the last thing to do is pat yourself on the back. If nobody else tells you, I'm telling you today, you're doing a great job, pat yourself on the back. You got this, not too much longer, and we will be all the way to the new year. Yay!

Michelle Gauthier: 6:12

Which reminds me, on January 6th, I am teaching my annual class that is called Your Best Year, and it is a planning workshop. I give the best tips on how to create goals for the year that are actually doable, fit into your lifestyle, the type of life that you're trying to create for yourself. It's a one-hour workshop, and you will leave the workshop understanding exactly what you need to do to create your goals to get what you want this year. The class is $26. It's a bargain, it's a no-brainer. You get some pre-work videos from me and you get a workbook so that you can do all of your planning for 2026. I would love to see you there.

Michelle Gauthier: 7:01

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.