Are you constantly feeling overwhelmed, like you're running on a never-ending hamster wheel of responsibilities? What if the secret to feeling lighter and more in control wasn't doing more, but actually doing less?
In this episode, we dive into Amy’s story—one that might sound a lot like yours. Amy was exhausted, overcommitted, and struggling to keep up, believing that pushing harder was the only way forward. But through coaching, she discovered a surprising truth: doing less strategically can actually lead to greater success and well-being. If you've ever felt stretched too thin, this episode is for you.
In this episode, you will:
- Discover why giving 100% to everything isn’t always the key to success and how scaling back can actually improve your results.
- Learn how to manage your energy—not just your time—so you can work smarter, not harder.
- Find out how letting go of unnecessary commitments can create space for a more meaningful, overwhelm-free life.
Hit play now and learn how small shifts in your approach can lead to big changes in your productivity, energy, and peace of mind!
Send Me a Message - Have a question, comment, or just want to say hi? Message me here, I'd love to chat!
Work With Me - Interested in working with me 1-on-1, taking a class, or joining one of my coaching groups? Message me here to get the scoop.
Want More? - If you love the content of this podcast, you'll love our Simple Sunday newsletter too. When you sign up, you’ll receive a simple dose of inspiration, practical tips, and a little fun—designed to help you start your week with simplicity and intention. Sign up here
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 Working Woman podcast.
Thank you for listening! If you love the podcast, please subscribe and leave a review. 💗
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Michelle Gauthier (00:00):
We have always been taught that success
means hustling harder.
But what if the real key to anoverwhelm-free life is simply
prioritizing less?
You're listening to OverwhelmedWorking Woman, the podcast that
helps you be more calm and moreproductive by doing less.
I'm your host, MichelleGauthier, a former Overwhelmed
(00:22):
Working Woman and current lifecoach.
On this show, we unpack thestress and pressure that today's
working woman experiences andin each episode, you'll get a
strategy to bring more calm,ease and relaxation to your life
.
(00:44):
Hey friend, thanks for joiningQuick Hit Thursday.
Today I'm going to tell you astory about a woman named Amy,
and when you hear Amy's story,listen and see if you hear some
parts, bits and pieces of herstory that could apply to you.
When you listen to today'sepisode and you listen to this
story and the things that Amylearned throughout her coaching,
you will learn that constantlypushing yourself isn't the
answer.
You'll learn the power ofcyclical living or an energy
(01:07):
management.
You'll learn the power ofmanaging your own energy and how
to identify what really mattersto you so that you can let go
of the rest instead of trying todo 100% of everything all the
time.
So by the end of this shortepisode, you'll walk away with a
little mindset shift that willhelp you feel lighter and more
present and more in control ofyour time.
(01:28):
So let's get started.
Let's talk about Amy.
So Amy had a to-do list thatnever seemed to end.
She woke up every day with aplan get the kids to school,
crush her work deadlines,squeeze in a workout, make
dinner, clean up the house, putthe kids to bed, respond to
emails and if she was lucky andher body cooperated with her,
(01:48):
get five hours of sleep beforedoing it all over again the next
day.
She felt like she was runningon a hamster wheel, in constant
motion, with very littleprogress and an overwhelming
sense that she was always behind.
So she was constantly movingbut never felt like she was
getting ahead.
It was just Groundhog Day,every day, every day, and one
night in the middle of the nightwhen she couldn't sleep and she
(02:10):
was scrolling Instagram, shecame across a post from a life
coach who suggested that maybethe solution to not feeling
overwhelmed was actually to doless.
She thought this was completeBS and that this person must be
totally crazy.
But she was so miserable thatshe started following her and
looking at what she said andthinking hmm, maybe I need to
(02:34):
talk to this person.
Eventually, she decided thatshe was going to set up a time
to talk to this life coach.
We'll just call her Michellefor the sake of example.
She reached out to Michelle andended up saying you know what?
I don't really know that Ibelieve that this is going to
work, but I'm so miserable I'mgoing to give it a try.
So the first thing that Michelleand Amy worked on is the idea
(02:56):
that more effort giving A pluseffort across the board and
absolutely everything in yourlife doesn't always equal more
results.
And she asked Amy to look forplaces in her life where she was
going all out and to see whatwould happen if she backed it
off a little.
So, instead of going from Aplus work all the time, if she
went to A work or even A minuswork, with a goal of getting to
(03:20):
B minus work and Amy was veryresistant to this idea, but
again, she was so miserable shewas willing to give it a try and
during her next session shecame back and told Michelle's
story about how, just last week,she stayed up until two in the
morning working on a pitch forwork.
She wanted every single slideto look beautiful and be super
clear and have beautifulgraphics and to make sure that
(03:43):
she could articulately explaineverything.
So she practiced a bunch oftimes and she stayed up until
two in the morning and the nextday she turned in the pitch.
She gave the presentation andthe feedback she got was great
work, thanks, that was.
It spent half the nightpracticing and perfecting this
pitch and it started to make herwonder what would happen if I
(04:04):
would have stopped working onthat at like 11 pm or 10 pm, or
maybe even just worked on itduring work hours.
Would the results have beenthat different than the great
work?
Now that she had her mind opento that idea, she was continuing
to look for areas in her lifewhere she could maybe just do a
little less work, hustle alittle less harder than she had
(04:25):
been before.
Next up, michelle queued up theidea of managing her energy,
just like you would manage yourtime.
So she started talking to Amyabout where in your typical day
do you have the best energy?
What kind of tasks should youdo?
And for Amy it was the mornings.
What should you do when you'refull of energy?
(04:46):
What should you say for theafternoons, when you're feeling
a little bit more sluggish?
And then what would really helpyou out in the evenings?
And what she found out was thatAmy was really tired in the
evenings and she was forcingherself to work.
So, for example, the work thatshe could have done maybe in an
hour or two in the mornings whenshe was doing it in the evening
was taking her much longer.
(05:07):
Plus, she had lots ofdistractions.
So they talked about how tostrategize her days so that she
could work with her own energyand they even talked about over
the course of a month how herenergy ebbs and flows and what
she could do, what she couldallow herself to not do when she
was in the time when she wasn'tfeeling super energetic.
(05:29):
So that week she experimented alittle bit.
Instead of pushing throughafternoon brain fog, she took a
20 minute walk.
Now everyone in her office waslike what are you doing?
Where are you going?
Why are you going outside?
But she shifted her creativetest to the morning, when she
felt the sharpest.
She took a 20 minute walk inthe afternoon and even though
that 20 minutes was away fromher desk and she wasn't
(05:51):
accomplishing anything airquotes she got so much more done
when she got back to her deskbecause she was present and she
was focused and less exhausted.
She also found she had a tonmore energy during the day when
she didn't work at night.
Now that Amy was kind of gettingin the groove of these two
concepts of managing her ownenergy and not doing A plus work
(06:12):
all the time, she started tothink all right, I'm going to
look at my planner and say whatcan I let go of?
When she looked down the list,her first response was I don't
know what I can let go of.
I have to do everything on thislist.
But she pushed herself.
Do I really need to attendevery unnecessary meeting?
Anybody who's worked incorporate can imagine.
(06:35):
You know those meetings whereyou just have to show up and you
don't even really have to payattention, but it definitely
takes away your attention fromdoing anything else.
She started to really questionthose things and Michelle
challenged her to think aboutthe 80-20 rule that 80% of her
results came from just 20% ofher efforts.
Could she just apply that toher life?
So she started like getting ridof stuff that she didn't need
(06:59):
to pay so much attention to.
She unsubscribed from emailsthat she never read.
She said no to social plans ifshe really didn't want to go.
I'm just saying that as onesentence, but that was a big
shift for her, because it wastough at first for her to say no
, but she learned how Letting goof the pressure to be perfect
at work so to sometimes miss ameeting or to sometimes do a
(07:21):
pitch that's a B minus insteadof absolutely perfect, and every
time she made the choice to letgo of something, she started
feeling lighter.
A couple months later, afterworking on this consistently,
she came to her session and toldMichelle I feel better, I feel
lighter, I feel better.
(07:42):
It's not the kind of betterwhere it's gone forever and
everything is magically solved.
It's the kind of better where,every single week, she's making
little choices that are makingher own life better.
She said my workload hasn'tchanged, my boss hasn't changed.
I still have tons ofresponsibilities at work, but
she had changed, and that madeher feel in control of her time
(08:03):
and more focused and morepresent and more alive.
So all of that more that shegot feeling more focused, more
present and more alive came fromdoing less.
She finally understood thetruth that more doesn't equal
better and that prioritizingless makes room for what really
matters.
So, in summary, be like Amy.
(08:26):
Open your mind to the idea thatdoing more does not equal
better results or achieving more, and that you have the option
to manage your own energy anduse it where it's best spent,
and that you too can let go ofunnecessary things when you let
go of just little things overtime.
(08:46):
Let go of little things thatyou don't need to do.
You create all this space inyour mind for more meaningful,
overwhelm-free life.
That's it for today.
If today's episode resonatedwith you, I would love if you
would share it with a friend whoneeds to hear it.
And if you heard this episodeand you're thinking I'm Amy,
that's okay.
(09:06):
I know exactly how to help youreach out to me.
There is a link in the shownotes for you to send me a
message.
Tell me.
I feel like I'm Amy and I wantwhat you're talking about.
That Amy got and I would loveto set up a free consultation to
work with you one-on-one and,as always, if you could rate and
review and subscribe to thepodcast, that would be amazing.
(09:29):
The way that it works is whenwe get better ratings and more
subscriptions.
When a woman opens up herpodcast app in types like I feel
overwhelmed or I'm a peoplepleaser, this podcast is what
will come up as a solution forher.
So the more that you do that,the more the podcast gets shown
and the more we can help morewomen feel less overwhelmed,
(09:51):
just like you're hopefullyfeeling today after listening to
this episode.
Have a great week.
Thank you for listening to theOverwhelmed Working Woman
podcast.
If you want to learn more aboutmy work, head over to my
website at michellegothiercom.
See you next week.
We have always been taught that success
means hustling harder.
But what if the real key to anoverwhelm-free life is simply
prioritizing less?
You're listening to OverwhelmedWorking Woman, the podcast that
helps you be more calm and moreproductive by doing less.
I'm your host, MichelleGauthier, a former Overwhelmed
(00:22):
Working Woman and current lifecoach.
On this show, we unpack thestress and pressure that today's
working woman experiences andin each episode, you'll get a
strategy to bring more calm,ease and relaxation to your life
.
(00:44):
Hey friend, thanks for joiningQuick Hit Thursday.
Today I'm going to tell you astory about a woman named Amy,
and when you hear Amy's story,listen and see if you hear some
parts, bits and pieces of herstory that could apply to you.
When you listen to today'sepisode and you listen to this
story and the things that Amylearned throughout her coaching,
you will learn that constantlypushing yourself isn't the
answer.
You'll learn the power ofcyclical living or an energy
(01:07):
management.
You'll learn the power ofmanaging your own energy and how
to identify what really mattersto you so that you can let go
of the rest instead of trying todo 100% of everything all the
time.
So by the end of this shortepisode, you'll walk away with a
little mindset shift that willhelp you feel lighter and more
present and more in control ofyour time.
(01:28):
So let's get started.
Let's talk about Amy.
So Amy had a to-do list thatnever seemed to end.
She woke up every day with aplan get the kids to school,
crush her work deadlines,squeeze in a workout, make
dinner, clean up the house, putthe kids to bed, respond to
emails and if she was lucky andher body cooperated with her,
(01:48):
get five hours of sleep beforedoing it all over again the next
day.
She felt like she was runningon a hamster wheel, in constant
motion, with very littleprogress and an overwhelming
sense that she was always behind.
So she was constantly movingbut never felt like she was
getting ahead.
It was just Groundhog Day,every day, every day, and one
night in the middle of the nightwhen she couldn't sleep and she
(02:10):
was scrolling Instagram, shecame across a post from a life
coach who suggested that maybethe solution to not feeling
overwhelmed was actually to doless.
She thought this was completeBS and that this person must be
totally crazy.
But she was so miserable thatshe started following her and
looking at what she said andthinking hmm, maybe I need to
(02:34):
talk to this person.
Eventually, she decided thatshe was going to set up a time
to talk to this life coach.
We'll just call her Michellefor the sake of example.
She reached out to Michelle andended up saying you know what?
I don't really know that Ibelieve that this is going to
work, but I'm so miserable I'mgoing to give it a try.
So the first thing that Michelleand Amy worked on is the idea
(02:56):
that more effort giving A pluseffort across the board and
absolutely everything in yourlife doesn't always equal more
results.
And she asked Amy to look forplaces in her life where she was
going all out and to see whatwould happen if she backed it
off a little.
So, instead of going from Aplus work all the time, if she
went to A work or even A minuswork, with a goal of getting to
(03:20):
B minus work and Amy was veryresistant to this idea, but
again, she was so miserable shewas willing to give it a try and
during her next session shecame back and told Michelle's
story about how, just last week,she stayed up until two in the
morning working on a pitch forwork.
She wanted every single slideto look beautiful and be super
clear and have beautifulgraphics and to make sure that
(03:43):
she could articulately explaineverything.
So she practiced a bunch oftimes and she stayed up until
two in the morning and the nextday she turned in the pitch.
She gave the presentation andthe feedback she got was great
work, thanks, that was.
It spent half the nightpracticing and perfecting this
pitch and it started to make herwonder what would happen if I
(04:04):
would have stopped working onthat at like 11 pm or 10 pm, or
maybe even just worked on itduring work hours.
Would the results have beenthat different than the great
work?
Now that she had her mind opento that idea, she was continuing
to look for areas in her lifewhere she could maybe just do a
little less work, hustle alittle less harder than she had
(04:25):
been before.
Next up, michelle queued up theidea of managing her energy,
just like you would manage yourtime.
So she started talking to Amyabout where in your typical day
do you have the best energy?
What kind of tasks should youdo?
And for Amy it was the mornings.
What should you do when you'refull of energy?
(04:46):
What should you say for theafternoons, when you're feeling
a little bit more sluggish?
And then what would really helpyou out in the evenings?
And what she found out was thatAmy was really tired in the
evenings and she was forcingherself to work.
So, for example, the work thatshe could have done maybe in an
hour or two in the mornings whenshe was doing it in the evening
was taking her much longer.
(05:07):
Plus, she had lots ofdistractions.
So they talked about how tostrategize her days so that she
could work with her own energyand they even talked about over
the course of a month how herenergy ebbs and flows and what
she could do, what she couldallow herself to not do when she
was in the time when she wasn'tfeeling super energetic.
(05:29):
So that week she experimented alittle bit.
Instead of pushing throughafternoon brain fog, she took a
20 minute walk.
Now everyone in her office waslike what are you doing?
Where are you going?
Why are you going outside?
But she shifted her creativetest to the morning, when she
felt the sharpest.
She took a 20 minute walk inthe afternoon and even though
that 20 minutes was away fromher desk and she wasn't
(05:51):
accomplishing anything airquotes she got so much more done
when she got back to her deskbecause she was present and she
was focused and less exhausted.
She also found she had a tonmore energy during the day when
she didn't work at night.
Now that Amy was kind of gettingin the groove of these two
concepts of managing her ownenergy and not doing A plus work
(06:12):
all the time, she started tothink all right, I'm going to
look at my planner and say whatcan I let go of?
When she looked down the list,her first response was I don't
know what I can let go of.
I have to do everything on thislist.
But she pushed herself.
Do I really need to attendevery unnecessary meeting?
Anybody who's worked incorporate can imagine.
(06:35):
You know those meetings whereyou just have to show up and you
don't even really have to payattention, but it definitely
takes away your attention fromdoing anything else.
She started to really questionthose things and Michelle
challenged her to think aboutthe 80-20 rule that 80% of her
results came from just 20% ofher efforts.
Could she just apply that toher life?
So she started like getting ridof stuff that she didn't need
(06:59):
to pay so much attention to.
She unsubscribed from emailsthat she never read.
She said no to social plans ifshe really didn't want to go.
I'm just saying that as onesentence, but that was a big
shift for her, because it wastough at first for her to say no
, but she learned how Letting goof the pressure to be perfect
at work so to sometimes miss ameeting or to sometimes do a
(07:21):
pitch that's a B minus insteadof absolutely perfect, and every
time she made the choice to letgo of something, she started
feeling lighter.
A couple months later, afterworking on this consistently,
she came to her session and toldMichelle I feel better, I feel
lighter, I feel better.
(07:42):
It's not the kind of betterwhere it's gone forever and
everything is magically solved.
It's the kind of better where,every single week, she's making
little choices that are makingher own life better.
She said my workload hasn'tchanged, my boss hasn't changed.
I still have tons ofresponsibilities at work, but
she had changed, and that madeher feel in control of her time
(08:03):
and more focused and morepresent and more alive.
So all of that more that shegot feeling more focused, more
present and more alive came fromdoing less.
She finally understood thetruth that more doesn't equal
better and that prioritizingless makes room for what really
matters.
So, in summary, be like Amy.
(08:26):
Open your mind to the idea thatdoing more does not equal
better results or achieving more, and that you have the option
to manage your own energy anduse it where it's best spent,
and that you too can let go ofunnecessary things when you let
go of just little things overtime.
(08:46):
Let go of little things thatyou don't need to do.
You create all this space inyour mind for more meaningful,
overwhelm-free life.
That's it for today.
If today's episode resonatedwith you, I would love if you
would share it with a friend whoneeds to hear it.
And if you heard this episodeand you're thinking I'm Amy,
that's okay.
(09:06):
I know exactly how to help youreach out to me.
There is a link in the shownotes for you to send me a
message.
Tell me.
I feel like I'm Amy and I wantwhat you're talking about.
That Amy got and I would loveto set up a free consultation to
work with you one-on-one and,as always, if you could rate and
review and subscribe to thepodcast, that would be amazing.
(09:29):
The way that it works is whenwe get better ratings and more
subscriptions.
When a woman opens up herpodcast app in types like I feel
overwhelmed or I'm a peoplepleaser, this podcast is what
will come up as a solution forher.
So the more that you do that,the more the podcast gets shown
and the more we can help morewomen feel less overwhelmed,
(09:51):
just like you're hopefullyfeeling today after listening to
this episode.
Have a great week.
Thank you for listening to theOverwhelmed Working Woman
podcast.
If you want to learn more aboutmy work, head over to my
website at michellegothiercom.
See you next week.
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