#128| The One Habit That Instantly Maximizes Your Workday Productivity: Overwhelm, Productivity, Time Management & People Pleasing

Do you ever reach the end of your workday and wonder where all your time went—with nothing truly important checked off your list?

 If your mornings feel chaotic and your to-do list seems endless, you're not alone—and the constant scramble can leave you feeling scattered, unproductive, and overwhelmed. This episode offers a simple daily habit that helps you cut through the noise and take back control of your time, so you can start each day with clarity and purpose.

In this episode, you will:

• Discover how a quick 3–5 minute morning planning ritual can instantly reduce overwhelm and boost focus.
• Learn why prioritizing just three tasks each day can help you accomplish more with less stress.
• Hear real-life success stories from professionals who regained control of their day using this simple method—no complicated systems or apps required.

 Hit play now to learn the easy habit that will make your day more productive—starting tomorrow morning.

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.

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.

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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...

Episode Transcript

Michelle Gauthier (00:00):
Instead of feeling scattered, you start the
day knowing exactly what tofocus on.
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
Working Woman and current lifecoach.

(00:21):
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
.
Hi friend.
Thanks for joining today.
I have a serious question foryou.
When I open the podcast, Ialways say hi friend, and

(00:45):
apparently last week I said hifriends because someone messaged
me and said I noticed that yousaid hi friends, and I really
liked it because it made me feellike I'm part of the community,
versus like you were justtalking directly to me.
I literally want to know whatyou guys prefer, because I do
think about it as a bigcommunity of people who I'm
talking to.
But do you prefer to think thatI'm just talking to you or do

(01:07):
you like being part of thiscommunity of overwhelmed working
women?
I'd love if you'd tell me.
Send me a message.
It's in the show notes.
Okay, now that we have thatsuper important piece of
business behind us, let's talkabout a habit that can instantly
make your workday moreproductive.
Now you know that I love allthings about setting yourself up

(01:29):
for success in the morning, sothere's an episode that talks
about a morning routine that youcan have.
There's an episode that I didjust recently that talks about
starting your day off with amantra.
In today's episode, we're goingto talk about taking like three
to five minutes at thebeginning of the day, when you
first sit down at your desk orwherever you start your day, and
listing out your top threepriorities for the day.

(01:51):
None of these ideas.
The morning routine, the mantradoing this none of them
contradict each other.
And, in fact, best casescenario, you're doing all three
of them but, as we know, ifyou're overwhelmed, you don't
want to add on three new thingsfor the morning.
So if you're feelingoverwhelmed and you're looking
for just one quick way to makeyourself feel better, try this

(02:14):
one and see how it changes yourday.
So today I'm going to talkabout how to do this quick three
to five minute daily plan, whyit works, how to do it
effectively and how it reallyhelps to eliminate overwhelm, so
that you can stay focused andin control of your time.
I don't know about you, butsometimes when my mornings are a
little bit hectic like gettingup and going to work out and

(02:35):
then I come back and make mykids breakfast and get them out
the door and make sure everybodyhas what they need and then I
always take a few minutes toclean up the kitchen because,
even though I can't see thekitchen from my office, if it's
messy it just like weighs on mybrain.
So sometimes getting to my deskespecially if my desk is clean
and organized, which I alwaystry to have it be, but sometimes
that's not the case.

(02:56):
But if I get to my desk andit's clean and organized, and
because I love my job, I havethis feeling of okay, I made it.
I made it to the part of theday that's going to be relaxing
and great.
And then, if I don't have aclient right off the bat which
there are two days a week, threedays a week, I have a client at
nine.
Two days a week, I don't have aclient first thing.

(03:16):
So when I have those days, Ithink, okay, the world is my
oyster.
What should I do?
And I always have a long to dolist of things that I could do.
There's always content tocreate podcasts, to record ideas
for things that I can puttogether for my clients, etc.
Etc.
Etc.
So you can really waste.
Let's say, I've got two hoursin the morning to work on things

(03:38):
.
You could waste that whole timejust working on something
random or, you know, starting onsomething that's not that
important.
And that's where this plancomes in.
Instead of feeling scattered,you start the day, knowing
exactly what to focus on.
So let me tell you about one ofmy clients.
We'll call her Sarah.

(03:58):
Every morning she'd sit down ather desk and open her email
first thing, because you knowyou have to check your new
emails, or your brain tells youyou have to check your new
emails first thing in themorning, and then she would get
sucked into responding tomessages and then kind of try to
work on tasks but then go backto answer those emails.
So she ended up feeling likeshe was putting out fires all
day instead of having anystrategic work time.

(04:20):
So by the time she got to theactual work she needed to do,
the day was like half gone andshe felt exhausted and
unaccomplished.
So I suggested that she justtry this little shift that we're
working out, where she wouldspend five minutes every morning
, before she even opened heremail, to map out her top three
priorities, and within a weekshe started to feel more in

(04:41):
control and less scattered andway more productive.
So even if she did open herinbox after that, she knew that
responding to emails wasn't hernumber one priority for the day,
that maybe she would check in,but then she was going to get to
her number one priority rightaway, and it made a big
difference in her day.
So here's how to do iteffectively.

(05:02):
If you sit down at your desk ormaybe you have the kind of work
where you're standing somewhereor arriving somewhere or
whatever it is whateverindicates that you're at the
beginning of your workday youcan either set a timer for three
minutes or five minutes,however long you think it will
take, and then just look at yourschedule, look at your to-do
list.
If you're telling me right nowI don't have any place to look

(05:24):
at those, everything's just kindof in my head or on my phone Do
your best, find it wherever itis, think about it in your head
and just ask yourself what aremy top three things to do?
Today I have another clientwe'll call her Rachel who always
felt like her to-do list wasnever ending and it really was,
because she'd write down way toomany tasks and then get

(05:44):
overwhelmed by all she had to doand end up procrastinating.
Because that happens a lot whenyou have too much to do and you
just get overwhelmed, you don'tdo anything at all.
So she worked on this same ideaof limiting herself to just
three key priorities each dayand at first it felt weird not
writing that massive list.
Now she did keep that massivelist somewhere else, so it's not

(06:05):
like she threw that list away.
It made her feel secure tostill have that list somewhere
else, but she would write downher three tasks for the day.
I put mine on a sticky note andstick it on the page of my
planner.
That's how I do it.
You do it however you want.
She realized that focusing onfewer things made her feel way
more accomplished.
It also helped her reallyidentify where she was

(06:26):
underestimating the amount oftime that things would take.
So even if she would get itdown to a top three some days,
she would only get to the topone, and that's really good for
her to know that it's notrealistic to plan to do three
things in one day when she canreally get one thing done in a
day.
The third example of real lifepeople who have used this method

(06:46):
is my client we'll call herKelly who is a manager, and her
whole day was just a marathon ofmeetings, literally.
Sometimes she'd have like ninemeetings in one day, and so by
the time she had a minute tobreathe it was like, okay, now
it's late in the afternoon, Ihave 15 or 30 minutes to work on
stuff.
I don't even know what I'msupposed to work on because I've

(07:08):
been in meetings all day.
So I just suggested she spendthis five minutes prioritizing,
in her case, just one thing thatshe absolutely wanted to
accomplish between meetings, andshe started blocking off little
chunks of time for thosepriorities and then she felt
like she made progress besidesthe meetings.
Also in that, that case, ifthat's you and you're in

(07:29):
meetings all day, put on yourpriority list, attend and be
present in all of the meetingson my schedule as one of your
priorities, because that is whatis taking up the majority of
your day, and you need toacknowledge that most of that
time has already been spent.
So, in summary, if you want toboost your productivity and make
your brain feel lessoverwhelmed so you can be more

(07:51):
productive, just start each daywith a five minute daily plan,
clarify your top prioritiesbefore you dive into work, open
your inbox, jump into a meetingand write down your one to three
non-negotiables for the day,and then just use this plan as a
guide to stay focused.
So when you have downtime frommeetings or other things and
you're like, okay, I'm gonna dosomething right now.

(08:12):
What should I work on?
You'll know it's right there.
If this episode helps you, orany of the episodes on this
podcast have helped you, I wouldlove if you would send this
podcast to a friend and or do areview and a rating.
Right now, this podcast is inthe top two percent globally of
all podcasts.
There are 3.5 million podcastsand we are in the top two

(08:35):
percent and my goal for thisyear is to get to the top one
percent, and that is based on alisten score that is assigned
and our listen score keepsinching its way up and our way
to get to top 1%, which meanswhen somebody searches for
overwhelm or people pleasing,that our podcast is going to be
the first one that comes up.

(08:56):
The way to do that is byputting out great content that
lots of people download, andthen they also weigh heavily on
how many reviews you get.
So if you love it and you wouldwrite a review and leave me a
rating, I would so appreciate itand so would all of the future
women who don't even know thispodcast exists today, but we'll
start seeing it in their searchresults.

(09:17):
Have a great week, see you soon.
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.