What if a few small changes to your daily habits could drastically boost your productivity and well-being—would you do it?
Let’s be honest—after a long, chaotic winter, many of us feel like we’re stuck in autopilot with routines that no longer serve us. This episode offers a refreshing opportunity to pause, reflect, and “spring clean” your habits, helping you eliminate the ones that drain you and strengthen the ones that energize and support your goals.
In this episode, you will:
- Learn a simple step-by-step method to identify and assess your daily habits so you can take control of your routine.
- Discover how to make powerful yet manageable changes that reduce stress and increase your sense of balance.
- Walk away with a clear, actionable plan to refresh your habits, including the motivation to commit to just one impactful shift.
Press play now to start your personal habit spring cleaning and unlock a lighter, more productive daily routine—no mop required!
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):
So this is what I'm asking you to do is
just to look at each one of yourhabits and ask yourself do I
wanna keep this?
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
(00:21):
Working Woman and current lifecoach.
On this show, we unpack thestress and pressure that former
overwhelmed working woman andcurrent life coach.
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, I don't know aboutyou, but I have been in such a
(00:42):
mood for spring cleaning.
We had such a cold and dirtywinter in terms of we had a
bunch of snow and you know, whenyou have snow, all kinds of
stuff gets tracked into yourhouse by your dog and your
children and whatever, and soI've just been craving a fresh
start for the spring.
Today, I'm going to give you afun and easy way to do a little
(01:03):
spring cleaning, and it's goingto be spring cleaning your own
habits, just going to take aquick look at what your habits
are, what you're doing duringthe day good, bad and otherwise
and think about doing a springcleaning refresh, just a quick
audit on your daily habits sothat you can keep the ones that
serve you, delete the ones thatdrain you and change or maybe
(01:27):
add new habits that increaseyour productivity and your
well-being.
In order to do this, we'regoing to make a list of your
current daily habits.
You're going to evaluate themand decide which ones you want
to keep, delete or add, change,and then you're going to make
those changes.
So by the end of the episode,you'll know exactly how to
spring clean your habits.
(01:48):
How funny is that?
I love this concept likesweeping out the door all the
habits that aren't working foryou.
So to start, the first thingthat you do is either write down
or think through all the habitsthat you do daily, start from
the time when you wake up and goall the way to the time that
you go to bed.
As you're listening to thispodcast, you can be thinking
about what are some of thehabits that I have.
(02:10):
So I know for me, on the daysthat I work out, I set my alarm
for five o'clock in the morningand my class starts at 530,
which means I lead need to leavemy house at 515.
So I have a habit of planningahead when I'm going to go to
those classes, setting my alarmfor five o'clock and getting up.
Good habit, check, check, check.
Bad habit is I tend to leavearound 520, maybe even 523
(02:34):
sometimes, which makes meborderline late or straight up
late to the class.
Nobody gives me any trouble andin terms of working out it's
fine.
I always make it before thewarmup is over, but it just
makes me feel rushed andslightly overwhelmed.
So that's a habit that I'mgoing to put on my delete list.
That would be really an easyone to fix.
(02:55):
I can't even say why I'm late,but I do know I'm much more
likely not to do that if I layout my workout clothes the night
before.
So maybe that's the key.
I'm going to have toinvestigate this one a little
bit more.
And when I come back home fromworking out, I have a habit of
drinking my athletic greens,having a cup of coffee,
journaling, doing a little bitof a morning routine, making my
(03:17):
kids breakfast.
All those things are goodhabits that I'll plan to keep.
And then there's a sticky onefor me, which is cleaning up the
kitchen.
So I love to clean up thekitchen.
No, I hate to clean up thekitchen, but I love the results
of cleaning up the kitchen.
And some days I will tellmyself I have too much to do.
I'll get to it later.
And what I know about myself isthat if I get to it later,
(03:40):
first of all it's going to belike right before I go to bed.
It's not really going to happenduring the day, because once I
get to working, I'm just workingand then I have my kids home
and all that stuff.
So I think that it's definitelyworth my time and it makes my
day so much better if I justhave that habit as an everyday
habit.
So that's another example.
For me, work habits feel reallygood.
(04:01):
I am in a practice of planningout my week and executing my
week as I plan it, so I feelpretty good about that part.
My lunches for the most part Iplan ahead of time.
I get the food.
I know exactly what I'm goingto eat for lunch every day.
I make this easy on myself.
I just eat the same thing everyday for the week.
So sometimes I might switch itup for a week, but I just make
(04:22):
five of the same thing.
So I feel pretty good aboutthat habit.
I meditate every afternoon.
I feel good about that habit,and then when it my dinnertime
habit isn't great.
I will definitely order somefood and kind of plan a few
meals, but it seems to be hit ormiss with dinner.
(04:44):
Sometimes I'll make dinner,sometimes I don't.
Sometimes we all just spend forourselves, or we'll just make
ourselves whatever we want, orI'll make the kids random stuff
and we'll just all sit down andeat, which is the most important
part to me.
But what feels best to me is ifwe all sit around the table
together.
So I would love to edit myhabit of just saying, no matter
(05:05):
what we do for dinner, we'rejust gonna all sit down and eat
at the same time, even if we'rehaving chick-fil-a or something
like that.
Another habit that I feel goodabout is that I go to bed early.
A habit that I feel sort ofokay about is my skincare
routine and all the things I dobefore bed.
I would say I'm like 65% ondoing my skincare stuff.
(05:27):
Sometimes I'm like I'm just tootired and I just use a makeup
wipe and throw on somemoisturizer and go to bed.
So I'd like to edit that habitto make it better.
So this is what I'm asking youto do is just to look at each
one of your habits and askyourself do I want to keep this?
Does it help my productivity?
Does it help my happiness?
Does it help my well-being?
(05:48):
Or does it drain my energy,waste my time, create more
stress for me?
Want to keep this?
Nope, I want to get rid of thisone and I want to edit this one
.
I feel like I'm more in theedit camp.
I have three or four that I'dlike to just make stronger
habits.
So I just listed out three orfour different things that I'd
(06:10):
like to change.
But my third point in talkingto you about this is to make
small but powerful changes andjust choose one thing at a time.
And maybe you just choose onething.
So I just gave you a list ofhabits I'd like to change.
The one that I feel like wouldhave the biggest impact on me is
if I just did my skincareroutine every night.
So I'm going to do everything Ican do to make that easy for
(06:33):
myself.
I'm going to put everything ina little bin so that I can just
get it all out, because whatI'll do is I'll like take my
medicine but not wash my face,or I'll wash my face but forget
to do I don't know somethingelse.
So if I just have it all therefor me and I make it a not
rushed, enjoyable process, thenI'm much more likely to do it.
So here I am, committing to youthat I'm going to do my skincare
(06:55):
routine.
What is your thing?
What are you going to change?
Or maybe there's something thatyou want to stop doing?
For a while?
There, especially when I wasgoing through my divorce, I
would stay up late at nightafter my kids went to bed
because I just sort of needed abreak, and when I was eating
potato chips and having mysecond glass of wine, I'm like,
what am I doing?
This does not serve me at all.
(07:17):
So maybe you've got a latenight wine, potato chips habit,
or maybe you've got a late nightbuy crap online that you really
don't want habit.
If you do, don't judge yourself, just decide does this work for
me, or do I need to get rid ofthis one?
So this is a quick and easy fixList out your daily habits,
decide which ones to keep,delete or edit, and then make
(07:39):
that one commitment, that onesmall shift and see how that
works might inspire you to makea second one, but maybe not,
doesn't matter.
Spring clean your habits andjust see how that turns out.
If you found today's episodehelpful or you just love the
podcast which I really hope thatyou do, because that is my aim
to make a podcast that is alwayspractical and useful and
(08:00):
helpful to you please do areview, write a review or leave
a rating.
That is so helpful to us and toget to my goal of getting to a
top 1% podcast.
What that means is that itwould be top 1% of 3.5 million
podcasts and that when peoplesearch for overwhelm or help me
(08:22):
stop feeling overwhelmed or I'ma people pleaser that our
podcast would come up as one ofthe top first solutions.
I want to be able to help asmany women as I can.
Really all the overwhelmedwomen would be wonderful, and
your rating and review willreally help that process.
Have a great week.
See you next week.
Writing and review will reallyhelp that process.
Have a great week.
See you next week.
(08:45):
Thank you for listening to theOverwhelmed Working Woman
podcast.
If you want to learn more aboutmy work, head over to my
website at michellegauthiercom.
See you next week.
So this is what I'm asking you to do is
just to look at each one of yourhabits and ask yourself do I
wanna keep this?
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
(00:21):
Working Woman and current lifecoach.
On this show, we unpack thestress and pressure that former
overwhelmed working woman andcurrent life coach.
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, I don't know aboutyou, but I have been in such a
(00:42):
mood for spring cleaning.
We had such a cold and dirtywinter in terms of we had a
bunch of snow and you know, whenyou have snow, all kinds of
stuff gets tracked into yourhouse by your dog and your
children and whatever, and soI've just been craving a fresh
start for the spring.
Today, I'm going to give you afun and easy way to do a little
(01:03):
spring cleaning, and it's goingto be spring cleaning your own
habits, just going to take aquick look at what your habits
are, what you're doing duringthe day good, bad and otherwise
and think about doing a springcleaning refresh, just a quick
audit on your daily habits sothat you can keep the ones that
serve you, delete the ones thatdrain you and change or maybe
(01:27):
add new habits that increaseyour productivity and your
well-being.
In order to do this, we'regoing to make a list of your
current daily habits.
You're going to evaluate themand decide which ones you want
to keep, delete or add, change,and then you're going to make
those changes.
So by the end of the episode,you'll know exactly how to
spring clean your habits.
(01:48):
How funny is that?
I love this concept likesweeping out the door all the
habits that aren't working foryou.
So to start, the first thingthat you do is either write down
or think through all the habitsthat you do daily, start from
the time when you wake up and goall the way to the time that
you go to bed.
As you're listening to thispodcast, you can be thinking
about what are some of thehabits that I have.
(02:10):
So I know for me, on the daysthat I work out, I set my alarm
for five o'clock in the morningand my class starts at 530,
which means I lead need to leavemy house at 515.
So I have a habit of planningahead when I'm going to go to
those classes, setting my alarmfor five o'clock and getting up.
Good habit, check, check, check.
Bad habit is I tend to leavearound 520, maybe even 523
(02:34):
sometimes, which makes meborderline late or straight up
late to the class.
Nobody gives me any trouble andin terms of working out it's
fine.
I always make it before thewarmup is over, but it just
makes me feel rushed andslightly overwhelmed.
So that's a habit that I'mgoing to put on my delete list.
That would be really an easyone to fix.
(02:55):
I can't even say why I'm late,but I do know I'm much more
likely not to do that if I layout my workout clothes the night
before.
So maybe that's the key.
I'm going to have toinvestigate this one a little
bit more.
And when I come back home fromworking out, I have a habit of
drinking my athletic greens,having a cup of coffee,
journaling, doing a little bitof a morning routine, making my
(03:17):
kids breakfast.
All those things are goodhabits that I'll plan to keep.
And then there's a sticky onefor me, which is cleaning up the
kitchen.
So I love to clean up thekitchen.
No, I hate to clean up thekitchen, but I love the results
of cleaning up the kitchen.
And some days I will tellmyself I have too much to do.
I'll get to it later.
And what I know about myself isthat if I get to it later,
(03:40):
first of all it's going to belike right before I go to bed.
It's not really going to happenduring the day, because once I
get to working, I'm just workingand then I have my kids home
and all that stuff.
So I think that it's definitelyworth my time and it makes my
day so much better if I justhave that habit as an everyday
habit.
So that's another example.
For me, work habits feel reallygood.
(04:01):
I am in a practice of planningout my week and executing my
week as I plan it, so I feelpretty good about that part.
My lunches for the most part Iplan ahead of time.
I get the food.
I know exactly what I'm goingto eat for lunch every day.
I make this easy on myself.
I just eat the same thing everyday for the week.
So sometimes I might switch itup for a week, but I just make
(04:22):
five of the same thing.
So I feel pretty good aboutthat habit.
I meditate every afternoon.
I feel good about that habit,and then when it my dinnertime
habit isn't great.
I will definitely order somefood and kind of plan a few
meals, but it seems to be hit ormiss with dinner.
(04:44):
Sometimes I'll make dinner,sometimes I don't.
Sometimes we all just spend forourselves, or we'll just make
ourselves whatever we want, orI'll make the kids random stuff
and we'll just all sit down andeat, which is the most important
part to me.
But what feels best to me is ifwe all sit around the table
together.
So I would love to edit myhabit of just saying, no matter
(05:05):
what we do for dinner, we'rejust gonna all sit down and eat
at the same time, even if we'rehaving chick-fil-a or something
like that.
Another habit that I feel goodabout is that I go to bed early.
A habit that I feel sort ofokay about is my skincare
routine and all the things I dobefore bed.
I would say I'm like 65% ondoing my skincare stuff.
(05:27):
Sometimes I'm like I'm just tootired and I just use a makeup
wipe and throw on somemoisturizer and go to bed.
So I'd like to edit that habitto make it better.
So this is what I'm asking youto do is just to look at each
one of your habits and askyourself do I want to keep this?
Does it help my productivity?
Does it help my happiness?
Does it help my well-being?
(05:48):
Or does it drain my energy,waste my time, create more
stress for me?
Want to keep this?
Nope, I want to get rid of thisone and I want to edit this one
.
I feel like I'm more in theedit camp.
I have three or four that I'dlike to just make stronger
habits.
So I just listed out three orfour different things that I'd
(06:10):
like to change.
But my third point in talkingto you about this is to make
small but powerful changes andjust choose one thing at a time.
And maybe you just choose onething.
So I just gave you a list ofhabits I'd like to change.
The one that I feel like wouldhave the biggest impact on me is
if I just did my skincareroutine every night.
So I'm going to do everything Ican do to make that easy for
(06:33):
myself.
I'm going to put everything ina little bin so that I can just
get it all out, because whatI'll do is I'll like take my
medicine but not wash my face,or I'll wash my face but forget
to do I don't know somethingelse.
So if I just have it all therefor me and I make it a not
rushed, enjoyable process, thenI'm much more likely to do it.
So here I am, committing to youthat I'm going to do my skincare
(06:55):
routine.
What is your thing?
What are you going to change?
Or maybe there's something thatyou want to stop doing?
For a while?
There, especially when I wasgoing through my divorce, I
would stay up late at nightafter my kids went to bed
because I just sort of needed abreak, and when I was eating
potato chips and having mysecond glass of wine, I'm like,
what am I doing?
This does not serve me at all.
(07:17):
So maybe you've got a latenight wine, potato chips habit,
or maybe you've got a late nightbuy crap online that you really
don't want habit.
If you do, don't judge yourself, just decide does this work for
me, or do I need to get rid ofthis one?
So this is a quick and easy fixList out your daily habits,
decide which ones to keep,delete or edit, and then make
(07:39):
that one commitment, that onesmall shift and see how that
works might inspire you to makea second one, but maybe not,
doesn't matter.
Spring clean your habits andjust see how that turns out.
If you found today's episodehelpful or you just love the
podcast which I really hope thatyou do, because that is my aim
to make a podcast that is alwayspractical and useful and
(08:00):
helpful to you please do areview, write a review or leave
a rating.
That is so helpful to us and toget to my goal of getting to a
top 1% podcast.
What that means is that itwould be top 1% of 3.5 million
podcasts and that when peoplesearch for overwhelm or help me
(08:22):
stop feeling overwhelmed or I'ma people pleaser that our
podcast would come up as one ofthe top first solutions.
I want to be able to help asmany women as I can.
Really all the overwhelmedwomen would be wonderful, and
your rating and review willreally help that process.
Have a great week.
See you next week.
Writing and review will reallyhelp that process.
Have a great week.
See you next week.
(08:45):
Thank you for listening to theOverwhelmed Working Woman
podcast.
If you want to learn more aboutmy work, head over to my
website at michellegauthiercom.
See you next week.
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