#149| The Math of Overwhelm: Why You Feel Behind (Even When You’re Working Hard): Overwhelm, Productivity, Time Management & People Pleasing

Are you constantly ending your week wondering why you still didn’t get everything done—even though you were “busy” the entire time?

If you're a working woman juggling clients, kids, and an endless to-do list, there's a good chance you're not actually bad at time management—you’re just doing the math wrong. This episode reveals how a simple yet powerful planning strategy can shift your entire weekly mindset from overwhelm to calm.

In this episode, you will:

• Learn the 10-minute math trick to instantly spot why your to-do list never gets done
• Discover how to stop feeling like a failure every Friday
• Find out how to create realistic expectations that align with your actual available hours

Hit play now to learn the one equation that will transform how you plan your week—and help you finally feel done by Friday.

Featured on the podcast:
Episode 20: Why You Need To Set Realistic Expectations

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...

Episode Transcript

Michelle Gauthier (00:01):
If you end up feeling frustrated at the end
of every week thinking about thethings that you didn't get done
, you might have a math problem.
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

(00:23):
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
.
Hi, friend, I'm laughing atmyself that I'm doing a podcast

(00:43):
about math because it hastraditionally not been my
favorite subject, but this is areally important math equation
that I need to teach you about.
That will really help you feelless overwhelmed during and at
the end of the week.
In this quick episode, you'lllearn a simple math problem that
might be causing your overwhelm, why ignoring that sets you up

(01:04):
to feel behind every single week, and how to fix it in under 10
minutes.
Spoiler alert it's way easierthan algebra and it might just
change the way you plan yourwhole entire week.
Here's something I see all thetime: smart, capable women
trying to squeeze in 60 hours ofwork into 12 available hours.
It's like trying to fit agallon of water into a coffee

(01:27):
mug.
It just does not work.
So today I'm going to sharewith you how to evaluate
yourself and see if you aredoing this to yourself, and I'm
going to use my schedule as anexample.
So this past week I'm recordingthis on Friday afternoon, which
I'll get to the end of thatstory by the end of the episode
but I'm recording this on aFriday afternoon and this week,
when I was planning my week, Ilooked at what I had to do, my

(01:51):
to do list, and I added up allthe time that that was going to
take me.
I'm pretty good at estimatingit now.
At first I wasn't great atestimating it, so just give it a
whirl and estimate high.
If you need to estimate in anydirection, estimate high.
And then I looked at myschedule and saw where I already
had client appointments, thingsI need to do for my kids I
always schedule my workouts inand I saw how many hours I had

(02:13):
available.
So for me this week I had 12hours of stuff that I needed to
get done 11 work and onepersonal and I had 14 open hours
on my calendar to do it.
When I do that math 14 hours ofopen time minus 12 hours of
to-do I'm golden.
I've got two extra hours inthere somewhere where I could

(02:34):
take a rest or get somethingelse done.
I'm good to go.
But I'll tell you, what Inormally see, especially with a
new client, is that when I havethem do this exercise of adding
up everything on their to-dolist and then seeing how many
free hours they have and by freehours I mean working hours
where they don't already havesomething on their calendar at
that time, it really truly canbe a ratio, like I said at the

(02:55):
beginning, 60 hours of to-dos ontheir to-do list into 12 open
available hours or 50 hours andfive open hours to do that.
So when you do the math in thatdirection let's say we use the
example of my client, jenny, whoI mentioned on episode 148, she

(03:17):
really truly did have fivehours of open time on her
calendar and 50 hours of to-doson her to-do list.
So what that means if we dothat math 5 minus 50, negative
45.
She needs 45 additional hoursin the week to get everything
done on her to-do list.
And so at the end of the week,what that causes when you don't

(03:39):
do this math, first tounderstand oh, okay, I'm
reasonably not going to getanywhere close to getting those
things done.
What was happening is thatevery week she was feeling like
a failure this stuff is stillstaying on my to-do list, I'm
not getting anything done.
And then you just get into thistime deficit where you're
always behind on what you haveto do.
So if this is resonating withyou and you're like, okay, yep,

(04:01):
that's me, I'm absolutely doingthat.
A couple things that I want toencourage you to do.
Number one actually do thismath.
If you go to episode 148,you'll get all the details on
exactly how to do the calendarclean out process that I use
every week.
There's even a worksheet thatgoes with it.
So do the math and figure outwhat your number is.
And if your number of to do'sis higher than your number of

(04:24):
available hours to work, thenjust start prioritizing.
Pick what's most important forthis particular week, just
number them one, two and threeand see where you can fit them
in.
So that example I gave you forme of having 12 hours of to-dos
this week is because I knowballpark what I can get done in

(04:45):
a week If I had no clients forthe entire week and I had 40
hours or 35 hours to work on,just work stuff.
I could absolutely fill that up, but because I sort of know
what my budget for time is, Imake my to do list accordingly.
If you have a job where youlike to plan way out in advance
the things that you have to do,it's great to keep a huge to-do

(05:09):
list with absolutely everythingon it.
But when you go to planningyour week, use this math problem
to figure out which ones areactually going to make it on
your list this week and makethat your to-do list for this
week.
Keep that other big old listand then the next week go pick
some stuff off that or addthings on throughout the week.
And I'll tell you what ended uphappening with me this week,

(05:32):
even though when I looked at myplan I was like, good, I'm good,
two hours in the good, I shouldbe able to get everything done.
What happened because my kidsfinished school this week is I
spent unplanned time during theday taking my daughter places
and running some errands that Ihadn't planned for.
So what happened is I got tothe end of the week and I saw my

(05:54):
last client on Friday afternoon.
I finished at one, which is thetime that I usually finished
working, but I still had threehours of work left to do.
So my options for that whenthat happens to you if you
underestimate my options forthat are to take those three
hours and kick them over intothe next week and try to fit
that to do in there.

(06:14):
But in this case, I reallywanted to get it done this week
so that I could put the podcastout on time.
So I decided that I was justgoing to keep working.
I didn't have other thingsplanned.
I just normally don't work thatlate on Fridays, so I'm just
working and getting it done, andI do this every week and I
still make mistakes.
So it's not going to be perfect, but I promise you, if you
manage your time in this way,you will feel so much better.

(06:37):
Because what happens as humansand you can learn all about this
in episode number 20 aboutsetting our expectations is when
you have an expectation, evenan unconscious one, of I'm going
to get all this stuff done thisweek, or I should get all this
stuff done this week, and thenyou don't.
You're suffering because of theexpectation that you made up,

(06:58):
right?
So the to do list isn't theproblem.
It's the expectation that youhad that you were going to
finish it all.
That's the problem.
So if you do the real numbersand look at the real math, your
expectation is a really good,educated guess instead of a
totally random, unconsciousexpectation that you're going to
get it all done.
Okay, you got this.

(07:19):
If this podcast has providedyou with any value today or any
other day that you listen to it,I would love if you would leave
a review.
It means so much.
It really helps the podcast getshown to more people and our
audience keeps getting biggerand bigger, and I would really
appreciate if you would justtake a minute to do that.
Have a fantastic week.
Hope your math problem worksout.

(07:40):
Thank you for listening to theOverwhelmed Working Woman
podcast.
If you want to learn more aboutmy work, head over to my
website at michellegauthier.
com.
See you next week.