Do you keep waiting for motivation before starting, only to watch your to-do list grow longer?
In this episode, Michelle unpacks why procrastination isn’t about laziness—and reveals five surprising ways it shows up, from endless planning to people pleasing, all of which secretly sabotage your productivity and peace of mind.
In this episode, you will:
- Learn why action—not motivation—breaks the procrastination cycle.
- Discover tiny, practical steps to tackle big, overwhelming tasks.
- Understand how to set boundaries so you stop putting everyone else first.
Press play now to learn actionable strategies that help you beat procrastination and bring more calm and control into your week.
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!
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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...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Michelle Gauthier (00:00):
We assume that motivation has to come
first, but the truth ismotivation follows action.
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
(00:20):
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, thanks for joiningtoday.
Today we're going to be talkingall about procrastination, and
(00:41):
maybe not in the way that youwould expect.
When you listen, today you'lllearn number one, what
procrastination and maybe not inthe way that you would expect.
When you listen, today you'lllearn number one, what
procrastination actually is -spoiler alert it's not laziness
- and five sneaky ways that itmight be sabotaging your
productivity, both at work andat home, and, of course, what to
do about it, what to do abouteach one of those.
I think it's funny that when Iwas writing this episode and
(01:05):
this is actually my third timestarting the recording on this
episode I found myself fallinginto two of these five that I'm
about to tell you about.
So I'm here to say thatprocrastination can easily sneak
up on us, even as I'm writingand recording a podcast about
procrastination.
So today, by the time you'refinished listening to this
(01:26):
episode, you will know what todo for each one of these types
of procrastination.
But let's dig in first bytalking about what
procrastination is and isn't wethink procrastination is.
I'm lazy, I have no willpower,I'm bad at time management.
I need to be more disciplined.
I need to try harder all thosekinds of thoughts.
The problem with thinkingsomething like I'm just lazy is
(01:50):
it just means something aboutyou as a human, like you have a
flaw, and those are totally nottrue.
If you've been a listener tothe podcast for a while, you
know that we always think aboutthe actions that we're taking.
So procrastination is anaction, an inaction but an
action, and we always thinkabout those actions that we're
taking in terms of what thoughtam I having that's causing this?
(02:13):
So what procrastination reallyis is a protective behavior,
normally that your brain istrying to protect you from doing
something that's going to makeyou feel uncomfortable, and it's
simply a thought that you'rehaving that is causing you to
not take action.
And I'm going to dive into moreof that, but I think the
biggest thing to take away isthat procrastination is our
(02:36):
brain trying to protect us fromdiscomfort.
Sometimes the discomfort isn'teven that big of a deal, right,
but our brain's trying to get usto not take action on something
.
It means nothing about you as aperson.
It doesn't mean that you'relazy or need to be more
motivated or work harder.
So let's dig into each one ofthe five types of
procrastination and someexamples of each one, and then
(03:02):
what to do if that one reallyresonates with you, if you're
like oh yeah, that's the onethat I do.
So the first one is overplanning instead of just
starting, because planning andthinking about what to do feels
productive and in control, butit can be a really sneaky way to
delay taking action.
So, for example, if you createthe perfect spreadsheet to track
(03:25):
all of your goals but you nevertake action on them, that would
be an example of this overplanning instead of just
starting.
Or you spend 30 minutesrewriting and organizing your to
do list but then really don'thave time to do anything on it
At home.
Maybe that would look likemaking a color coded chore chart
for your family, but neveractually use it it.
(03:46):
So what to do instead if you'restuck in this, in stuck in the
research phase and just spendingyour time?
Personally, I love doing this,because you can just go forever
learning new things but nevertaking any action.
So what to do instead is just toplan only for the first tiny
step and set a timer for fiveminutes to start taking action
(04:09):
immediately.
So what I say is, if you thinkof the first step and it feels
overwhelming or too big, make itsmaller.
Let's talk about the examplethat I mentioned of creating
this perfect Excel spreadsheetthat has all of your goals on it
or all of your to do's on it,but you never take action on
them.
If you're going to take a tinystep and you said, okay, I'm
(04:29):
going to do the first thing onthe list, and your body was
still like Nope, we're not goingto do that, then maybe your
step is to write out the firstpart of the first thing.
Or maybe your first step is toopen a blank document and type
one sentence I'm talking tinyfirst steps and set a timer for
five minutes and just take thattiny step for five minutes and
(04:52):
and remind yourself that claritycomes from actually doing the
thing, not doing the perfectplanning.
This is definitely one of theones that I get stuck in, and
even for this podcast Idefinitely did.
This leads perfectly into thesecond one, which is endless
research.
So the one we just talked aboutbefore this was over planning.
Endless research is verysimilar to this one, where you
(05:15):
just keep doing research on atopic before you take action
because research gives us theillusion of being productive and
being prepared and learning somany things about it in order to
just be fully prepared, but theprocrastination part is never
taking action.
So maybe you want to start mealprepping and you watch a ton of
meal prep videos on TikTok andit looks fun and you just keep
(05:37):
spending hours watching them,but you keep ordering takeout.
This is very similar to the oneahead.
It's being stuck in thatplanning or research phase
instead of taking action.
So the prescription for thisone is very similar to the one
above Set a time to limit yourresearch and then choose that
one tiny step and take it.
(06:00):
Okay, the next one is waiting tofeel motivated.
We do this one because weassume that motivation has to
come first, but the truth ismotivation follows action, so we
start feeling motivated once westart doing it.
So, for example, at work, maybeyou need to write a tough email
or have a tough conversationwith someone, but you keep
pushing it off because you'rewaiting until you feel calm and
(06:22):
clear and motivated to have thatconversation.
Same thing with a big projectin the house.
Maybe you delay cleaning thegarage until you feel motivated
to do it.
Same can be true of like goingfor a walk or working out.
I think the most powerful thingto do for this one is to remind
yourself that motivation isn't amagical force that floats
(06:43):
around the universe and justlands on you sometimes.
And doesn't land on yousometimes, it's created by the
way that we're thinking.
What my trick is, instead oftrying to make yourself
motivated to do something, justremind yourself that you can do
it.
You can take action even if youdon't feel motivated.
So what I tell myself is, forexample, let's say, I don't feel
(07:03):
like working out when my alarmgoes off in the morning and I
don't feel motivated to do it.
That's fine.
I don't have to feel motivatedin order to go to the gym.
I know that on Sunday, I made aplan.
I chose the times I was goingto work out, I chose the
workouts that I was going to do,and my job isn't to feel
motivated.
My job is just to do it.
So that's what I tell myself.
(07:24):
You could use.
A thought like this is part ofthe plan that I made for myself.
I'm going to get started now.
It doesn't matter how I feelabout it right now, and if that
still feels like too much.
You could also use that fiveminute 10 minute rule.
If we're talking about theexample of cleaning out the
garage, I'm going to spend 10minutes just to get started and
(07:45):
see how it feels.
The next one is doing low stakestasks first.
This is another one of myfavorite ones to do.
Low stakes tasks, the ones thatare kind of at the bottom of
your to-do list or maybe noteven on your to-do list, are so
appealing because, for example,it's so much easier to just
answer emails instead ofcreating that presentation you
(08:05):
need to do, or to spend, youknow time tweaking the fonts,
but you haven't even finalizedthe content in the presentation
that you have to make.
Or maybe, on a personal note,you know you really need to
revise and follow a budget, butinstead you decide to repot all
your plants.
It makes sense that our brainwants to do the easy one, so
(08:26):
that we can either check it offor just do something that feels
more painless.
But the solution for this oneis to ask yourself is this task
urgent or is it just easy?
Am I just doing this onebecause I want to be making some
progress and it's easy, but isit the urgent task that I want
to work on, and then again, foreach one of these, you're going
to hear me say the same thing,which is do it for a set amount
(08:49):
of time, just get started.
10 minutes, 5 minutes, whateverit takes to move through the
difficult task that you'reavoiding.
The last one is especially formy people pleasers out there.
One way that we procrastinateis to help other people instead
of facing our own priorities orwhatever it is that we need to
(09:10):
do.
A classic example of this mightbe staying late to help a
co-worker with their project,even though you're behind.
Or you jump in to fix someoneelse's spreadsheet instead of
asking for help on your ownworkload or from a home
perspective.
I feel like we often do thingsfor our kids or our partner
(09:30):
instead of the personal thingsthat we have on our own to-do
list.
So what to do instead on thisone is to set boundaries A
boundary like I can help youafter I finish what I'm working
on for myself.
And remember I've got tons ofepisodes on boundaries and how
to say no.
So if you need more help onthat, there's lots of resources
(09:53):
out there in different episodes.
But remember that saying yes toothers shouldn't mean
sacrificing yourself.
That is really the definitionof people.
Pleasing is when you're sayingyes to others to the detriment
of yourself.
That is really the definitionof people.
Pleasing is when you're sayingyes to others to the detriment
of yourself.
So the cure for this one issetting a boundary and, of
course, setting a timer and justgetting started on the first
(10:13):
step.
So, in summary, there are fivesneaky ways procrastination
might be sabotaging yourproductivity over planning over
researching.
Sabotaging your productivityover planning over researching.
Waiting to feel motivated,doing the easy stuff first and
helping others before you helpyourself.
Keep in mind again these arenot character flaws.
They're coping strategies thatyour brain uses to avoid
(10:34):
discomfort.
As I mentioned at the beginningof the podcast, I personally
did the over planning and overresearching on this particular
podcast episode.
So these can come up for anybodyall the time, and the problem
is not that they come up, it'sjust how do you handle it?
What do you do about it?
So now you are armed with theactions to take so that you
(10:54):
don't get stuck inprocrastination.
If this episode hits home,please share it with a friend or
leave a review.
Those things mean so much to meand they are so helpful for us
to grow the podcast, and if youwant to know more about what's
causing you overwhelm, take thefree overwhelm quiz.
Well, put the link in the shownotes and you'll get
(11:14):
personalized tools based on yourbiggest overwhelm habits, for
example, the one I was justtalking about at the end, where
you're helping others beforehelping yourself.
You might be a people pleaser,and if you are, you will get an
exact description of what to doand even a worksheet that you
can work through at the end ofthe quiz.
Ok, have a great week.
(11:40):
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.
We assume that motivation has to come
first, but the truth ismotivation follows action.
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
(00:20):
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, thanks for joiningtoday.
Today we're going to be talkingall about procrastination, and
(00:41):
maybe not in the way that youwould expect.
When you listen, today you'lllearn number one, what
procrastination and maybe not inthe way that you would expect.
When you listen, today you'lllearn number one, what
procrastination actually is -spoiler alert it's not laziness
- and five sneaky ways that itmight be sabotaging your
productivity, both at work andat home, and, of course, what to
do about it, what to do abouteach one of those.
I think it's funny that when Iwas writing this episode and
(01:05):
this is actually my third timestarting the recording on this
episode I found myself fallinginto two of these five that I'm
about to tell you about.
So I'm here to say thatprocrastination can easily sneak
up on us, even as I'm writingand recording a podcast about
procrastination.
So today, by the time you'refinished listening to this
(01:26):
episode, you will know what todo for each one of these types
of procrastination.
But let's dig in first bytalking about what
procrastination is and isn't wethink procrastination is.
I'm lazy, I have no willpower,I'm bad at time management.
I need to be more disciplined.
I need to try harder all thosekinds of thoughts.
The problem with thinkingsomething like I'm just lazy is
(01:50):
it just means something aboutyou as a human, like you have a
flaw, and those are totally nottrue.
If you've been a listener tothe podcast for a while, you
know that we always think aboutthe actions that we're taking.
So procrastination is anaction, an inaction but an
action, and we always thinkabout those actions that we're
taking in terms of what thoughtam I having that's causing this?
(02:13):
So what procrastination reallyis is a protective behavior,
normally that your brain istrying to protect you from doing
something that's going to makeyou feel uncomfortable, and it's
simply a thought that you'rehaving that is causing you to
not take action.
And I'm going to dive into moreof that, but I think the
biggest thing to take away isthat procrastination is our
(02:36):
brain trying to protect us fromdiscomfort.
Sometimes the discomfort isn'teven that big of a deal, right,
but our brain's trying to get usto not take action on something
.
It means nothing about you as aperson.
It doesn't mean that you'relazy or need to be more
motivated or work harder.
So let's dig into each one ofthe five types of
procrastination and someexamples of each one, and then
(03:02):
what to do if that one reallyresonates with you, if you're
like oh yeah, that's the onethat I do.
So the first one is overplanning instead of just
starting, because planning andthinking about what to do feels
productive and in control, butit can be a really sneaky way to
delay taking action.
So, for example, if you createthe perfect spreadsheet to track
(03:25):
all of your goals but you nevertake action on them, that would
be an example of this overplanning instead of just
starting.
Or you spend 30 minutesrewriting and organizing your to
do list but then really don'thave time to do anything on it
At home.
Maybe that would look likemaking a color coded chore chart
for your family, but neveractually use it it.
(03:46):
So what to do instead if you'restuck in this, in stuck in the
research phase and just spendingyour time?
Personally, I love doing this,because you can just go forever
learning new things but nevertaking any action.
So what to do instead is just toplan only for the first tiny
step and set a timer for fiveminutes to start taking action
(04:09):
immediately.
So what I say is, if you thinkof the first step and it feels
overwhelming or too big, make itsmaller.
Let's talk about the examplethat I mentioned of creating
this perfect Excel spreadsheetthat has all of your goals on it
or all of your to do's on it,but you never take action on
them.
If you're going to take a tinystep and you said, okay, I'm
(04:29):
going to do the first thing onthe list, and your body was
still like Nope, we're not goingto do that, then maybe your
step is to write out the firstpart of the first thing.
Or maybe your first step is toopen a blank document and type
one sentence I'm talking tinyfirst steps and set a timer for
five minutes and just take thattiny step for five minutes and
(04:52):
and remind yourself that claritycomes from actually doing the
thing, not doing the perfectplanning.
This is definitely one of theones that I get stuck in, and
even for this podcast Idefinitely did.
This leads perfectly into thesecond one, which is endless
research.
So the one we just talked aboutbefore this was over planning.
Endless research is verysimilar to this one, where you
(05:15):
just keep doing research on atopic before you take action
because research gives us theillusion of being productive and
being prepared and learning somany things about it in order to
just be fully prepared, but theprocrastination part is never
taking action.
So maybe you want to start mealprepping and you watch a ton of
meal prep videos on TikTok andit looks fun and you just keep
(05:37):
spending hours watching them,but you keep ordering takeout.
This is very similar to the oneahead.
It's being stuck in thatplanning or research phase
instead of taking action.
So the prescription for thisone is very similar to the one
above Set a time to limit yourresearch and then choose that
one tiny step and take it.
(06:00):
Okay, the next one is waiting tofeel motivated.
We do this one because weassume that motivation has to
come first, but the truth ismotivation follows action, so we
start feeling motivated once westart doing it.
So, for example, at work, maybeyou need to write a tough email
or have a tough conversationwith someone, but you keep
pushing it off because you'rewaiting until you feel calm and
(06:22):
clear and motivated to have thatconversation.
Same thing with a big projectin the house.
Maybe you delay cleaning thegarage until you feel motivated
to do it.
Same can be true of like goingfor a walk or working out.
I think the most powerful thingto do for this one is to remind
yourself that motivation isn't amagical force that floats
(06:43):
around the universe and justlands on you sometimes.
And doesn't land on yousometimes, it's created by the
way that we're thinking.
What my trick is, instead oftrying to make yourself
motivated to do something, justremind yourself that you can do
it.
You can take action even if youdon't feel motivated.
So what I tell myself is, forexample, let's say, I don't feel
(07:03):
like working out when my alarmgoes off in the morning and I
don't feel motivated to do it.
That's fine.
I don't have to feel motivatedin order to go to the gym.
I know that on Sunday, I made aplan.
I chose the times I was goingto work out, I chose the
workouts that I was going to do,and my job isn't to feel
motivated.
My job is just to do it.
So that's what I tell myself.
(07:24):
You could use.
A thought like this is part ofthe plan that I made for myself.
I'm going to get started now.
It doesn't matter how I feelabout it right now, and if that
still feels like too much.
You could also use that fiveminute 10 minute rule.
If we're talking about theexample of cleaning out the
garage, I'm going to spend 10minutes just to get started and
(07:45):
see how it feels.
The next one is doing low stakestasks first.
This is another one of myfavorite ones to do.
Low stakes tasks, the ones thatare kind of at the bottom of
your to-do list or maybe noteven on your to-do list, are so
appealing because, for example,it's so much easier to just
answer emails instead ofcreating that presentation you
(08:05):
need to do, or to spend, youknow time tweaking the fonts,
but you haven't even finalizedthe content in the presentation
that you have to make.
Or maybe, on a personal note,you know you really need to
revise and follow a budget, butinstead you decide to repot all
your plants.
It makes sense that our brainwants to do the easy one, so
(08:26):
that we can either check it offor just do something that feels
more painless.
But the solution for this oneis to ask yourself is this task
urgent or is it just easy?
Am I just doing this onebecause I want to be making some
progress and it's easy, but isit the urgent task that I want
to work on, and then again, foreach one of these, you're going
to hear me say the same thing,which is do it for a set amount
(08:49):
of time, just get started.
10 minutes, 5 minutes, whateverit takes to move through the
difficult task that you'reavoiding.
The last one is especially formy people pleasers out there.
One way that we procrastinateis to help other people instead
of facing our own priorities orwhatever it is that we need to
(09:10):
do.
A classic example of this mightbe staying late to help a
co-worker with their project,even though you're behind.
Or you jump in to fix someoneelse's spreadsheet instead of
asking for help on your ownworkload or from a home
perspective.
I feel like we often do thingsfor our kids or our partner
(09:30):
instead of the personal thingsthat we have on our own to-do
list.
So what to do instead on thisone is to set boundaries A
boundary like I can help youafter I finish what I'm working
on for myself.
And remember I've got tons ofepisodes on boundaries and how
to say no.
So if you need more help onthat, there's lots of resources
(09:53):
out there in different episodes.
But remember that saying yes toothers shouldn't mean
sacrificing yourself.
That is really the definitionof people.
Pleasing is when you're sayingyes to others to the detriment
of yourself.
That is really the definitionof people.
Pleasing is when you're sayingyes to others to the detriment
of yourself.
So the cure for this one issetting a boundary and, of
course, setting a timer and justgetting started on the first
(10:13):
step.
So, in summary, there are fivesneaky ways procrastination
might be sabotaging yourproductivity over planning over
researching.
Sabotaging your productivityover planning over researching.
Waiting to feel motivated,doing the easy stuff first and
helping others before you helpyourself.
Keep in mind again these arenot character flaws.
They're coping strategies thatyour brain uses to avoid
(10:34):
discomfort.
As I mentioned at the beginningof the podcast, I personally
did the over planning and overresearching on this particular
podcast episode.
So these can come up for anybodyall the time, and the problem
is not that they come up, it'sjust how do you handle it?
What do you do about it?
So now you are armed with theactions to take so that you
(10:54):
don't get stuck inprocrastination.
If this episode hits home,please share it with a friend or
leave a review.
Those things mean so much to meand they are so helpful for us
to grow the podcast, and if youwant to know more about what's
causing you overwhelm, take thefree overwhelm quiz.
Well, put the link in the shownotes and you'll get
(11:14):
personalized tools based on yourbiggest overwhelm habits, for
example, the one I was justtalking about at the end, where
you're helping others beforehelping yourself.
You might be a people pleaser,and if you are, you will get an
exact description of what to doand even a worksheet that you
can work through at the end ofthe quiz.
Ok, have a great week.
(11:40):
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.
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