Are you constantly exhausted from trying to “do it all” and still feel like you’re falling short every week?
This episode dives deep into a groundbreaking approach to time management built specifically for women. Megan Sumrall shares how she used her background in Six Sigma and process improvement to build a realistic planning system that acknowledges uncertainty, emotional bandwidth, and biology—something most productivity tools ignore.
In this episode, you will:
- Learn how to get out of “time debt” and finally breathe again
- Discover the difference between masculine and feminine planning systems—and why it matters
- Understand how to realistically plan your week without rigid time blocks or hustle-culture guilt
Hit play now to discover how to build a time management system that works with your life—not against it.
Featured on the podcast
Megan's Work + Life Harmony podcast
The Pink Bee app
The Top Program for time management
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...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Megan Sumrell (00:00):
women are perpetually living in time debt
right now, where, basically, youwake up, you write, you make
the list, which I hate lists.
Your goal for the whole day isto check everything off the list
, but every time you check offone, three more get added right.
Michelle Gauthier (00:17):
You're listening to Overwhelmed Working
Woman, the podcast that helpsyou be more calm and more
productive by doing less.
I'm your host, MichelleGauthier, a former overwhelmed
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
(00:40):
.
Hi, friend, today I'm talkingwith someone who feels like a
total kindred spirit.
Her name is Megan Sumrall andshe is a former corporate
process improvement expert Samething I used to do, fun fact and
she turned into a timemanagement coach who's helped
over 10,000 women create morecalm and order and breathing
(01:02):
room in their lives.
What makes Megan's approachdifferent, and why I really
wanted to have her on to shareher approach with you guys, is
that she's created a femininetime management system that
works with your life, notagainst it.
She is not focused on rigidroutines or perfect calendars.
She's all about how torealistically plan your week.
(01:23):
No-transcript.
(01:52):
If you're sick of chasing animpossible schedule and feeling
defeated at the end of everyweek when you can't do
everything that you had on it,this episode will give you hope
in some clear direction.
I have to say when I wasrecording this episode, I had a
cold and my microphone alsosounds terrible, so I apologize
in advance for the poor soundquality.
(02:13):
From here on out, thanks forlistening today, and I hope you
enjoy Megan as much as I did.
Michelle Gauther (02:19):
Hey Megan, welcome to the podcast, I'm so
glad you're here today.
I feel like this is just acoming together.
That was meant to be, becausewe both talk about overwhelm and
time management and so manysimilar things and you know
people might say, why do youwant to interview someone who's
so similar to you?
But I love finding out just thedifferences and like some great
(02:40):
way that you might think aboutsomething versus how I think,
about something that we canshare with the audience, and so
one of those things that I havefollowed and admire about what
you're doing is the way that youtalk about time management.
So before we jump into that butI can't wait for you to share
with everybody the way that youlook at time management Will you
just tell us a little bit abouthow you got here?
(03:00):
Like, why did you become a timemanagement guru?
Megan Sumrell (03:03):
Well, in third grade, when my teacher said what
do you want to be when you growup this was not it my answer
was not you know time management.
Michelle Gauther (03:11):
Not Online on Zoom on video.
Megan Sumrell (03:14):
Right.
So, like you, I actually have acorporate background.
For over 20 years I was a mathmajor landed in the corporate IT
software space kind of sheerluck out of college and so I
spent over 20 years in and outof numerous software
organizations across a lot ofdifferent domains, ranging from
e-commerce to healthcare toaviation, telecommunications.
(03:37):
All of that and my careerreally landed me in the quality
assurance space and over thecourse of that I ended up
getting a number ofcertifications and trainings all
around process improvement,optimizations, streamlining If
anyone listening is in thatspace, if you've heard of Lean,
six Sigma, agile, all of that Ihave all of those certifications
(03:59):
project management, certifiedscrum trainer, all of that.
Michelle Gauther (04:03):
I have to pause! Oh my gosh gosh.
I was a six sigma black belt.
No one ever knows what that is.
Oh my gosh, Megan.
Megan Sumrell (04:09):
Okay, we were meant yeah, see, we were, we
were meant to we are kindredspirits.
Kids are like, is that karate?
Michelle Gauther (04:15):
no, it's all about process improvement and
how to make things the mostefficient, which, as a gift for
us, also helps you.
Help people do that, okay, I'msorry to interrupt, I just got
really excited that someone saidSix Sigma on the podcast.
Go on.
Megan Sumrell (04:30):
And there's a reason I bring that up because
it ties into what I do now andhow I created what I created.
So towards the end of my careernot knowing it was going to be
the end of corporate, really,the role that I was serving at
that time is I would go intolarge software organizations and
essentially recreate all theirsystems from the ground up to
build their software better,faster, cheaper, higher quality.
So I got married later in life.
(04:52):
We started a family later inlife, after struggling with
fertility and all of that, andso I kind of entered motherhood
on the later end and was, youknow, just going through the
paces as working moms do work,kids, work, kids really hard.
And I had one day where Ithought, you know, I'd done
(05:13):
everything right.
My daughter was about two and itwas a Friday I can still
remember it so clearly and I'dgotten up early so I could
finish work early.
I had the snack bag the nightbefore, like all the things.
We could just go have anafternoon at the park and I was
pushing around the swings and Ilive in the South, so
everybody's chatty down here andthe woman next to me in
conversation innocently justasked me what do you do for fun?
(05:34):
I was like huh, I didn't havean answer and I didn't even know
I didn't have an answer, like Ididn't realize my life had
transitioned so much that Icouldn't answer, "What do you do
for fun anymore?
Michelle Gauther (05:49):
And it's not that I wasn't in moments where
you're like oh crap, and it'snot.
Megan Sumrell (05:54):
I mean, it's not like I mean I was having fun at
the park, right, that's not thesame as what do I do for me, for
joy in my life.
And so I went home, kind of hada midlife crisis that night
after getting my daughter to bedand I sat in that space for a
while and I was like whathappened?
How did Megan get from there tohere, where now I don't like my
(06:16):
entire, I don't even know who Iam.
Some days I don't even know howto dress as corporate mom, like
it.
Just I don't know.
I felt like I completely lost myidentity.
And then, thankfully, it kindof hit me that hey, megan, you
do this for a living.
You go into chaotic spaces andcreate new structure and
processes to align with theirvalues.
(06:36):
So I was like why don't youtake yourself on and apply
everything that you do in yourcorporate life to your calendar,
to your time?
Because the fact was, when Idug into it, I realized what was
missing was me.
Everything was getting done.
From the outside, looking in,it looked like the perfect life,
(06:57):
right, I had the job, the house, the kid, the dogs, all that.
I was really unhappy andunfulfilled, and the fact is, my
calendar was completely full ofeverybody and everything, and I
was nowhere to be found on it.
So I said about I threw away theplanner I'd been using for over
20 years.
I was a Franklin Covey likediehard went to all their
(07:20):
courses, you know the wholeshebang and I was like let's
start from the ground up andfigure out how do I juggle all
the things I'm juggling withoutlosing myself in the process and
without being perpetuallyoverwhelmed.
So I essentially created a newway of controlling the chaos, if
you will, and developed thisweekly and monthly planning
(07:41):
system.
And I was doing a keynote at awomen in tech conference and was
at one of like the tables andthe women we were all chatting
and they're like how do you?
It's like, how do you manageall of this?
And so I started sharing someof my calendar and how I do
stuff.
Well, I get an email from agroup that was there saying can
we hire you to teach us how youplan your time?
Michelle Gauther (08:04):
Oh interesting .
Megan Sumrell (08:05):
I was like huh, that's interesting.
So I had to sit with that for alittle bit and I was like, is
this something I could turn intoa repeatable framework, like,
is this something I could teachpeople on?
So I reached back out and I said, hey, you know I've never shown
this to anybody, but I'd bewilling to do that if you just
give me honest feedback, likeI'm happy to mentor you on this.
So I guided these five womenthrough what I was doing,
(08:28):
transformed their lives.
I found my missing passion andjoy and I was like this is it I?
When I saw their life transformand experience that process of,
like, turning this into arepeatable system, that is what
planted that seed in me of thisis how I want to spend my life.
So, you know, had to thinkabout it for a while and I'm
(08:51):
happy to say that at the timewe're recording this, we are now
this is my five-yearanniversary fully just into this
business.
We've now served in over.
We've served over 10,000 womenin over 15 countries teaching
this time management system thatis specifically for women,
because we need somethingdifferent than our male
counterparts.
Michelle Gauther (09:14):
That is amazing 10,000 women's lives
improved by learning how tomanage their time better.
That's awesome.
Yeah, what kind of results?
What would be just like typicalresults for people who do this
program?
And then I want to ask you somequestions about how it actually
works.
Megan Sumrell (09:31):
Yeah, so I mean, the number one thing and I know
this is what you hear from allthe women you work with as well
is they're no longer overwhelmed.
They're like, their life feelsspacious, feels like there's
room to breathe and you're nolonger feeling.
I always feel like I was inthat whack-a-mole game or like
spinning the plates.
(09:51):
They were always spinning, butI was always in that mild
anxiety of one goes, it's allgoing to fall apart, right, like
just hanging on.
Michelle Gauther (10:01):
Yes, and so I can feel the stress in my chest
when you remind me of thatfeeling.
Megan Sumrell (10:08):
Yeah, yeah, and you know that it's I always use
this phrase of women areperpetually living in time debt.
Right now, where, basically,you wake up, you write, you make
the list which - I hate lists.
Your goal for the whole day isto check everything off the list
, but every time you check offone, three more get added.
Right?
You go to bed, the list is notdone, so you feel like a
failure, when you never couldhave done the list in the first
(10:29):
place.
So maybe there's eight thingsleft that didn't get done.
Well, you wake up the next dayalready eight in debt, and now
you go add 15 more to it andyou're living in this perpetual
cycle of time debt, day afterday after day.
And it wears on you mentally.
It wears on you physically,wears on your soul.
(10:49):
And so what we're doing, theway getting out of overwhelm
looks for the women I work withis now they're no longer in time
debt.
Now they've got a savingsaccount of time.
Michelle Gauther (11:03):
Of time.
Yes, yes, that's there for them, yeah because when you're in
time debt, you somehow get likea meeting cancellation or some
white space on your calendar.
You're like I better grab thatlist and get back to it because
you're always making up for losttime.
So just to be where you're incharge of your time and you can
sit through that white space andbe like it's being very
(11:24):
proactive instead of constantstate of reactivity.
Yes, well, the thing that firstdrew me to the way that you're
talking about managing time isthe idea that it is based on a
feminine calendar.
So will you just tell us whatthat means and like why you
created it that way?
Megan Sumrell (11:41):
Yeah, and so I very openly say this is a
feminine time management system,and there's three key things
that differentiate this frompretty much every productivity
I'll put that in quotes systemthat I have researched, been
introduced to or have tried, andall of those have been created
by men.
So, first and foremost is, youknow, even when I look back at
(12:05):
my Franklin Covey days, let'sjust talk about the technology.
Technology has had a massiveimpact on our time, because when
you think about you know, whenI think about my life when I
first started working so I'm inmy 50s, so when I started
working, there was no cellphones or no laptops, like we
(12:25):
didn't even.
I mean, the internet was kindof like ooh, exciting and new.
So what this meant was when Iwas at work, I was only at work,
right, and then when I wenthome, I was only at home, no one
was reaching me.
Well, now we walk around withcomputers in our pocket that are
more powerful than the computersystems.
I first worked on yes much, muchmore, and so it is this kind of
(12:48):
Amazon Prime now ofeverything's instant right now,
and so we have information.
A study I read from like fiveyears ago was showing that the
volume of data that we'reconsuming from our mobile
devices is equivalent ofwatching 18 movies a day.
Michelle Gauther (13:05):
Really.
Megan Sumrell (13:07):
Yeah, oh my gosh.
Michelle Gauther (13:08):
Now that's sort of terrifying.
Megan Sumrell (13:10):
So if you're going through a traditional
masculine time managementprogram where basically they're
teaching you structured timeblocking and create your perfect
week, I'm sorry.
Where in there does it say howwe're staying on top of 18
movies a day in the form of the12 portals from your kids'
student activities and differentschools and different teachers
(13:30):
and different lessons, right?
The onslaught of emails comingat you, the notifications from
the portals that you need tostay on top of, and a lot of
this tends to fall ontraditional caregiver roles,
right?
So if my daughter's sick, thefirst phone call they're making
is not to my spouse, they'recalling me first.
(13:51):
Right.
So we need to acknowledge, likethat we're in information
overload and masculine systemsare not addressing this.
They're just giving very caveatthings of like just turn off
your notifications.
Well, that's because they knowsomeone else is going to get
that phone call.
Yes, yes, someone has to bethere, so we need to acknowledge
(14:13):
this and create a way for us to.
How can we plan?
I call this planning foruncertainty.
How can we plan our time whenwe know we are the primary
person absorbing the uncertainty?
Right, so I have to create aplan that looks very different
than my husband's yeah, yeah,uncertainty right.
So I have to create a plan thatlooks very different than my
husband's yeah, yeah.
(14:38):
Now, the second thing here isjust looking at the sheer data
of the change of the number ofwomen that are now working than
20, 30 years ago.
Right, the number of women thatare responsible for being the
primary caregiver and workingadds a whole caveat of
responsibilities thattraditional masculine planning
systems are not talking about.
Right, they're not addressingthe fact that there's a reason
(15:02):
why, at 2 am, you wake up andhave those list-making sessions
in your bed.
Right, I've got the birthdayparty and what about this?
And I noticed the last timethey were together, this kid
wasn't getting along with that.
Or I'm noticing my dad's notdriving as well.
All of that is not beingaddressed in a masculine
planning system.
Michelle Gauther (15:20):
Yeah, there's no time block where you're
considering the time blocks like2 am.
Yes, absolutely.
Megan Sumrell (15:25):
Yeah.
And then bottom line is biology, science.
Men and women are different.
Our brains are different and sothere is a reason.
A masculine planning systemusually is always trying to
teach this concept of creatingthe perfect week as your
solution for hyper productivity.
And a book, I mean.
I absolutely love this bookcalled Buy Back your Time by Dan
(15:47):
Martell.
I always tell likeentrepreneurs they should
totally read it, but don't readhis chapter on weekly planning,
because even he is teaching thisconcept of you create your
perfect week, like every Tuesday, Thursday from 10 to 2 is when
you do meetings Every Monday.
Right, it's just rinse andrepeat.
Well, that's because theirbrains, the chemistry in their
(16:08):
brains, is staying prettyconsistent, day after day, week
after week.
You look at what's going on ina women's brain related to our
hormones.
That cocktail in our brain ischanging daily.
Yeah, daily, right.
Which is why, when you thinkabout it, there are weeks where
you're like I got more done inthose four days than anybody
(16:32):
could do in four months.
Right, Absolutely.
Then you have the week whereyou're like I got nothing Right,
no creativity, you're having ahard time making decisions, all
of that Staying awake even.
Staying awake.
Yeah, awake, yeah.
And so you take the day-to-dayfluctuations and then you
(16:52):
compound that with you know,starting in your 20s, versus to
perimetopause, to post-metapause, that just escalates all of
that.
And so you have to have asystem, a planning system that
has an understanding andawareness that time blocking and
structuring the perfect weekcan be an absolute recipe for
disaster for women, because ourbiology is not designed in a
(17:16):
perfect week.
Michelle Gauther (17:17):
Yeah, yeah, which that makes so much sense.
I love the thought of creatingtime management for the primary
caregiver or even just thefeminine.
You know, even if you're not,if you don't have children, but
you operate, you have amenstrual cycle and different
hormones.
You know that, yeah.
Megan Sumrell (17:37):
And even if you're not a caregiver it's
interesting it's called thelimbic part of your brain, which
is our emotional center.
In a female brain it'ssignificantly larger than a male
brain.
We handle emotion more, so,whether you're a mom or caring
for aging parents, the fact is,we have a lot more going on in
(17:57):
the emotional centers of ourbrain, which is why we
oftentimes need a little space,either before or after, or for
me on my book, ending anythingon my calendar.
That requires large emotionfrom me.
Michelle Gauther (18:11):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Megan Sumrell (18:12):
Whereas a lot of times men don't need that
because that section of theirbrain is not.
It's not as active and it's notas physically large as ours.
So, understanding all of thesenuances of how we're different.
Well, that means we're going toneed planning systems that
support those differences.
Michelle Gauther (18:31):
Yeah, yeah, that's such an interesting
observation.
I mean even the way that I usedto care for people on my team
at work, exactly you know justit was.
They weren't my kids, but Icared about them.
I knew all about their lives.
I knew what they might beworried about.
It's just human nature forwomen to think like that.
Do you know Nate Bargatze, thatcomedian?
Megan Sumrell (18:53):
He's our number one favorite.
Michelle Gauther (18:59):
Yes, exactly.
He says in his stand-up thathis daughter missed the bus on
the way home on the first day ofkindergarten.
And they called him and he'slike why did you call?
You know this is the dad'sphone number, right?
Like why did you call me?
And then he said, call any mom.
Any other mom in the classprobably knows what bus number
it is.
Megan Sumrell (19:17):
And then he's like, the only time you call the
dad first is if there's twodads.
Michelle Gauther (19:21):
Yeah, Otherwise always call the mom.
Always call the mom first andthen they're like he said OK, so
do I need to come and get her.
Yes, come and get her.
And he's like okay, what's thename of her school?
Megan Sumrell (19:30):
I'm like, exactly .
Michelle Gauther (19:32):
Oh my gosh, that's exactly it.
So, yeah, there, there's notime block for that.
So where do you?
I know you can't just the wholeprogram on this podcast, but
like, where do you people startin planning the perfect week?
Megan Sumrell (19:51):
Isn't the thing they should do?
Just Just very high level.
What do you teach them to do?
Yeah, so I call this abottom-up time management system
instead of a top-down.
And a lot of people that teachthat kind of get excited about
teaching productivity or youknow, life skills or whatever.
And I've been to conferenceslike this where you get, you
know, you get in a room and theyguide you through some process
to help you figure out what yourlong-term goals are.
Right, whether it's envisioning,there's so many ways you can do
(20:14):
it.
You know, maybe the five years,and then they teach you how to,
like, break that goal down intoactionable steps.
Right, and you leave somotivated You're like, yes, I'm
going to go home and finallystart doing those things that I
said I wanted to do, start doingthose things that I said I
wanted to do.
And then you walk in your frontdoor and the reality of your
life smacks you upside the headbecause you've probably been
living in time debt and you'redrowning and you're like I can
(20:36):
barely figure out how to getthrough tomorrow.
How am I supposed to take thisfirst step on this book?
I've decided I'm going to write, or whatever it is you've left
that round.
Well, that's what I call topdown, where we're starting from
the big picture, and then theproblem is they're failing you
because they're not getting youto stop drowning first.
So that's why I say I teach fromthe bottom up.
(20:57):
So we start with masteringweekly planning, because when
you learn how to master yourweekly planning, this is what
gets you out of time debt.
You can't even begin to thinkabout those great goals and
dreams and projects till you getyour day-to-day life out of
chaos mode.
So, at its heart and notice, Isay weekly planning and not
(21:18):
daily planning.
Again, a lot of experts outthere teach wake up, do your
brain dump for the day, identifyyour top three.
For some reason everyone saysidentify your top three.
I've done some deep diveresearch on this.
I have yet to find anyscientific background into why
everyone says find your topthree.
But someone said find your topthree and then they tell you
(21:40):
just focus on those and thenwhen those are done, then you
can focus on everything else.
Well, now let's.
There's a million things wrongwith that.
For women, Maybe it is a daywhere none of the top three are
things that are happening thatday, right.
Maybe you've got a day that'sfull of dentist appointment,
doctor appointment, 12 meetings,air conditioner repair guy
(22:04):
coming right and I structure mytime where sometimes I have days
where it's like today's the daythat all that little stuff's
getting done, but thentomorrow's a day where I get
this big block of time to gofocus on something Right, and
plus, maybe it's the day wherethere's more than three top
priorities.
Michelle Gauther (22:20):
Right.
Megan Sumrell (22:20):
Sometimes that happens.
So, at its heart, this weeklyplanning system is something and
people can pick and choose whenthey choose to do it.
I have women that work unusualschedules, like they're nurses,
so maybe they're off Monday,Tuesday, so they do their weekly
planning.
You know, wednesday to Tuesdayversus Monday to Sunday.
You get all the flexibility youneed there, everything that's
(22:45):
competing for our time for theupcoming week, and then we're
creating our roadmap on oureither digital or paper calendar
, showing us with specificity ofwhen we're doing those and how
long we're going to be spendingon them.
And this sounds very like well,of course, megan, like that's
(23:08):
what calendars are for.
But here's the subtledifference what most people do
today is their calendar showsappointments, right, so like you
and I having this call, oryou've got your dental
appointment or soccer practiceor whatever, and what goes on
their calendar is usually thingsthat involve other people,
right, you have accountabilitywith someone else.
(23:29):
Then, separately, is the listof everything that needs to get
done, and so you're jumpingaround all day from a commitment
with someone else to now you'vegot open space, and then you go
to look at the list and go,okay, which thing should I do
now?
Right, and operating this waythere's a whole other episode we
could do on this creates severedecision fatigue.
(23:50):
Every time you're looking at alist going what do I pick now is
decision fatigue.
And in decision fatigue, yourresponse is going to be to make
really bad choices.
You're going to pick thelow-hanging fruit, usually a
thing that really doesn't matter, and you're never going to get
to the big stuff.
So through this, we start with afive-step weekly planning
process and then we learn the10-step.
(24:11):
And before you think, megan,I'm overwhelmed, how could I do
a 10-step weekly planningprocess?
I do this in 15 minutes everyweek.
All right, this is notsomething that takes hours to do
.
We actually convert all thosethings that would live on your
traditional to-do list intoappointments on your calendar
appointments with you.
But there are some nuances tothis related to that uncertainty
(24:36):
, right?
Because what a lot of womenwill do is, if they're being
okay, I'm going to startblocking my calendar for stuff.
Well, now they're blocking itfrom sunup to sundown.
So then if that emergency hitsat 10 am now, it's a domino
effect for the entire week,right?
So part of this process islearning how to calculate what
(24:57):
your uncertainty number is,based on your unique life as it
is today.
Michelle Gauther (25:02):
That's an interesting concept, yeah.
Megan Sumrell (25:03):
So I know during my working hours I work between
23 to maybe 25 hours a week,basically when my daughter's at
school I know that I need tomake sure I have a good four
hours every week protected on mycalendar during work time for
things that are going to come upthat I don't know about, that I
will need to handle for work.
(25:24):
And I also know I'm going toneed at least two hours every
week for what I call householdCOO stuff, things that I don't
know is going to happen theforms, the paperwork, the trip
to the Michaels for the schoolproject, the lawnmower breaks,
the whatever, and so, because Iknow this, think of it like an
emergency fund, right?
So a lot of financial advisorslike, hey, just put away $100 a
(25:47):
month into an account so thatwhen the water heater breaks,
the money's there for you.
Michelle Gauther (25:51):
Well, we're learning how to build an
emergency fund into our week,every single week, so that when
those things happen, you canabsorb them without it derailing
your entire week absorb themwithout it derailing your entire
week, and so how we like justeven thinking ahead that if
something were to come up, thatthat would be fine, because I
(26:11):
know their space feels so muchbetter than like what am I
getting this from there and thisto there, and now this isn't
going to get done, or now I'mgoing to have to work on
Saturday when I didn't want toor stay up late or get up early,
and you know people will telleveryone oh yeah, well, just
make sure you have a littlewhite space on your calendar.
Megan Sumrell (26:29):
It's like, well, when and how much?
And so we have to learn theright way to do that, because
it's different for everybody.
Michelle Gauther (26:35):
Yeah.
Megan Sumrell (26:36):
So that's one of the first things that we all
learn, and mine has changed.
You know I used to be, evenwhen I was using this planning
system.
When I was in corporate for awhile I got stuck managing a
support team.
Did not love that, but Irealized by calculating my
uncertainty I'm like I have toblock off 90 minutes every
single day.
I have to protect that on mycalendar at work because I
(26:57):
always have at least an hour anda half of unplanned customer
support emergencies, and so bythen my planning for uncertainty
meant I had blocks every dayprotected.
Now it just means I usually Ikind of changes week to week but
I don't need it every day.
I just know I need four hoursover the course of the week to
(27:18):
be able to absorb thoseemergencies, because I'm not
dealing with level one.
you know client down, I'm notsaving lives here, so it's stuff
that can like you know?
oh, I'll do that, Wait a minutetomorrow, and so even just
learning that skill of how do Icalculate, how do I understand
what the uncertainty looks likein my life, and then how do I
build a plan that acknowledgesthat, so that already just
(27:42):
decreases the stress and anxietyof feeling like, right, I check
one thing off and three morethings comes on.
Now we just get to change ourpath of how we're getting from
point A to point B.
But we have the space to do it.
Michelle Gauther (27:57):
Yes, I love that, and I've heard you say on
your podcast that you don't workpast about 2 pm.
Michelle Gauthier (28:03):
Two.
Michelle Gauther (28:04):
So if you're running this business where you
have helped 10,000 women, you'reclearly really making the most
of the time.
So you've got this like fourhours built in for one thing and
two for another, and thenyou're doing your podcast and
helping your clients and allthese things.
So I'm saying that just to saywhat a great example you are of
(28:25):
someone who is in alignment withher family and a business that
she loves and not overwhelmed.
Just to say, everybodylistening, it's possible, it's
possible, it is.
Megan Sumrell (28:36):
And you know I always share.
We run the business using theexact same planning framework.
I teach for women to use intheir lives.
So, we do the same weeklyplanning process.
In the business, we do the samemonthly planning process.
I have three contractors whoare all working moms, two of
them homeschool and the othertwo that are homeschooling, have
(28:57):
two children that they're eachhomeschooling.
But we are all that's part ofworking here at the Pink Bee
you've got to be using the topframework, and so we build and
plan the business the same waythat we teach people to build
and plan their lives, whichgives us the freedom to at any
point, someone on the team couldwake up and say I've got a
(29:19):
family emergency and thebusiness is going to operate
just fine, because of what we'veput in place.
Michelle Gauther (29:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And another, and anotherexample, too, of you're not
doing this all by yourself.
If you're doing this all byyourself, you'd have to work a
lot more hours or do less orsomething.
So you know, yeah, and it'sinteresting.
Megan Sumrell (29:37):
So you know, one of the things I learned from you
that I love is your that fitpart right yeah, a building
fitness yeah.
When I decided to start, like toactually do this, like, okay,
this is, I'm going to build thisbusiness.
I'd worked in enough softwarestartups that I've seen.
I've lived on the 80 hour aweek sleeping on the couch in
the office.
(29:57):
I did that in my twenties.
I'm like I don't want this andI don't want to build something
that isn't in alignment with theharmony I want in my life.
And so what that looked likefor the business early on
because it was just me.
You know, as every businessstarts, it's always just you.
I was a true solopreneur andI'd be in rooms and masterminds
(30:18):
and courses with other womenbuilding businesses.
And what it meant for the firstcouple years is my business was
built slower than theirsbecause I knew my core value was
I wasn't going to get suckedinto the hustle.
Michelle Gauther (30:32):
Yeah.
Megan Sumrell (30:33):
I would work during school hours and that was
it.
But because of that, it allowedme to be very intentional and
thoughtful about what I said yesto.
I have much better boundariesin business than I do in my
personal life.
I execute your love and fitwell with the business because
I'd get this great idea and gowell, hang on.
(30:54):
Do I love it and can I fit thisin in a 25-hour work week, or
am I creating something that I'mgoing to hate?
And so that meant I moved slowbut very intentional for the
first couple years.
But what I find fascinating is,over this last year in
particular, a lot of those womenthat were building businesses
(31:16):
alongside of me.
They're all they're done.
They've burnt out, they've takena sabbatical.
They've all been like I burnedit down.
I hate this.
I'm miserable, and now mybusiness has, you know, 10x'd,
yeah, and I haven't worked anymore than I did starting it,
Michelle Gauther (31:36):
yeah, yeah.
So that's a great case forpracticing what you preach and
following your own system hasreally worked for you, which is
amazing.
When I first switched fromcorporate to my own business, I
really had to catch myself,because I had such a habit of
overworking and at the beginning, when I had basically no
clients you know, maybe one hereor there and I'd be going back
(31:57):
to my office after my kids wentto bed, I was like I literally
don't have anything to do.
But my body is like okay, thekids are in bed, it's time to do
some work.
Megan Sumrell (32:04):
I'm like, wait, I could just go watch TV or like
yeah, or like bring the laptopto the couch, we'll all work
while we're.
Whatever They'd be like, whatam I doing?
Michelle Gauther (32:13):
And now I mean you couldn't pay me a million
dollars to do that, but it wasreally a habit that I had to
break.
Megan Sumrell (32:18):
Yes, I think we all, I think any woman that's
leaving a corporate environmentwhere there's just so much
expectation put on you.
Yeah, I had to rewire.
Yeah, absolutely.
I had to rewire my self-worthright we are.
We live in a society where ourworth is intrinsically implied
by how productive somebody elsethinks you are, and so we feel
(32:41):
like if I'm not quote producing,I'm not worthy.
Michelle Gauther (32:46):
You are, and so we feel like, if I'm not
quote producing, I'm not worthy.
Yeah, so it's a lot to do.
Yes, and I used to always tellpeople what I used to do.
Oh, I used to have this insertwhatever impressive job instead
of like what I am because Ididn't feel good enough about it
or something I don't know.
It was weird.
I Right, yes, it was a verystrange transition.
I'm glad I got here, but it wasa strange transition.
Okay, we are just about out oftime.
I just want to ask you the sametwo questions that I ask every
(33:09):
guest on the podcast.
The first one is what issomething you do when you feel
overwhelmed to help yourselffeel better?
I do puzzles, oh that's a goodone.
Megan Sumrell (33:19):
I love like either jigsaw puzzles or logic
puzzles, or I go practice Istarted taking cello lessons two
years ago or I go play my cello.
Michelle Gauther (33:28):
Okay, and does that just take your mind off
the overwhelm?
Yeah, that just makes you focuson something else.
I mean, doing a little soundslike total overwhelm to me.
Megan Sumrell (33:37):
So that is such a good example.
Michelle Gauther (33:39):
Yes, it's such a good example, like everybody
has their thing and you justhave to know what your thing is.
Okay, and then you've alreadyanswered this in a couple of
different ways that you may haveeven more.
What is something that you doin order to enable yourself to
do less or same time?
Megan Sumrell (33:56):
I honor my plan.
Okay, I really honor the time Ispend building.
My weekly plan includes thethings I have to do, includes
the things I want to do and itincludes me.
I'm in my calendar every day,all week long, and so what I do
for myself is I honor the planthat I built.
(34:19):
I don't go back and work just alittle bit more because, maybe
because I know that Am I perfect?
Of course not.
I know whenever I don't, I amnot who I like.
Michelle Gauther (34:31):
Yeah, absolutely.
Even a little bit ofoverworking, and I find I'm
annoyed with my kids that havenothing to do with it or
whatever.
That's great.
I love that so much.
Ok, so tell us.
If people are like I'm going tolearn that feminine time
management system, tell us wherethey can find your program or
whatever else where they canfind you.
You have a great podcast, sotell us everything.
Megan Sumrell (34:54):
Okay, well, I do.
If you're listening to this,obviously you're probably a
podcast fan, so you can comefind me at Work Life Harmony.
It's on all the podcast playersand we also put it out on
YouTube if you like more videotype format.
I will say my signature programis called the Top Program.
Top stands for time management,organization and productivity.
You just look upthetopprogramcom and read all
(35:15):
about the program.
I always tell people I know theprogram's great, but let's be
honest, every teacher is not agreat fit for every student, and
so I actually also have an appin the app store.
It's a free app and it's calledthe Pink Bee.
All one word B-E-E, and inthere I have two free trainings.
So it's a great way for you toI kind of introduce you to the
(35:38):
whole top framework.
In there you can see the threecore pillars, all nine
components, but also introducesyou to me and my style of
teaching and how I do that askind of a.
I think it's a great first stepto decide if you know,
investing your energy andlearning a new time management
system is the right thing foryou as well.
Michelle Gauther (35:57):
Yeah, I love that.
That's great.
Okay, we'll put the links toall of that in the show notes
and thank you so much for beingon today.
I really admire your work andwhat you're putting out into the
world.
Megan Sumrell (36:07):
Oh, thank you.
Michelle Gauthier (36:14):
Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed
Working Woman podcast.
If you want to learn more aboutmy work, head over to my
website at michellegauthier.
com.
See you next week.
women are perpetually living in time debt
right now, where, basically, youwake up, you write, you make
the list, which I hate lists.
Your goal for the whole day isto check everything off the list
, but every time you check offone, three more get added right.
Michelle Gauthier (00:17):
You're listening to Overwhelmed Working
Woman, the podcast that helpsyou be more calm and more
productive by doing less.
I'm your host, MichelleGauthier, a former overwhelmed
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
(00:40):
.
Hi, friend, today I'm talkingwith someone who feels like a
total kindred spirit.
Her name is Megan Sumrall andshe is a former corporate
process improvement expert Samething I used to do, fun fact and
she turned into a timemanagement coach who's helped
over 10,000 women create morecalm and order and breathing
(01:02):
room in their lives.
What makes Megan's approachdifferent, and why I really
wanted to have her on to shareher approach with you guys, is
that she's created a femininetime management system that
works with your life, notagainst it.
She is not focused on rigidroutines or perfect calendars.
She's all about how torealistically plan your week.
(01:23):
No-transcript.
(01:52):
If you're sick of chasing animpossible schedule and feeling
defeated at the end of everyweek when you can't do
everything that you had on it,this episode will give you hope
in some clear direction.
I have to say when I wasrecording this episode, I had a
cold and my microphone alsosounds terrible, so I apologize
in advance for the poor soundquality.
(02:13):
From here on out, thanks forlistening today, and I hope you
enjoy Megan as much as I did.
Michelle Gauther (02:19):
Hey Megan, welcome to the podcast, I'm so
glad you're here today.
I feel like this is just acoming together.
That was meant to be, becausewe both talk about overwhelm and
time management and so manysimilar things and you know
people might say, why do youwant to interview someone who's
so similar to you?
But I love finding out just thedifferences and like some great
(02:40):
way that you might think aboutsomething versus how I think,
about something that we canshare with the audience, and so
one of those things that I havefollowed and admire about what
you're doing is the way that youtalk about time management.
So before we jump into that butI can't wait for you to share
with everybody the way that youlook at time management Will you
just tell us a little bit abouthow you got here?
(03:00):
Like, why did you become a timemanagement guru?
Megan Sumrell (03:03):
Well, in third grade, when my teacher said what
do you want to be when you growup this was not it my answer
was not you know time management.
Michelle Gauther (03:11):
Not Online on Zoom on video.
Megan Sumrell (03:14):
Right.
So, like you, I actually have acorporate background.
For over 20 years I was a mathmajor landed in the corporate IT
software space kind of sheerluck out of college and so I
spent over 20 years in and outof numerous software
organizations across a lot ofdifferent domains, ranging from
e-commerce to healthcare toaviation, telecommunications.
(03:37):
All of that and my careerreally landed me in the quality
assurance space and over thecourse of that I ended up
getting a number ofcertifications and trainings all
around process improvement,optimizations, streamlining If
anyone listening is in thatspace, if you've heard of Lean,
six Sigma, agile, all of that Ihave all of those certifications
(03:59):
project management, certifiedscrum trainer, all of that.
Michelle Gauther (04:03):
I have to pause! Oh my gosh gosh.
I was a six sigma black belt.
No one ever knows what that is.
Oh my gosh, Megan.
Megan Sumrell (04:09):
Okay, we were meant yeah, see, we were, we
were meant to we are kindredspirits.
Kids are like, is that karate?
Michelle Gauther (04:15):
no, it's all about process improvement and
how to make things the mostefficient, which, as a gift for
us, also helps you.
Help people do that, okay, I'msorry to interrupt, I just got
really excited that someone saidSix Sigma on the podcast.
Go on.
Megan Sumrell (04:30):
And there's a reason I bring that up because
it ties into what I do now andhow I created what I created.
So towards the end of my careernot knowing it was going to be
the end of corporate, really,the role that I was serving at
that time is I would go intolarge software organizations and
essentially recreate all theirsystems from the ground up to
build their software better,faster, cheaper, higher quality.
So I got married later in life.
(04:52):
We started a family later inlife, after struggling with
fertility and all of that, andso I kind of entered motherhood
on the later end and was, youknow, just going through the
paces as working moms do work,kids, work, kids really hard.
And I had one day where Ithought, you know, I'd done
(05:13):
everything right.
My daughter was about two and itwas a Friday I can still
remember it so clearly and I'dgotten up early so I could
finish work early.
I had the snack bag the nightbefore, like all the things.
We could just go have anafternoon at the park and I was
pushing around the swings and Ilive in the South, so
everybody's chatty down here andthe woman next to me in
conversation innocently justasked me what do you do for fun?
(05:34):
I was like huh, I didn't havean answer and I didn't even know
I didn't have an answer, like Ididn't realize my life had
transitioned so much that Icouldn't answer, "What do you do
for fun anymore?
Michelle Gauther (05:49):
And it's not that I wasn't in moments where
you're like oh crap, and it'snot.
Megan Sumrell (05:54):
I mean, it's not like I mean I was having fun at
the park, right, that's not thesame as what do I do for me, for
joy in my life.
And so I went home, kind of hada midlife crisis that night
after getting my daughter to bedand I sat in that space for a
while and I was like whathappened?
How did Megan get from there tohere, where now I don't like my
(06:16):
entire, I don't even know who Iam.
Some days I don't even know howto dress as corporate mom, like
it.
Just I don't know.
I felt like I completely lost myidentity.
And then, thankfully, it kindof hit me that hey, megan, you
do this for a living.
You go into chaotic spaces andcreate new structure and
processes to align with theirvalues.
(06:36):
So I was like why don't youtake yourself on and apply
everything that you do in yourcorporate life to your calendar,
to your time?
Because the fact was, when Idug into it, I realized what was
missing was me.
Everything was getting done.
From the outside, looking in,it looked like the perfect life,
(06:57):
right, I had the job, the house, the kid, the dogs, all that.
I was really unhappy andunfulfilled, and the fact is, my
calendar was completely full ofeverybody and everything, and I
was nowhere to be found on it.
So I said about I threw away theplanner I'd been using for over
20 years.
I was a Franklin Covey likediehard went to all their
(07:20):
courses, you know the wholeshebang and I was like let's
start from the ground up andfigure out how do I juggle all
the things I'm juggling withoutlosing myself in the process and
without being perpetuallyoverwhelmed.
So I essentially created a newway of controlling the chaos, if
you will, and developed thisweekly and monthly planning
(07:41):
system.
And I was doing a keynote at awomen in tech conference and was
at one of like the tables andthe women we were all chatting
and they're like how do you?
It's like, how do you manageall of this?
And so I started sharing someof my calendar and how I do
stuff.
Well, I get an email from agroup that was there saying can
we hire you to teach us how youplan your time?
Michelle Gauther (08:04):
Oh interesting .
Megan Sumrell (08:05):
I was like huh, that's interesting.
So I had to sit with that for alittle bit and I was like, is
this something I could turn intoa repeatable framework, like,
is this something I could teachpeople on?
So I reached back out and I said, hey, you know I've never shown
this to anybody, but I'd bewilling to do that if you just
give me honest feedback, likeI'm happy to mentor you on this.
So I guided these five womenthrough what I was doing,
(08:28):
transformed their lives.
I found my missing passion andjoy and I was like this is it I?
When I saw their life transformand experience that process of,
like, turning this into arepeatable system, that is what
planted that seed in me of thisis how I want to spend my life.
So, you know, had to thinkabout it for a while and I'm
(08:51):
happy to say that at the timewe're recording this, we are now
this is my five-yearanniversary fully just into this
business.
We've now served in over.
We've served over 10,000 womenin over 15 countries teaching
this time management system thatis specifically for women,
because we need somethingdifferent than our male
counterparts.
Michelle Gauther (09:14):
That is amazing 10,000 women's lives
improved by learning how tomanage their time better.
That's awesome.
Yeah, what kind of results?
What would be just like typicalresults for people who do this
program?
And then I want to ask you somequestions about how it actually
works.
Megan Sumrell (09:31):
Yeah, so I mean, the number one thing and I know
this is what you hear from allthe women you work with as well
is they're no longer overwhelmed.
They're like, their life feelsspacious, feels like there's
room to breathe and you're nolonger feeling.
I always feel like I was inthat whack-a-mole game or like
spinning the plates.
(09:51):
They were always spinning, butI was always in that mild
anxiety of one goes, it's allgoing to fall apart, right, like
just hanging on.
Michelle Gauther (10:01):
Yes, and so I can feel the stress in my chest
when you remind me of thatfeeling.
Megan Sumrell (10:08):
Yeah, yeah, and you know that it's I always use
this phrase of women areperpetually living in time debt.
Right now, where, basically,you wake up, you write, you make
the list which - I hate lists.
Your goal for the whole day isto check everything off the list
, but every time you check offone, three more get added.
Right?
You go to bed, the list is notdone, so you feel like a
failure, when you never couldhave done the list in the first
(10:29):
place.
So maybe there's eight thingsleft that didn't get done.
Well, you wake up the next dayalready eight in debt, and now
you go add 15 more to it andyou're living in this perpetual
cycle of time debt, day afterday after day.
And it wears on you mentally.
It wears on you physically,wears on your soul.
(10:49):
And so what we're doing, theway getting out of overwhelm
looks for the women I work withis now they're no longer in time
debt.
Now they've got a savingsaccount of time.
Michelle Gauther (11:03):
Of time.
Yes, yes, that's there for them, yeah because when you're in
time debt, you somehow get likea meeting cancellation or some
white space on your calendar.
You're like I better grab thatlist and get back to it because
you're always making up for losttime.
So just to be where you're incharge of your time and you can
sit through that white space andbe like it's being very
(11:24):
proactive instead of constantstate of reactivity.
Yes, well, the thing that firstdrew me to the way that you're
talking about managing time isthe idea that it is based on a
feminine calendar.
So will you just tell us whatthat means and like why you
created it that way?
Megan Sumrell (11:41):
Yeah, and so I very openly say this is a
feminine time management system,and there's three key things
that differentiate this frompretty much every productivity
I'll put that in quotes systemthat I have researched, been
introduced to or have tried, andall of those have been created
by men.
So, first and foremost is, youknow, even when I look back at
(12:05):
my Franklin Covey days, let'sjust talk about the technology.
Technology has had a massiveimpact on our time, because when
you think about you know, whenI think about my life when I
first started working so I'm inmy 50s, so when I started
working, there was no cellphones or no laptops, like we
(12:25):
didn't even.
I mean, the internet was kindof like ooh, exciting and new.
So what this meant was when Iwas at work, I was only at work,
right, and then when I wenthome, I was only at home, no one
was reaching me.
Well, now we walk around withcomputers in our pocket that are
more powerful than the computersystems.
I first worked on yes much, muchmore, and so it is this kind of
(12:48):
Amazon Prime now ofeverything's instant right now,
and so we have information.
A study I read from like fiveyears ago was showing that the
volume of data that we'reconsuming from our mobile
devices is equivalent ofwatching 18 movies a day.
Michelle Gauther (13:05):
Really.
Megan Sumrell (13:07):
Yeah, oh my gosh.
Michelle Gauther (13:08):
Now that's sort of terrifying.
Megan Sumrell (13:10):
So if you're going through a traditional
masculine time managementprogram where basically they're
teaching you structured timeblocking and create your perfect
week, I'm sorry.
Where in there does it say howwe're staying on top of 18
movies a day in the form of the12 portals from your kids'
student activities and differentschools and different teachers
(13:30):
and different lessons, right?
The onslaught of emails comingat you, the notifications from
the portals that you need tostay on top of, and a lot of
this tends to fall ontraditional caregiver roles,
right?
So if my daughter's sick, thefirst phone call they're making
is not to my spouse, they'recalling me first.
(13:51):
Right.
So we need to acknowledge, likethat we're in information
overload and masculine systemsare not addressing this.
They're just giving very caveatthings of like just turn off
your notifications.
Well, that's because they knowsomeone else is going to get
that phone call.
Yes, yes, someone has to bethere, so we need to acknowledge
(14:13):
this and create a way for us to.
How can we plan?
I call this planning foruncertainty.
How can we plan our time whenwe know we are the primary
person absorbing the uncertainty?
Right, so I have to create aplan that looks very different
than my husband's yeah, yeah,uncertainty right.
So I have to create a plan thatlooks very different than my
husband's yeah, yeah.
(14:38):
Now, the second thing here isjust looking at the sheer data
of the change of the number ofwomen that are now working than
20, 30 years ago.
Right, the number of women thatare responsible for being the
primary caregiver and workingadds a whole caveat of
responsibilities thattraditional masculine planning
systems are not talking about.
Right, they're not addressingthe fact that there's a reason
(15:02):
why, at 2 am, you wake up andhave those list-making sessions
in your bed.
Right, I've got the birthdayparty and what about this?
And I noticed the last timethey were together, this kid
wasn't getting along with that.
Or I'm noticing my dad's notdriving as well.
All of that is not beingaddressed in a masculine
planning system.
Michelle Gauther (15:20):
Yeah, there's no time block where you're
considering the time blocks like2 am.
Yes, absolutely.
Megan Sumrell (15:25):
Yeah.
And then bottom line is biology, science.
Men and women are different.
Our brains are different and sothere is a reason.
A masculine planning systemusually is always trying to
teach this concept of creatingthe perfect week as your
solution for hyper productivity.
And a book, I mean.
I absolutely love this bookcalled Buy Back your Time by Dan
(15:47):
Martell.
I always tell likeentrepreneurs they should
totally read it, but don't readhis chapter on weekly planning,
because even he is teaching thisconcept of you create your
perfect week, like every Tuesday, Thursday from 10 to 2 is when
you do meetings Every Monday.
Right, it's just rinse andrepeat.
Well, that's because theirbrains, the chemistry in their
(16:08):
brains, is staying prettyconsistent, day after day, week
after week.
You look at what's going on ina women's brain related to our
hormones.
That cocktail in our brain ischanging daily.
Yeah, daily, right.
Which is why, when you thinkabout it, there are weeks where
you're like I got more done inthose four days than anybody
(16:32):
could do in four months.
Right, Absolutely.
Then you have the week whereyou're like I got nothing Right,
no creativity, you're having ahard time making decisions, all
of that Staying awake even.
Staying awake.
Yeah, awake, yeah.
And so you take the day-to-dayfluctuations and then you
(16:52):
compound that with you know,starting in your 20s, versus to
perimetopause, to post-metapause, that just escalates all of
that.
And so you have to have asystem, a planning system that
has an understanding andawareness that time blocking and
structuring the perfect weekcan be an absolute recipe for
disaster for women, because ourbiology is not designed in a
(17:16):
perfect week.
Michelle Gauther (17:17):
Yeah, yeah, which that makes so much sense.
I love the thought of creatingtime management for the primary
caregiver or even just thefeminine.
You know, even if you're not,if you don't have children, but
you operate, you have amenstrual cycle and different
hormones.
You know that, yeah.
Megan Sumrell (17:37):
And even if you're not a caregiver it's
interesting it's called thelimbic part of your brain, which
is our emotional center.
In a female brain it'ssignificantly larger than a male
brain.
We handle emotion more, so,whether you're a mom or caring
for aging parents, the fact is,we have a lot more going on in
(17:57):
the emotional centers of ourbrain, which is why we
oftentimes need a little space,either before or after, or for
me on my book, ending anythingon my calendar.
That requires large emotionfrom me.
Michelle Gauther (18:11):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Megan Sumrell (18:12):
Whereas a lot of times men don't need that
because that section of theirbrain is not.
It's not as active and it's notas physically large as ours.
So, understanding all of thesenuances of how we're different.
Well, that means we're going toneed planning systems that
support those differences.
Michelle Gauther (18:31):
Yeah, yeah, that's such an interesting
observation.
I mean even the way that I usedto care for people on my team
at work, exactly you know justit was.
They weren't my kids, but Icared about them.
I knew all about their lives.
I knew what they might beworried about.
It's just human nature forwomen to think like that.
Do you know Nate Bargatze, thatcomedian?
Megan Sumrell (18:53):
He's our number one favorite.
Michelle Gauther (18:59):
Yes, exactly.
He says in his stand-up thathis daughter missed the bus on
the way home on the first day ofkindergarten.
And they called him and he'slike why did you call?
You know this is the dad'sphone number, right?
Like why did you call me?
And then he said, call any mom.
Any other mom in the classprobably knows what bus number
it is.
Megan Sumrell (19:17):
And then he's like, the only time you call the
dad first is if there's twodads.
Michelle Gauther (19:21):
Yeah, Otherwise always call the mom.
Always call the mom first andthen they're like he said OK, so
do I need to come and get her.
Yes, come and get her.
And he's like okay, what's thename of her school?
Megan Sumrell (19:30):
I'm like, exactly .
Michelle Gauther (19:32):
Oh my gosh, that's exactly it.
So, yeah, there, there's notime block for that.
So where do you?
I know you can't just the wholeprogram on this podcast, but
like, where do you people startin planning the perfect week?
Megan Sumrell (19:51):
Isn't the thing they should do?
Just Just very high level.
What do you teach them to do?
Yeah, so I call this abottom-up time management system
instead of a top-down.
And a lot of people that teachthat kind of get excited about
teaching productivity or youknow, life skills or whatever.
And I've been to conferenceslike this where you get, you
know, you get in a room and theyguide you through some process
to help you figure out what yourlong-term goals are.
Right, whether it's envisioning,there's so many ways you can do
(20:14):
it.
You know, maybe the five years,and then they teach you how to,
like, break that goal down intoactionable steps.
Right, and you leave somotivated You're like, yes, I'm
going to go home and finallystart doing those things that I
said I wanted to do, start doingthose things that I said I
wanted to do.
And then you walk in your frontdoor and the reality of your
life smacks you upside the headbecause you've probably been
living in time debt and you'redrowning and you're like I can
(20:36):
barely figure out how to getthrough tomorrow.
How am I supposed to take thisfirst step on this book?
I've decided I'm going to write, or whatever it is you've left
that round.
Well, that's what I call topdown, where we're starting from
the big picture, and then theproblem is they're failing you
because they're not getting youto stop drowning first.
So that's why I say I teach fromthe bottom up.
(20:57):
So we start with masteringweekly planning, because when
you learn how to master yourweekly planning, this is what
gets you out of time debt.
You can't even begin to thinkabout those great goals and
dreams and projects till you getyour day-to-day life out of
chaos mode.
So, at its heart and notice, Isay weekly planning and not
(21:18):
daily planning.
Again, a lot of experts outthere teach wake up, do your
brain dump for the day, identifyyour top three.
For some reason everyone saysidentify your top three.
I've done some deep diveresearch on this.
I have yet to find anyscientific background into why
everyone says find your topthree.
But someone said find your topthree and then they tell you
(21:40):
just focus on those and thenwhen those are done, then you
can focus on everything else.
Well, now let's.
There's a million things wrongwith that.
For women, Maybe it is a daywhere none of the top three are
things that are happening thatday, right.
Maybe you've got a day that'sfull of dentist appointment,
doctor appointment, 12 meetings,air conditioner repair guy
(22:04):
coming right and I structure mytime where sometimes I have days
where it's like today's the daythat all that little stuff's
getting done, but thentomorrow's a day where I get
this big block of time to gofocus on something Right, and
plus, maybe it's the day wherethere's more than three top
priorities.
Michelle Gauther (22:20):
Right.
Megan Sumrell (22:20):
Sometimes that happens.
So, at its heart, this weeklyplanning system is something and
people can pick and choose whenthey choose to do it.
I have women that work unusualschedules, like they're nurses,
so maybe they're off Monday,Tuesday, so they do their weekly
planning.
You know, wednesday to Tuesdayversus Monday to Sunday.
You get all the flexibility youneed there, everything that's
(22:45):
competing for our time for theupcoming week, and then we're
creating our roadmap on oureither digital or paper calendar
, showing us with specificity ofwhen we're doing those and how
long we're going to be spendingon them.
And this sounds very like well,of course, megan, like that's
(23:08):
what calendars are for.
But here's the subtledifference what most people do
today is their calendar showsappointments, right, so like you
and I having this call, oryou've got your dental
appointment or soccer practiceor whatever, and what goes on
their calendar is usually thingsthat involve other people,
right, you have accountabilitywith someone else.
(23:29):
Then, separately, is the listof everything that needs to get
done, and so you're jumpingaround all day from a commitment
with someone else to now you'vegot open space, and then you go
to look at the list and go,okay, which thing should I do
now?
Right, and operating this waythere's a whole other episode we
could do on this creates severedecision fatigue.
(23:50):
Every time you're looking at alist going what do I pick now is
decision fatigue.
And in decision fatigue, yourresponse is going to be to make
really bad choices.
You're going to pick thelow-hanging fruit, usually a
thing that really doesn't matter, and you're never going to get
to the big stuff.
So through this, we start with afive-step weekly planning
process and then we learn the10-step.
(24:11):
And before you think, megan,I'm overwhelmed, how could I do
a 10-step weekly planningprocess?
I do this in 15 minutes everyweek.
All right, this is notsomething that takes hours to do
.
We actually convert all thosethings that would live on your
traditional to-do list intoappointments on your calendar
appointments with you.
But there are some nuances tothis related to that uncertainty
(24:36):
, right?
Because what a lot of womenwill do is, if they're being
okay, I'm going to startblocking my calendar for stuff.
Well, now they're blocking itfrom sunup to sundown.
So then if that emergency hitsat 10 am now, it's a domino
effect for the entire week,right?
So part of this process islearning how to calculate what
(24:57):
your uncertainty number is,based on your unique life as it
is today.
Michelle Gauther (25:02):
That's an interesting concept, yeah.
Megan Sumrell (25:03):
So I know during my working hours I work between
23 to maybe 25 hours a week,basically when my daughter's at
school I know that I need tomake sure I have a good four
hours every week protected on mycalendar during work time for
things that are going to come upthat I don't know about, that I
will need to handle for work.
(25:24):
And I also know I'm going toneed at least two hours every
week for what I call householdCOO stuff, things that I don't
know is going to happen theforms, the paperwork, the trip
to the Michaels for the schoolproject, the lawnmower breaks,
the whatever, and so, because Iknow this, think of it like an
emergency fund, right?
So a lot of financial advisorslike, hey, just put away $100 a
(25:47):
month into an account so thatwhen the water heater breaks,
the money's there for you.
Michelle Gauther (25:51):
Well, we're learning how to build an
emergency fund into our week,every single week, so that when
those things happen, you canabsorb them without it derailing
your entire week absorb themwithout it derailing your entire
week, and so how we like justeven thinking ahead that if
something were to come up, thatthat would be fine, because I
(26:11):
know their space feels so muchbetter than like what am I
getting this from there and thisto there, and now this isn't
going to get done, or now I'mgoing to have to work on
Saturday when I didn't want toor stay up late or get up early,
and you know people will telleveryone oh yeah, well, just
make sure you have a littlewhite space on your calendar.
Megan Sumrell (26:29):
It's like, well, when and how much?
And so we have to learn theright way to do that, because
it's different for everybody.
Michelle Gauther (26:35):
Yeah.
Megan Sumrell (26:36):
So that's one of the first things that we all
learn, and mine has changed.
You know I used to be, evenwhen I was using this planning
system.
When I was in corporate for awhile I got stuck managing a
support team.
Did not love that, but Irealized by calculating my
uncertainty I'm like I have toblock off 90 minutes every
single day.
I have to protect that on mycalendar at work because I
(26:57):
always have at least an hour anda half of unplanned customer
support emergencies, and so bythen my planning for uncertainty
meant I had blocks every dayprotected.
Now it just means I usually Ikind of changes week to week but
I don't need it every day.
I just know I need four hoursover the course of the week to
(27:18):
be able to absorb thoseemergencies, because I'm not
dealing with level one.
you know client down, I'm notsaving lives here, so it's stuff
that can like you know?
oh, I'll do that, Wait a minutetomorrow, and so even just
learning that skill of how do Icalculate, how do I understand
what the uncertainty looks likein my life, and then how do I
build a plan that acknowledgesthat, so that already just
(27:42):
decreases the stress and anxietyof feeling like, right, I check
one thing off and three morethings comes on.
Now we just get to change ourpath of how we're getting from
point A to point B.
But we have the space to do it.
Michelle Gauther (27:57):
Yes, I love that, and I've heard you say on
your podcast that you don't workpast about 2 pm.
Michelle Gauthier (28:03):
Two.
Michelle Gauther (28:04):
So if you're running this business where you
have helped 10,000 women, you'reclearly really making the most
of the time.
So you've got this like fourhours built in for one thing and
two for another, and thenyou're doing your podcast and
helping your clients and allthese things.
So I'm saying that just to saywhat a great example you are of
(28:25):
someone who is in alignment withher family and a business that
she loves and not overwhelmed.
Just to say, everybodylistening, it's possible, it's
possible, it is.
Megan Sumrell (28:36):
And you know I always share.
We run the business using theexact same planning framework.
I teach for women to use intheir lives.
So, we do the same weeklyplanning process.
In the business, we do the samemonthly planning process.
I have three contractors whoare all working moms, two of
them homeschool and the othertwo that are homeschooling, have
(28:57):
two children that they're eachhomeschooling.
But we are all that's part ofworking here at the Pink Bee
you've got to be using the topframework, and so we build and
plan the business the same waythat we teach people to build
and plan their lives, whichgives us the freedom to at any
point, someone on the team couldwake up and say I've got a
(29:19):
family emergency and thebusiness is going to operate
just fine, because of what we'veput in place.
Michelle Gauther (29:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And another, and anotherexample, too, of you're not
doing this all by yourself.
If you're doing this all byyourself, you'd have to work a
lot more hours or do less orsomething.
So you know, yeah, and it'sinteresting.
Megan Sumrell (29:37):
So you know, one of the things I learned from you
that I love is your that fitpart right yeah, a building
fitness yeah.
When I decided to start, like toactually do this, like, okay,
this is, I'm going to build thisbusiness.
I'd worked in enough softwarestartups that I've seen.
I've lived on the 80 hour aweek sleeping on the couch in
the office.
(29:57):
I did that in my twenties.
I'm like I don't want this andI don't want to build something
that isn't in alignment with theharmony I want in my life.
And so what that looked likefor the business early on
because it was just me.
You know, as every businessstarts, it's always just you.
I was a true solopreneur andI'd be in rooms and masterminds
(30:18):
and courses with other womenbuilding businesses.
And what it meant for the firstcouple years is my business was
built slower than theirsbecause I knew my core value was
I wasn't going to get suckedinto the hustle.
Michelle Gauther (30:32):
Yeah.
Megan Sumrell (30:33):
I would work during school hours and that was
it.
But because of that, it allowedme to be very intentional and
thoughtful about what I said yesto.
I have much better boundariesin business than I do in my
personal life.
I execute your love and fitwell with the business because
I'd get this great idea and gowell, hang on.
(30:54):
Do I love it and can I fit thisin in a 25-hour work week, or
am I creating something that I'mgoing to hate?
And so that meant I moved slowbut very intentional for the
first couple years.
But what I find fascinating is,over this last year in
particular, a lot of those womenthat were building businesses
(31:16):
alongside of me.
They're all they're done.
They've burnt out, they've takena sabbatical.
They've all been like I burnedit down.
I hate this.
I'm miserable, and now mybusiness has, you know, 10x'd,
yeah, and I haven't worked anymore than I did starting it,
Michelle Gauther (31:36):
yeah, yeah.
So that's a great case forpracticing what you preach and
following your own system hasreally worked for you, which is
amazing.
When I first switched fromcorporate to my own business, I
really had to catch myself,because I had such a habit of
overworking and at the beginning, when I had basically no
clients you know, maybe one hereor there and I'd be going back
(31:57):
to my office after my kids wentto bed, I was like I literally
don't have anything to do.
But my body is like okay, thekids are in bed, it's time to do
some work.
Megan Sumrell (32:04):
I'm like, wait, I could just go watch TV or like
yeah, or like bring the laptopto the couch, we'll all work
while we're.
Whatever They'd be like, whatam I doing?
Michelle Gauther (32:13):
And now I mean you couldn't pay me a million
dollars to do that, but it wasreally a habit that I had to
break.
Megan Sumrell (32:18):
Yes, I think we all, I think any woman that's
leaving a corporate environmentwhere there's just so much
expectation put on you.
Yeah, I had to rewire.
Yeah, absolutely.
I had to rewire my self-worthright we are.
We live in a society where ourworth is intrinsically implied
by how productive somebody elsethinks you are, and so we feel
(32:41):
like if I'm not quote producing,I'm not worthy.
Michelle Gauther (32:46):
You are, and so we feel like, if I'm not
quote producing, I'm not worthy.
Yeah, so it's a lot to do.
Yes, and I used to always tellpeople what I used to do.
Oh, I used to have this insertwhatever impressive job instead
of like what I am because Ididn't feel good enough about it
or something I don't know.
It was weird.
I Right, yes, it was a verystrange transition.
I'm glad I got here, but it wasa strange transition.
Okay, we are just about out oftime.
I just want to ask you the sametwo questions that I ask every
(33:09):
guest on the podcast.
The first one is what issomething you do when you feel
overwhelmed to help yourselffeel better?
I do puzzles, oh that's a goodone.
Megan Sumrell (33:19):
I love like either jigsaw puzzles or logic
puzzles, or I go practice Istarted taking cello lessons two
years ago or I go play my cello.
Michelle Gauther (33:28):
Okay, and does that just take your mind off
the overwhelm?
Yeah, that just makes you focuson something else.
I mean, doing a little soundslike total overwhelm to me.
Megan Sumrell (33:37):
So that is such a good example.
Michelle Gauther (33:39):
Yes, it's such a good example, like everybody
has their thing and you justhave to know what your thing is.
Okay, and then you've alreadyanswered this in a couple of
different ways that you may haveeven more.
What is something that you doin order to enable yourself to
do less or same time?
Megan Sumrell (33:56):
I honor my plan.
Okay, I really honor the time Ispend building.
My weekly plan includes thethings I have to do, includes
the things I want to do and itincludes me.
I'm in my calendar every day,all week long, and so what I do
for myself is I honor the planthat I built.
(34:19):
I don't go back and work just alittle bit more because, maybe
because I know that Am I perfect?
Of course not.
I know whenever I don't, I amnot who I like.
Michelle Gauther (34:31):
Yeah, absolutely.
Even a little bit ofoverworking, and I find I'm
annoyed with my kids that havenothing to do with it or
whatever.
That's great.
I love that so much.
Ok, so tell us.
If people are like I'm going tolearn that feminine time
management system, tell us wherethey can find your program or
whatever else where they canfind you.
You have a great podcast, sotell us everything.
Megan Sumrell (34:54):
Okay, well, I do.
If you're listening to this,obviously you're probably a
podcast fan, so you can comefind me at Work Life Harmony.
It's on all the podcast playersand we also put it out on
YouTube if you like more videotype format.
I will say my signature programis called the Top Program.
Top stands for time management,organization and productivity.
You just look upthetopprogramcom and read all
(35:15):
about the program.
I always tell people I know theprogram's great, but let's be
honest, every teacher is not agreat fit for every student, and
so I actually also have an appin the app store.
It's a free app and it's calledthe Pink Bee.
All one word B-E-E, and inthere I have two free trainings.
So it's a great way for you toI kind of introduce you to the
(35:38):
whole top framework.
In there you can see the threecore pillars, all nine
components, but also introducesyou to me and my style of
teaching and how I do that askind of a.
I think it's a great first stepto decide if you know,
investing your energy andlearning a new time management
system is the right thing foryou as well.
Michelle Gauther (35:57):
Yeah, I love that.
That's great.
Okay, we'll put the links toall of that in the show notes
and thank you so much for beingon today.
I really admire your work andwhat you're putting out into the
world.
Megan Sumrell (36:07):
Oh, thank you.
Michelle Gauthier (36:14):
Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed
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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