#166| How to Crush the Second Half of Your Year - Without Overwhelm: Overwhelm, Productivity, Time Management & People Pleasing

Are you feeling like 2025 is flying by and wondering why your goals feel so far off—or even forgotten entirely?

This episode is for every overwhelmed working woman who’s ready to check in without shame, ditch unrealistic pressures, and make small, smart shifts to finish the year feeling proud and aligned.

In this episode, you will:

• Discover how to reflect on your year without guilt or overwhelm.
• Learn the power of a monthly check-in and how it can keep you calm and on track.
• Get simple, actionable tips to realign your goals and calendar for the rest of 2025.

Tune in now to learn how to reset your year with ease and start making intentional progress—without doing more.

Featured on the podcast
Ep #51: Create Productivity Without Overwhelm This Week With The "Calendar Clean-Out Method"
Ep #148: Beat Summer Overwhelm with Intentional 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...

Episode Transcript

Michelle Gauthier (00:00):
Now that we're halfway through the year,
are you wondering wait, whathappened to all of my goals?
You're listening to OverwhelmedWorking Woman, the podcast that
helps you be more calm and moreproductive by doing less.
I'm your host, MichelleGauthier, a former Overwhelmed

(00:21):
Working Woman and current lifecoach.
On this show, we unpack thestress and pressure that 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.
If you are all of a suddenrealizing that it is halfway

(00:44):
through the year in fact, morethan halfway through the year
and that you haven't eitherthought about your goals maybe
you never made goals in thefirst place, or maybe you're
making great progress on yourgoals, you think, but you
haven't necessarily checked inwith yourself.
This episode is going to helpyou learn how to reflect on the
first half of the year withoutguilt, from a place of what do I

(01:08):
want to do for the rest of theyear?
So we'll look at what's worthletting go or crossing off
entirely and what you want tofocus on for the rest of 2025.
And then I will also give yousome quick and easy shifts that
you can make to realign andsimplify the rest of 2025.
Way back in January, whichseems like forever ago, I taught

(01:30):
a class called your Best Yearand, by the way, I teach that
class every year in January forseveral years in a row now.
So keep that on your radar forwhen the new year starts in 2026
.
But what we do in that is wechoose a word of the year, so
everybody picks their own wordof the year and then we look at
high level goals for each areaof your life that you want to

(01:50):
accomplish, and that can just beit, and participants can go off
on their own and see their yearthrough to the end.
Or there's an option to join amonthly check in and, if you do
opt for that option, every monthwe review what went well during
the month, what didn't go well,what we want to do better for
the next month, and then we planout the next month.

(02:11):
For me personally, when I lookedat the end of my 2024, so last
year and realized that I reallydid a great job on all the goals
that I had set for myself thatyear, the reason why is because
I did this monthly check-in.
If you're checking in on amonthly basis about what you are
doing well, things that youneed to do better, and planning

(02:32):
for the next month ahead.
You're never really fallingbehind or falling off too far
that you can't catch up.
So that is the thing that Iwould most recommend is having a
monthly check-in with yourself.
Now, if you didn't do anyplanning for 2025, or you did,
but you forgot where it is orwhat you might have had on that,
or you did the planning andyou're not doing a monthly check

(02:55):
in, all is not lost.
You are still good to go.
So what I want to do today isjust talk through how to figure
out where you are and then whatto shift if you want to finish
out the year strong.
So let's first take a look atwhat's going well so far for you
.
I will tell you thatautomatically, your brain may
say oh my gosh, nothing.

(03:15):
I haven't done anything.
I haven't made any progress.
That's kind of like the waythat our brain likes to trick us
.
So you might have to challengeyourself and really think about.
I know things have gone well,so what are some of those things
?
Here's a great way to jog yourmemory: scroll through your
calendar or look back at yourphone photos.
Sometimes the good stuff getsreally buried in the day-to-day

(03:36):
and seeing it again can remindyou oh yeah, that was really
great, that really mattered.
Think about all the areas ofyour life when you're doing this
.
So what has gone well at work.
Remember it can be somethingreally small or it could be
something huge, like I finishedthis million dollar project I
was working on, or I feel likeI'm communicating better with

(03:57):
the people on my team than I wasbefore.
Think about family andfriendships and your mental
health and your physical healthand your home and your financial
wins, any personal growth orany rest that you've given
yourself, any little routines orhabits that have stuck.
For example, if you're a personwho consistently works out,

(04:21):
don't forget that that'ssomething that's going well for
you.
So maybe, like in my case, Iadded at the beginning of the
year, I want to be able to do apull up.
I'm no closer to doing a pullup.
In fact, I've barely worked onit.
That's one of my gap areas thatI have not done well on this
year.
But let's not lose the factthat I'm going to work out
several times a week at my gym.
So don't forget about thethings that you are doing that

(04:43):
are working.
These can be related to goalsyou have or just things that you
observed that you really like.
For me, I've started trying todo a walk in the afternoon, just
a quick one in between clients,and I really like it.
So that was not one of my goalsfor the year, but it's
something that I haveimplemented and I really like it
.
Part two is looking at what'snot going well.

(05:04):
So we want to take a gentle noshame, look at what's not
working or what hasn't beenworking this year.
So ask yourself did I start agoal or write it down but never
really started?
Did I forget about somethingthat I wanted to do?
Or am I actually hitting all mygoals, but it feels like too
much, or it feels overwhelming.
Or maybe I didn't set any goalsand I'm just floating with no

(05:26):
real direction.
All of these are totally validand not a big deal, but now is
the time to check in.
So think about what isn't goinggreat for you this year.
For example, if your calendaris completely jam-packed but
your soul feels empty, it mightbe time to do a calendar clean
out.
I've done full episodes on that, which I'll link in the show
notes and think about do Ireally want to still do this?

(05:51):
Because you don't need to keepevery recurring event from
January just because it's stillon your books, and it's also
totally okay to cross up goalsthat no longer make sense.
I mentioned to you guys that Iadded the walk, which I really
like, and I never really startedon the pull-up, and that's just
fine with me.
It's not quitting, it's beingintentional about what you
really want to work on.

(06:11):
You can also move goals to nextyear.
You can cross it off.
You can say I thought I wantedto do this, but I actually don't
.
That is progress too.
So as I was doing my review formy year, I realized that there
were a couple places, when I didthis part of what's not going
well, where I thought, oh, I hadgood intentions but I never

(06:32):
actually took the steps to makeany of that happen.
And there were three or fourthings like that and I didn't
want to just put them all on myto-do list for this week, so I'm
just going to sprinkle them outover the next.
We have like five months left,so I'm just going to sprinkle
them out and look at one of themeach of the months ongoing and
for me, I just put that on mymonthly plan for each one of

(06:52):
those months, so I remember todo it.
So it can be as simple as that.
As like, oh yeah, I forgot, Iwanted to work on that.
Let me see where I can schedulethe first step for that project
.
Okay, so now that you know whatis going well, what isn't going
well, let's think about whatyou might want to do differently
.
Ask yourself, what could I dodifferently for the rest of this

(07:16):
year?
That would help me feel goodwhen the year ends.
It's probably not like do moreor be better.
It's probably just do somethingdifferently with more intention
.
Here are a couple of shifts thatyou can borrow or choose from
or just make your own.
Number one is start a weeklyplanning check-in.

(07:37):
If you aren't already doingthis and you're not doing like a
full planning and calendarclean out on Sundays, it might
sound intimidating to do that.
If it does just start with 15minutes of looking at your
schedule and maybe jotting downa couple notes.
If it feels too big, this isfor anything.
If it feels too big, then itgets overwhelming and then you
do nothing.
So if the idea of planning yourwhole week and spending several

(07:59):
hours doing it sounds like whoa, that's way too overwhelming.
Just spend 15 minutes just onyour phone flipping through your
calendar and looking at whatyou have for the week ahead.
Maybe you make a list of yourtop three priorities, something
like that.
Another tip if you are a personwho says yes all the time and
that's causing trouble for yousay let me get back to you,

(08:21):
instead of instantly saying yes,it's not all the way to saying
no, it's just a start.
You could block off 30 minutesa day just for yourself and see
what it is you'd like to doduring that time.
You could try to batch yourerrands.
You could delete a social mediaplatform that you hate anyway.
You could ask for help, even ifit's small or uncomfortable.

(08:41):
I just want to remind you aboutthis one, because a lot of
times when we're overachievers,we like to be the ones who
people ask for help, but not toask other people for help.
And I have a friend right nowand I've been trying to help her
with something because she'sjust having a really busy period
in her life and she doesn'twant to accept my help, and it

(09:03):
helps me remember that when weask people for help, it also can
make them feel good - justreminding you of that.
Pick one someday project andactually schedule it.
So this is kind of like I wastalking about at the beginning,
where if you have something thatyou wanted to do at the
beginning of the year and youjust haven't started it, just

(09:23):
pick a day on your calendar andit could be two months from now
and just jot down and block offan hour for you to think about
it or get started on it.
If you're feeling overwhelmed,you could just take a weekend
off and don't justify it toanyone.
You could take the time toforgive yourself and let go of
anything that you didn't do thisweek.
I don't really think anybodywho's listening to this podcast

(09:45):
needs a full overhaul, even ifyour brain tells you that it
does.
I think if you look at what'sgoing well for you and you try
to lean into that what's notgoing well for you and you try
to make a small shift on one ofthose things, that it will help.
You see that so far this yearyou probably have been
successful more than you wouldhave thought and for the places

(10:06):
where you feel like you'rebehind, you can just get one of
those things on your scheduleand take one little step.
So that's it for today.
Review what went well so farthis year, review what isn't
going well and come up with onesmall shift that you can do to
finish out your year feelingstronger and better than you
feel today.

(10:26):
If this episode helped youbreathe a little easier, share
it with someone else who mightneed a mid-year reset as well.
Anytime you share the podcast,leave a review or leave a rating
, which is just where you clickthe stars.
It really helps the podcastcontinue to grow.
I appreciate every single oneof you who has done that, shared

(10:47):
it, told someone about it.
Every single little step likethat really makes a difference.
I hope you have a great week.
Thank you for listening to theoverwhelmed working woman
podcast.
If you want to learn more aboutmy work, head over to my

(11:08):
website at michellegauthiercom.
See you next week.