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September 8, 2025 14 mins

Do you ever feel like you just can’t focus no matter how hard you try — like your brain is stuck in constant emergency mode?

If your calendar is overflowing, your to-do list never shrinks, and distractions pull you in a hundred directions, you’re not alone. This episode dives into the hidden beliefs and habits that silently drain your energy and clarity — and how to finally reclaim your focus.

In this episode, you will:

  • Learn how to spot the hidden “bricks” you’ve been carrying that weigh down your productivity.
  • Discover a simple pause-and-breathe technique to break the cycle of treating every request as urgent.
  • Walk away with a three-step process to shift from overwhelm to clear, intentional focus.

Press play now to learn how to lighten your mental load and finally create space for deep focus and productivity.


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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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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Michelle Gauthier (00:00):
So picture what is in your overachiever's
backpack.
What do the bricks say and howheavy are they to carry around?
You're listening to OverwhelmedWorking Woman, the podcast that
helps you be more calm and moreproductive by doing less.

(00:21):
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
.

(00:42):
Hi friend, thanks for joiningtoday.
Do you ever feel like you justcannot focus or concentrate?
That is sort of a hallmark offeeling overwhelmed and stressed
.
That's very hard to thinkclearly.
Today, I'm going to tell you astory about one of my clients
and how she was able to set downher backpack full of
responsibilities, so to speak,and be able to do some very good

(01:05):
, clear thinking for betterproductivity.
Before I jump into that, though,I want to remind you that the
declutter challenge is next week.
It starts on Monday and it endson Friday, every day next week.
It will take you well, itdepends how much time you have,
but if you join, you can expectto spend at least five minutes,

(01:25):
which is listening to thepodcast episode of the morning
that will explain to you whicharea you'll work on decluttering
that day, and then around 30minutes to do the actual
decluttering project.
By the end of the week, youwill feel so much lighter and
you will have made progress ondecluttering your digital life
like think about your emailinbox, your calendar, all of

(01:48):
your responsibilities, a coupleplaces in your house or your car
some kind of physical space andyour mind.
So you're going to get a tasteof all different types of
decluttering and notice how theymake you feel.
The cost for this is $17.
You can register at the link inthe show notes and when you do,
you will get an email that hasthe workbook that goes with it.

(02:09):
So in case you want to print itout before you get started, or
if you're more of a person whowants to just keep it on your
phone, whatever it is, you willget it immediately upon
registration.
I hope to see you there nextweek.
We're actually going to do somefun prizes.
If you listen to the episode onthe Sunday basket and
organizing system, that's goingto be one of the prizes.
A label maker is going to beone of the prizes, which is like

(02:33):
the best thing ever.
If you don't own one, you needone Definitely.
I feel like everything in lifeneeds a label.
And the last prize is acoaching session with me, which,
if you do a 30 minute coachingsession with me, normally that
would be $150.
So it's $150 value for free.
The way to enter is to justgive me feedback throughout the

(02:53):
challenge about what your winsare or any questions that you
might have, and I'm going to befeaturing some of your questions
and comments on the podcastnext week.
So, as we're going through thechallenge, I'm going to be
sharing wins on the podcastevery day.
It's gonna be fun, you're gonnafeel good.
I'm going to be doing it rightalongside you, so please join me
.
Okay, back to the inability toconcentrate or focus.

(03:17):
I don't even know that I needto go over why that's bad for
your productivity.
Right, it just makes sense.
If you can't concentrate andyou can't focus, then you can't
really get anything done.
You just get kind of thatspinning, paralyzed feeling that
comes often with overwhelm andstress.
So today, when you listen,you'll discover through hearing

(03:38):
about my client Priya's story,why focus problems aren't
necessarily your phone or yourenvironment, and how treating
every request like an emergencyreally drains your productivity.
And then a quick three-stepprocess to lighten the load and
help you be able to focus yourattention to be super productive

(03:59):
during the times when you wantto be productive.
My client, Priya, came to mebasically saying, my to-do list
keeps getting bigger, I can'tget a handle on it, my calendar
is out of control, I feel like Inever have time to do anything
fun and I just can't focus.
This is very common.
If this, if you're like, yes, Ifeel like that, this is very
common.

(04:19):
Almost every client who I workwith has this same type of issue
, and so the first thing we wantto do is get into it Like why,
what is going on there?
Why is your to-do list neverending?
Why is your calendar jam packed?
Let's get underneath it.
And what I realized whileworking with her is that Priya
had two main problems that werecausing this inability for her

(04:44):
to concentrate, and I like tothink about them like a metaphor
of a backpack.
So she had this heavy backpackthat she was carrying around,
and inside that backpack Ipicture bricks with words
written on them like I have tosay yes or I'll let people down.
Everything has to be perfect IfI don't handle it.

(05:05):
No one else will.
And if you've ever had any ofthose thoughts, consciously or
unconsciously, those weigh onyou.
So picture what is in youroverachiever's backpack.
What do the bricks say and howheavy are they to carry around?
If you, for example, arecarrying around that heavy brick
of I have to say yes or I'lllet people down, that means

(05:28):
you're always going to say yesand you're worried about what
people are going to think aboutyou.
And when you always say yes,that shows up on your to-do list
, that shows up in your calendar.
It shows up as a lack of energyand a lack of concentration.
So she had that.
That was the number one thing.
And then the other thing thatshe had is I like to think of it

(05:49):
like a pair of AirPods thatwere stuck in her ears, that
were whispering to her everytime she got a notification.
Okay, you know when you're.
I just got a new set of AirPodsbecause I lost mine, which I
found, I seem to.
I think I'm on like my fourthor fifth pair, and every time I
buy the replacement ones, I findthe old ones.
It's kind of my way to do it,but anyway, I've got the new

(06:11):
ones, so they're way fancierthan the previous ones that I
had, that I lost and found.
And when you put them in yourears they automatically go to
noise canceling mode so you canonly hear, like what's coming
out of the AirPods.
You can't really hear thenoises around you, which is
amazing, like on an airplane orsomething like that the noises
around you, which is amazing,like on an airplane or something

(06:32):
like that.
But if you think about that,Priya had these in and every
single time she would get anotification on her phone, or
she would get an email or herphone would ring, she would be
notified, and it's like as ifthis is a metaphor she's not
really wearing these AirPodsaround, but it's as if she heard
nothing else except this voicecoming into her head saying you

(06:53):
got a text message, you need torespond to it right now.
It's like a 911 mindset.
There's no prioritizing or noway to think about things as
like I can wait until later todo that.
So every time a text message itdoesn't even have to be an
important one a phone call, anemail from her boss, or even

(07:14):
someone who works for her, oreven just a friend If she didn't
answer it right away, it would.
Just, it's like those AirPodswould keep playing the message
of like you got to get back tothat, there's somebody waiting
on you.
You've got to get back to them.
So if you think about thecombination of her wearing those
noise canceling AirPods, whereshe could just only hear that
voice telling her to immediatelyget back to everyone, and

(07:38):
wearing that backpack with allthe bricks in it with all the
messages of I have to say yes orI'll let people down.
Everything has to be perfect.
If I don't handle this, no oneelse will Imagine what her
concentration level wasExhausting, right, like, how can
you concentrate?
If I could only concentratewhen I'm not getting messages

(07:59):
like no texts or phone calls oremails I would never be able to
concentrate.
As you're hearing her story,maybe you're thinking, yeah, me
too.
I think that this is reallycommon, especially for women,
that we're really taught that weneed to be available, get back
to people.
Everybody's relying on us.
We can't make anyone else upset.

(08:19):
So this is super common anddiscovering that she was feeling
this way, carrying around thisbackpack and wearing these
AirPods, was actually superhelpful, because as soon as you
discover what it is that'scausing this inability to
concentrate and this stress andthis overwhelm, you can get busy
on doing something different.
So here's what we worked on.

(08:40):
We started with the 911emergency mindset.
So when her brain yelledemergency when a text came in,
she learned to take a breath andask, is this actually urgent?
So the process that you want todo if you feel like this one
applies to you is, just when youget a message, make a new rule

(09:01):
for yourself that you actuallycan't respond until you put your
hand on your chest and take abreath and ask yourself is this
actually urgent?
I'm doing it to myself rightnow and I feel calmer just
putting my hand on my chest.
So put your hand on your chestand say is this actually urgent?
And if the answer was yes,which it sometimes is then she

(09:25):
would answer.
And if it wasn't urgent I mean,how often is something actually
really super urgent?
She would check the thought thatwas really weighing her down,
like I have to do this right nowor I'll look bad, or people are
expecting me to get back tothem right away.
And then she replaced it withlighter thoughts, like it's safe

(09:48):
to respond when I'm ready.
I'm allowed to focus on onething at a time Even a thought
like this is not an emergencyand I can reply when I have time
.
And just by doing that shelearned to train her brain that
it was okay if she didn'trespond to things right away.
Sometimes things are urgent andyou respond to them right away,

(10:09):
but I would say 95% of thingsare not that urgent, and
learning to give yourself thattime and space to just put your
hand on your chest, take a deepbreath and ask is this urgent?
Will help you break that habit.
It's like you take those noisecanceling AirPods that are
talking in your ears, out ofyour and I don't know what.

(10:32):
You don't want to throw them tothe bottom of the lake.
Maybe you just want to put themin a different room so that you
can think on your own withouthaving that message coming in.
So once we calmed her brain fromthat emergency, emergency
mindset mindset.
So once we calmed her brainfrom that everything's an

(10:57):
emergency mindset, it got somuch easier to address the
backpack.
So the backpack, remember, isher carrying around these bricks
that have beliefs written onthem, like I have to say yes or
I'll let people down.
Everything has to be perfect.
If I don't handle it, no oneelse will.

(11:17):
And what we agreed is that whenshe got to work in the morning,
she would take off thatmetaphoric, she would take off
this invisible backpack and setit next to her so she wasn't
carrying it around.
And then, if one of thosethoughts came up that are on the
bricks, she would do exactlythe same practice that I just

(11:38):
described.
So she would pause.
Let's just say someone askedher to do something that she
doesn't want to do or isn't herresponsibility, or that she can
delegate to her team.
The heavy brick of I have tosay yes, or the heavy brick of
if I don't handle it, it won'tbe done right.

(11:58):
We know that that was weighingher down.
So she can put her hand on herchest and ask herself is it true
that if I don't do it, it won'tbe done right?
Could it be true that someoneelse could do this job, even if
it's not exactly the way that Iwould do?
It else could do this job, evenif it's not exactly the way
that I would do it.
And then she would try to choosea new thought like I'm going to

(12:19):
delegate this to my team andI'll tell you when you start
doing this and you start kind oftalking back to those bricks.
You will feel uncomfortable,and that's okay.
Change always feelsuncomfortable, but she was able
to, brick by brick, come up witha replacement thought notice,
when she was having thatpressure of everything has to be

(12:40):
perfect, or I have to say yes,or I'll let people down.
And putting that pause inputting her hand on her chest,
taking a deep breath and thenasking herself is it really true
that I'll let people down if Idon't do this?
Can I know that's for sure,true?
Is it okay to let people down?
Even if people are let down,let them, as Mel Robbins would

(13:00):
say.
So if you feel like you've beencarrying around a backpack full
of bricks with old beliefs, oryou've got those airpods in that
are whispering in your ear thateverything is a 911 emergency,
try this technique and helpsettle yourself down, and that
will totally enable you to bemuch more productive and focused

(13:22):
.
Okay, have a great day.
Don't forget to sign up for thedeclutter challenge.
It's going to be so much funand I think you are going to
love the results.
The people who did it last yearI got tons of great feedback.
It's so much fun knowing you'renot doing it alone, that you've
got this whole group of people,all these internet people and
podcast people doing italongside you.

(13:43):
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
website at michellegauthier.
com.
See you next week.
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