Ep #53: How To Clear Your Mind With This 5-Minute Mindfulness & Time Management Strategy
episode summary
Are you tired of feeling like your brain is bursting at the seams?
In today's fast-paced world, overwhelm is a common experience, leaving you feeling scattered and stuck. This episode offers a solution to the invisible mental load we carry, providing practical strategies to unload and regain focus.
In this episode, you'll learn:
A simple technique to make your mental load visible and manageable.
The power of decluttering your mind to enhance productivity and reduce stress.
How to prioritize tasks and take actionable steps towards clarity and calm.
Ready to declutter your mind and reclaim your focus? Tune in now to learn how to transform overwhelm into productivity with practical tips you can implement today.
Featured on the podcast:
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The Invisible Workload of Women episode.
For the full show notes and transcript, head over here.
If you are sick and tired of feeling overwhelmed, I can help. I coach clients on 1 on 1 to create a more calm, relaxing, intentional life. The first step is to set up a complimentary discovery session right here.
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Discover practical strategies to overcome imposter syndrome, manage time effectively, and cultivate a calm and positive mindset while setting boundaries and combating negative self-talk in high-stress jobs, all while learning how to say no and prioritize self-care on the 'Overwhelmed Working Woman' podcast.
Music Used: Pop Guitar Intro 01 by TaigaSoundProd, Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-licen
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CHAPTERS:
2:18 - Your Brain as a Fanny Pack
5:12 - The Visible Mental Unload
8:36 - Do Less for Success Tip
listen to the episode:
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Today, you'll learn how your brain is much like an overstuffed fanny pack: not very useful when it's got too much stuff in it. You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less. I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach. On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's working woman experiences, and in each episode you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease and relaxation to your life. Hey friends, as you heard on our last episode, for the whole month of April we are celebrating the birthday of Overwhelmed Working Woman. So for this happy birthday episode, instead of giving you a slice of cake - which I'd love to do, by the way, but I think that's pretty much impossible, since I don't know your name or where you live - I wish I did, though, because I'd give you some - but instead I'm going to give you a great tool to use for overwhelm instead of a piece of cake.
Michelle Gauthier: 1:04
Previously, I did an episode about the invisible workload that women carry. You should definitely check that one out if you haven't. But it's that invisible mental load of all the things that we need to remember and do. Well, today you'll learn how to do the opposite of that, which is a visible - instead of invisible - mental *unload*. It's the complete opposite of the invisible mental load, and I'll teach you how to do it and why it's worth the five minutes it will take you to stop feeling overwhelmed. By the end of the episode, you'll have a new tool in your toolbox to shift you right out of overwhelm and back into calm productivity. And to wrap up our episode, we'll finish up with the mini segment of Michelle's Do Less for Success tip.
Michelle Gauthier: 1:50
You probably already know this, but when you're feeling that feeling of overwhelm, you can't actually do anything, at least anything productive. Your brain is so full and overloaded and it can't think much beyond, I'm overwhelmed and I don't know what to do next. When this happens to me, it almost feels like a spinning feeling and I feel stuck. I can't do anything useful, even though I'm constantly thinking of all of the things that I should be doing.
Michelle Gauthier: 2:18
I carry around this little Lululemon belt bag, also known as a fanny pack. I call it a fanny pack, but my daughter corrects me that it's a belt bag. That does sound kind of cooler. So you probably know what I mean because you probably have one. It's small, but it's so perfect usually for what I need, unless I just keep adding to it without ever cleaning it out. When I can no longer zip it and stuff is sticking out of the top it kind of folds over and I can't fold it over - like I put my Kindle in there before - I have to pull it all out and start over. So I'll find things in there if I just do a complete unload, like my credit cards, maybe some random cash floating around. At least two lip balms, three lip glosses - total difference between those two, I'm sure you understand. Tins of mints in various states of full, a couple bags of nuts, because I feel like I always have to have a snack with me, wrappers from my kids' stuff, because, you know, mom's the trash can, receipts from weeks ago from a place I've forgotten
Michelle Gauthier: 3:14
I've even gone to, some random business cards, a tape measure (I'm continuously updating my house so I always need a tape measure) and the other day I found a spare pair of socks in there, which were clean. I know it's a lot, especially for a little fanny pack-sized bag. But this overstuffed belt bag is just like our brain when it's overwhelmed - it's such a useful item and, when used properly and not overly full, can be the most effective thing. But when it's over full it's impossible to find the thing that you're looking for or to focus on anything. Let's just say you're driving into work and your brain is overstuffed and carrying way too many things. You're thinking about the six important things you need to do for work, while also thinking about what to make for dinner tonight, what time you have to take your kids somewhere, the annoyance you have that you always have to come up with the idea for dinner and actually cook it.
Michelle Gauthier: 4:10
Your brain's offering some negative self-talk for not getting up and working out this morning. It's wondering where your sunglasses went. Even the extra pair somehow are lost. You're thinking about that text from your best friend from three days ago that you totally forgot to answer. That's the worst. You're thinking, I hope I remember that great marketing idea I had in the shower this morning, which currently is gone from my brain, but maybe it will come back to my brain if I don't focus too hard on it. You're wondering if your mom liked the guy who cleaned her carpets and if maybe you should hire that person too. You're wondering if you'll ever get those Amazon returns done or if they're just going to be sitting on your closet floor forever. You're thinking, I've got to pick up my kid's prescription and call the orthodontist.
Michelle Gauthier: 5:03
And all of this is happening while you're settling down and trying to get to work, and it's almost impossible to make it stop once your brain feels this overwhelmed, overstuffed feeling. So here's what to do. This is the solution. We're going to go from all of those thoughts being invisible, that whole mental load of being invisible, to making them visible. Just like the purse, we're going to empty it all out. So grab a pen and paper, not if you're driving while listening to this, but grab a pen and paper. This will take less than five minutes and I promise over the week it will save you hours of wasted time, because remember, when you're overwhelmed you can't think and therefore it's very hard, if not impossible, to do anything productive. So, now that you've got your pen and paper, just start writing. Start writing that work
Michelle Gauthier: 5:48
to-do list, items one to six, in no particular order. Write down your complaint about always having to do the dinner planning without any plan to resolve it. In the moment, just complain to your journal or your piece of paper. Complain about losing your sunglasses, or maybe make a note about where you think they might be. Write down the to-do to text your best friend. Don't do it right now because then you'll get distracted and you'll come back and you'll still feel overwhelmed. Get all the way through this mental unload before you do anything else.
Michelle Gauthier: 6:20
Write down that marketing idea from the shower, if you remember it. If you don't just jot down shower marketing idea and hope it comes back, go ahead and make a note to ask your mom about the carpet cleaning, and to put the Amazon returns on your to-do list, and to pick up the medicine and call the orthodontist. Just get it all down. And if you're having any other thoughts, write those down too. Often minor thoughts of frustration or annoyance, like I'm so sick of being overwhelmed. Why do I have to do everything? Just wish someone could do something for me or someone would do something without me asking them. So if you have any other just thoughts in my case they're almost always negative when I'm feeling overwhelmed and write all those down too.
Michelle Gauthier: 7:04
And once your brain is empty and you've stopped writing. Just sit there for a minute and see if anything else comes up. Sometimes it's like I get it all out and then a few more things want to come in. So just give it a second, maybe, take a sip of coffee or two and then start writing down if there's anything else, until it's all out. Now all of those things are safely on a piece of paper. You don't have to remember them anymore. It's all there. It's all written down for you.
Michelle Gauthier: 7:32
Now look back at the list and ask yourself, what is the number one thing that I need to address on that list? Let's say, dinner tonight is your number one concern and that's the thing that you just want to get off your mind: do that thing. Or if the first thing you want to do is make a to-do list for the week. Or if the first thing that you want to do is text your best friend back, whatever it is, just choose the number one thing and do that.
Michelle Gauthier: 8:00
It can be very useful when you have just come out of overwhelm, to use a thought like I know exactly what I'm going to do next, because part of overwhelm is having too many thoughts and not being able to choose which one to focus on. By doing this exercise where you get it all out of your brain, capture it all, choose your number one and get started on that, is to let your brain - and remind yourself - know, okay, I got this. I know the very next thing to do. I don't know the next 78 steps, which is what your brain will try to get you to go to. Just do number one. That's it.
Michelle Gauthier: 8:36
Now that you know how to clean out your brain and feel less overwhelmed, I'm going to move on to Michelle's do less for success tip. My tip this week is about getting your mail, your physical mail, out of your mailbox, and my tip is to just touch your mail one time. If you're going out to get the mail and you come back in and you set it down on a kitchen counter or on your dining room table or wherever your mail lives, and you open some of it and you leave some of it there, and then when you go to pay bills you have to go find it, etc. Here's my tip for you: get your mail, and when you're coming back into your house, before you even come back into the house, really quickly look through and see what's recycling, which, if it's like my mail, is about 90% and recycle it. Don't even bring it into your house. And then, when you bring it into the house, what should be left is just maybe a personal note (isn't that the best,
Michelle Gauthier: 9:38
when you get an actual note in the mail?), bills, maybe invitations, something from your kid's school, whatever it is - everything that needs for you to take action. Just put those into a 'take action on later' pile. I do mine on Sundays, so it comes straight in my house, sometimes I'll open them, sometimes I don't, but if I can tell it's a bill, I put them right in that pile. If it's an invitation or something I need to put on the calendar, it goes right in that same pile and everything else goes in the recycling. That way I never have to think about that mail again until Sunday when I go and process everything. It makes it super quick to pay your bills and you save so much time not having to move that and re-go through the pile again and again.
Michelle Gauthier: 10:22
Okay, friends, that's it for this week. I hope you implement the new mail tip as well as the new unloading the mental load that you've just learned. Don't forget that this month we are celebrating Overwhelmed Working Woman and that if you write a review and fill out the form which is in the show notes, you can qualify to get an Overwhelmed Working T-shirt. They're so cute. If you haven't seen a picture of them on social media, follow me @Michelle Gauthier Coaching and you can see one. They are so cute. That's a wrap for today. Have a great week. Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast. If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at michellegauthier.com. See you next week.
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