Why Most High-Achieving Women Don't Have a Workload Problem
This might sound a bit strange coming from someone who coaches women on how to get on top of their workload, but I don't think most women have a workload problem.
I think they have a reaction problem.
Every week I’m lucky enough to talk to very capable women who tell me they're overwhelmed.
They’re lawyers, consultants, team leaders, business owners.
Very different jobs, but very similar conversations.
They tell me they can't get on top of things, they're always behind, their to do list never ends and they definitely can’t switch off.
They've already bought the planner, tried the Trello board, read Atomic Habits.
And when we start pulling it apart, we find out most of them don't actually have a planning problem.
They sit down on Monday morning with a perfectly good plan in fact.
Then someone sends them an email…
A Teams message (or 16) pops up…
A meeting gets moved…
Someone needs something urgently…
Their boss asks them a question…
A client calls…
And before they know it, the day is out of their control.
They’re not following the plan and instead they’re in reactive mode, which is quite a different problem.
When all this happens, you switch to your primitive brain.
Your primitive brain:
convinces you every email needs an immediate response
tells you every request is urgent
believes every notification deserves your attention
treats uncertainty like a threat
Which is handy if you're being chased by a tiger, but less helpful when Karen from Finance wants something by Thursday.
This brings a lot of relief to the women I work with because for years they've been making it mean something about themselves. They think they’re the problem:
"I feel like I'm constantly putting out fires."
"I don't even know where my time goes."
"I spend all day busy and still end up behind."
Meanwhile they're trying to manage a reactive brain in a reactive environment, so of course they’re absolutely drained.
What's super interesting is that their workload doesn't always change that much, but their experience of it changes dramatically.
They stop treating every task like an emergency, they stop carrying their entire week around in their head, they stop feeling personally attacked by their inbox.
And they start leading their workload instead of being led by it. Then our conversations sound like:
"I can breathe again."
"I feel calmer."
"I trust myself."
"I don't feel trapped anymore."
Which is funny because nobody has ever finished coaching with me and said:
"Georgie, thank you so much for teaching me Outlook." 😂
The planning was never really the point. The point was helping them stop spending every day feeling behind.
Most women think they're looking for a better system, but what they're actually looking for is their life back.
If you're reading this and thinking:
"Oh. This is me." – book a free Strategy Call.
We'll work out whether you genuinely have too much work, or whether you're stuck in a cycle of reacting to it all day.
