262804066 164. Why Your To-Do List Is Making You MORE Overwhelmed (How To feel More Organized) - Beyond Awareness: Closing the Gap Between Knowing and Doing

Episode 164

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Published on:

29th Jul 2025

164. Why Your To-Do List Is Making You MORE Overwhelmed (How To feel More Organized)

This is for you if you stare at your to-do list and feel your chest tighten! You wrote everything down to feel more in control, but somehow you're drowning in your own handwriting. That master list that was supposed to save you? It's actually making everything worse.

Episode Highlights:

🎯 The Control Trap - Why your 47-item to-do list is creating fake urgency (and what actually matters)

🎯 The Master List Method - My simple Google Doc system that prevents overwhelm while keeping you focused

🎯 Productive vs. Feeling Productive - How to celebrate crossing off ONE thing instead of beating yourself up for not doing ten

After listening to this episode:

You'll stop rewriting the same overwhelming list over and over. Instead of feeling behind even when you're crushing it, you'll wake up knowing exactly what matters today. No more Sunday scaries about everything you "should" be doing.

Picture this: It's 6 PM and instead of stressing about your endless list, you're actually proud of what you accomplished. You can be fully present with your kids because work isn't spinning in your head. Your evenings become yours again.

One more thing:

Your productivity isn't measured by how much you cross off. It's about choosing to feel good about what you DID accomplish. One working mom told me she cleaned the office kitchen between therapy sessions and felt guilty it wasn't "enough." But who decided that wasn't enough?

You get to choose how productive you feel, regardless of what your list looks like.

Resources Mentioned:

Calm Mind Blueprint: www.samanthapenkoff.com/calm-mind-pod

Ways to work with Samantha:

1:1 coaching: Now accepting applications, 2 spots open. Learn More here: www.samanthapenkoff.com/privatecoaching

Application to get on the 1:1 waitlist: https://www.samanthapenkoff.com/assessments/2148353310

Connect with Sam on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samantha.s.says

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About the Podcast

Beyond Awareness: Closing the Gap Between Knowing and Doing
Closing the Gap Between Knowing and Doing
Beyond Awareness (formerly Journal Entries) is for successful women in leadership and business who know exactly what they need to do but can't make themselves do it.

You know you need to prioritize yourself, delegate more, set boundaries, stop bringing work home. You've tried therapy, coaching, retreats. You know the solution - but you either can't follow through, or when you DO, it doesn't stick.

Host Samantha Hawley helps business owners and executives earning $100k+ excavate the root beliefs underneath the execution gap. Why do you keep not doing the thing? Why doesn't it feel better when you do? Using strategic journaling and emotional excavation, we go beyond awareness into why you're actually stuck in the pattern.

This isn't about more tactics or tips. This is about understanding why awareness isn't enough and what actually needs to shift for you to change.

You'll hear about: decision fatigue, why you can't prioritize yourself, nervous system regulation, being present with your kids, root cause of overwhelm, why boundaries don't stick, self-sabotage patterns, and how your internal state impacts everything.

Perfect for: Female CFOs, VPs, directors, executives, business owners, and women in leadership who are tired of knowing what's wrong but not being able to change it.
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Samantha Hawley