The Mental Offload Podcast Shawna Samuel

Are you drowning in email?
Before you’ve even gotten dressed in the morning, your mind is already on the 117 emails that are sitting in your inbox. Waiting on a response.
Email is usually one of the first things you look at in the morning, and one of the last things you look at at night.
It seems impossible to get (and stay) on top of it.
Email and collaboration tools have transformed the way we work. 
Sometimes, it’s for the better: hybrid, asynchronous work on dispersed teams wouldn’t be possible without it.
But much of the time, it’s the struggle of the modern sisyphus: spending days pushing email out of your inbox…only to wake up and have to do it over, and over again.
Not only that, but it ends up crowding out the time we need to move forward your actual strategic priorities.
Taking control over how you manage your inbox is one of the best things you can do to create more sustainable and successful work habits. 
This week, we’ll explore how to make it happen.
What You'll Learn: 
3 principles for successfully managing email
Why the “vigilant and diligent” mindset keeps you stressed, anxious and spread too thin
Actionable tips for playing email offense vs. defense, and balancing email and strategic priorities
What it takes to win the game of email “hot potato”
To learn more, visit The Mental Offload. 

Mother’s Day. 
It’s billed as the ultimate celebration of the work of mothers. 
And in a society that often gives so little acknowledgement, this one day takes on big importance: a recognition of how much you’ve given to others throughout the rest of the year.
We want the day to be perfect.
But so often, it’s a major letdown. A source of strife, even.
No, the Mother’s Day hangover isn’t what you get from too many mimosas at brunch (okay, well, that’s one kind of hangover). 
We’re talking about the emotional hangover.
The nagging feelings of sadness, resentment, or downright anger that can follow you around after a disappointing Mother’s Day.
A big part of it? That mothers are offered so little in return for a year of hard work at home. 
A nice brunch and a homemade thank you card are so small in comparison to all you do. So, when you don’t even get that, how are you supposed to react?!
Whether your Mother’s Day was a day to remember for all the right reasons or all the wrong ones, tune in for an exploration of what mothers truly deserve, and how we can get more of it.
What You'll Learn: 
The no-win societal expectations that leave too many mothers with a Mother’s Day hangover
How your “emotional hangover” provides important data, and what to do with it
Why you should consider planning your own Mother’s Day (even if your partner gets it 99% right)
To learn more, visit The Mental Offload. 

Women are more aware of the mental load of the household than at any time in the past.
The dynamics of domestic labor and parenting have historically been biased. The expectation: women would and should do the work of running the home and raising children.
Even for women who work outside the home, the mental load often ends up squarely on their shoulders.
Women put in 10 more hours of household labor than men each week (US data)
And this impacts their careers. 
57% of women feel that their careers are limited by their caregiving responsibilities at home (US data)
So many women want to rebalance the load at home.
But the advice that permeates so much of the social media sphere is blunt: there are “good guys” (who will willingly step up to the plate at home, if asked) and “garbage guys”. And if you’ve got one of the latter, you’re told your only option is to “throw the whole man away.”
As much as that phrase makes me chuckle, this way of thinking keeps a lot of women right where they started: shouldering an outsize burden at home.
It’s time to unpack our thinking about the mental load at home, and how we can drive more alignment with our partners.
What You'll Learn: 
Why the unequal division of labor at home is also an obstacle to women’s career ambitions
The “good guy” versus “garbage guy” binary thinking that permeates social media, and why more nuance is useful
4 partner stances to the mental load, and which ones are “good” or  “garbage”
The two underrated skills that drive more alignment on the mental load at home
 

“Put on your own oxygen mask first,” they say. 
But that’s easier said than done, right?!
How much time do you get each day completely for yourself?
Add it up: time with no work concerns to attend to, no little humans to take care of. Purely to do as you want… 
That’s probably some quick math.
For most women, the number is small. And women get less than men (thanks, patriarchy!).
And for that little bit that we do take, we hear harmful messages that it’s selfish. Or optional.
So, you end up putting yourself last.
Far from being frivolous or selfish, “me time” is essential time that we need to recharge. In a world of depleting demands on your time and attention, “me time” is a refueling stop.
What would happen if you treated time for yourself as a necessary component of each week? Critical to your ability to lead at work, and at home?
In this week’s episode of the Mental Offload Podcast, we blow the lid off the idea that “me time” is selfish. And we dive into ways to take time for yourself  in a society that makes it easy to keep putting yourself last.
Time for yourself isn’t selfish. It’s a strategic necessity in leadership (and life).
What You'll Learn: 
How “me time” is protective against burnout, and support mental and emotional well-being 
How much “me time” do you really need? We’ll look at the evidence.
The REAL costs of pouring from an empty cup, at work and at home
How to get over internalized guilt and cultural messages that discourage “me time”
A tactical plan to make more time for yourself happen
To learn more, visit The Mental Offload. 

Inbox zero is such a seductive proposition.
Inbox zero was popularized by productivity gurus as an efficient approach to email. The idea is that you want to maintain your inbox with zero - or as close to zero - messages as possible. 
For most people, this becomes a daily metric to track their own productivity.
And, I’d argue it’s a vanity metric. 
It’s seductive because it makes you think you’re being productive, efficient, and valuable at work. But it’s just a veneer of productivity.
Inbox zero comes with real costs. Namely, it takes away your focus from the work that really matters. (Which, in most jobs, is not responding to email.)
This week, we explore the lingering “productivity myth” of inbox zero, and better ways of managing your inbox.
What You'll Learn: 
Why  inbox zero seems so efficient
The real costs (and opportunity costs) of trying to maintain inbox zero
Take a page from domestic management - would you ever try to maintain laundry hamper zero?
Better ways to manage your inbox
To learn more, visit The Mental Offload. 
 

Presentation anxiety. It’s incredibly common, even amongst leaders.
There’s that oft-quoted statistic that suggests that most people’s biggest fear is public speaking.
And what are presentations, if not public speaking? Even when the scale is small (like leading a team meeting), the stakes rarely feel small.
As a leader, you might need to give dozens of presentations a year. In some roles, you might give dozens a week. 
What’s more, your presentation skills are part of your executive presence. You want to appear confident, calm, unflustered.
But how do you do that with your knees shaking?
In this episode, we’ll cover how you can conquer presentation anxiety, to show up with more confidence and more presence every time.
What You'll Learn: 
Why the typical advice, like “fake it til you make it” is unhelpful (or downright terrible) for presentation anxiety
The ABCs of anxiety - what’s really going on when you’re on stage?
How to create an “anxiety management protocol” to help you perform at your best
To learn more, visit The Mental Offload.