Here’s a sampling for your reading pleasure:

My June 2010 Elance Newsletter Article: Eliminate Deadline Stress: Here’s How

Lifehacker Post that Includes Real Life E® Schedule Strategies: Lock in a Fixed Schedule to Keep Work-Life Balance

I Will Teach You To Be Rich Post written by the Awesome Cal Newport With an Elizabeth Mention & Super Long Title ;o) Time Management: How an MIT postdoc writes 3 books, a PhD defense, and 6+ peer-reviewed papers — and finished by 5:30 p.m

And of course, you receive the Very Best and Newest Time Coaching Information by signing up at ScheduleMakeover.com to learn how to think differently about your time and achieve peace-full productivity.

To your brilliance!

Elizabeth

About Real Life E®

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is a time coach & professional speaker who helps men and women who are overwhelmed and frustrated because they want to achieve a life of peace and productivity but are struggling to make it happen.

She empowers  them to set priorities, set expectations and set routines so that they move forward, feel peaceful and create lives of love, meaning and purpose.

Elizabeth has been featured in Inc magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and on NBC, and is happy to be interviewed for your broadcast or publication.

Enjoy!

Elizabeth

Prepare to get your introspect on. (Self discovery)

Step 0: Set aside some YOU time during the day where you can be alone, and pensive. Schedule it in, so you don’t feel guilty that you aren’t working on something else, or forget to do it, or so you can just make sure your immediate to-dos are done and you won’t be interrupted.

Step 1 (Time Estimate: 10-90 minutes)

Think about the kind of person you would like to be: What would you like to change? What do you want to keep the same? (Because you can’t really change other people.) (Also, capture these things positively; don’t say, “I don’t want to dread swimsuit season,” or “I wish I wasn’t a super stressed parent,” or “I wish I didn’t have a total lack of will power.” Instead, how about, “I wish I was more fit” or “I want to spend more time with my son,” or, “I’d like to be a better Christian.”) If your heart sings at the idea of being an astronaut, but a voice tells you that you can’t do it – ignore the voice. Get it out there for show. Even if you can’t be an astronaut, it may be a clue to a direction that will LEAD to job/life satisfaction/passion, etc.

You can write out lists, mind maps, draw pictures, write a short story, make a photo collage, do a mock interview with a voice-recorder. Or pick out historical, fictional role models, or old photos you admire. Or you can make your own combination of things. If it helps, you could even write out a solo-play, pull out some props and video tape your mad-acting skills. Just be honest, and try to be positive.

Here are some questions to get the juices flowing:

* Would you like to change how you react to certain events?

* What adjectives describe you now, and which would you LIKE to describe you?

* Who are the important people in your life, and what do you wish to be to them?

* What sorts of things do you REALLY wish you had more time for?

* What fields or social causes or sciences or tools or skills do you wish you had?

* What do you wish you could spend LESS time on?

* Is there anyone (or thing) that you’d cut out of your life?

* What do you LIKE about your life right now?

* Do you like how you keep your living/work/travel environments?

When you’re done, you’ll likely have a huge chunk of unordered, subconscious detritus floating across several pages… so, now what?

After you’ve let yourself DREAM, the process continues with sorting, prioritizing and pursuing the ideas that you most want to make a reality.

To dreaming BIG and making it happen!

Elizabeth

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is a time coach & professional speaker who empowers individuals  who are overwhelmed and frustrated because they want to achieve a life of peace and balance but are struggling to make it happen.

She helps  them to clarify their goals, make an action plan, focus and prioritize so that they move forward, feel peaceful and have time for themselves and the people they love.

Elizabeth has been featured in Inc magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and on NBC, and is happy to be interviewed for your broadcast or publication.

If you want to receive helpful information on achieving a life of peace and balance & be “in the know” on my latest adventures, check out http://www.ScheduleMakeover.com

With the busy lifestyles everyone has today, time management becomes a concern for all direct sales professionals. Juggling family, activities and business while keeping your priorities in order can be a challenge. Many party plan or direct selling professionals joined their home business company for the purpose of creating income without taking away from family time. Now they may find themselves in a dilemma on how to do both effectively.

• Manage your personal commitments.
• Manage Your Email
• Use proven systems

Personal Time Management

We all have a tendency to over-schedule our personal time and then have difficulty squeezing in our business activities. One thing is certain and that is that you cannot manage time. You can only manage your commitments. Most direct sellers and their families would benefit from fewer personal commitments. Studies have proven that children are feeling stress due to over-committed families. One sport or two activities is good, but several are too many for the average child. When there are several children in the household, the running from commitment to commitment produces stress for Moms, Dads and kids alike. The whole family will have a better quality of life and improved productivity when everyone learns to say no to over- committing to personal activities.

Email Time Management Help

You can free up some of your time by learning how to manage your email inbox. For starters the time spent on checking emails will go more quickly when you check it every day. Systematically checking your email reduces the enormity of it and generates income for your business. If you are in business to make money, then check your email daily.

Delete-Delete-Delete
Delete all irrelevant messages before beginning the review process. When you first open your email, start at the top, and highlight the first message in the list that is to be deleted. Holding the control button down, go down the column and highlight each one to be deleted. When you hold the control button down, you can just go down the column and touch everyone that you want to delete. You should be able to tell by the subject bar which ones those are. Do not mess with forwarded email, spam, social games or any rubbish. This is a really quick process, just hold the control button down and touch each one to be highlighted. You will have a column of blue highlighted emails, then just push delete. And wham! They are all gone!

Deal With It And Move It
Deal with each email as you have the time. After it is taken care of, responded to, printed out, etc. you can either file it or delete it. If it is an email that you want to save, move it to a folder that you have already set up on the side. You can have as many folders as you want under your inbox. Some examples: publicity, direct sales consultants, tech advisor, potential hosts, opportunity leads, etc. If you do not have time to take care of something, since it will take more time than you have at the moment, then just leave it in the inbox. Your inbox is only for incoming mail and mail not dealt with yet. What is in your inbox should all fit in one view pane at all times.

Did I say check your email every day?!

Proven Time Management Systems

There are hundreds of simple time management systems that will make good use of your time so that you can have balance between business and family.

Some systems may include:
• An accounting system for your finances (QuickBooks is good.)
• Data or contact management system
• Scheduling your hours
• Creating a business plan

Your direct selling company may include software for both financial management and data management with your submission process. Use it! The learning curve in the long run is worth it because they are designed to create efficiency.

Simple systems that make businesses efficient are what direct sales time management is all about. Frequently the home business owner needs only look to the corporate world to see what all successful businesses do and copy the same systems at home.

Deb Bixler retired from the corporate world in 2000 to enjoy life as a work from home business owner. In the first 9 months as a direct seller she built a sales team and show schedule which provided her with an income capable of replacing her corporate business salary of $80,000 per year. After 7 years of using direct sales as her total household income, Deb now teaches and trains direct sales professionals all across the US and Canada.

http://www.CreateACashFlowShow.com

Direct Sales Time Management

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is a time coach & professional speaker who empowers individuals to build businesses and achieve work/life brilliance™ through Schedule Makeovers™. Her empowerment coaching frees individuals from guilt, overwhelm, and frustration!

Discover how you can start enjoying your life TODAY! Look forward to talking with you!

Elizabeth has been featured in Inc magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and on NBC, and is happy to be interviewed for your broadcast or publication.

Gen Next: Do You Need a Schedule Makeover™?

Enjoy!

Elizabeth

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is a time coach & trainer who empowers individuals to build businesses and achieve work/life brilliance™ through Schedule Makeovers™. Her empowerment coaching frees individuals from guilt, overwhelm, and frustration!

Discover how you can start enjoying your life TODAY! Look forward to talking with you!

Elizabeth has been featured in Inc magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and on NBC, and is happy to be interviewed for your broadcast or publication.

I make the tough choices that I ask you to make.

I’m a time coach who aims to authentically live out my advice. That means I have to face the same challenges you do. Like this one…

I stayed focused over the past month so I could visit my cousins in Ohio, attend an Opportunity International conference on eliminating poverty, and spend time with my parents. Why do you need to stay focused?

I wrote this guest post for Chic Entrepreneur — a great resource (by another great Elizabeth ;o) for women looking to start a business.

Although having a flexible schedule can seem like a dream, it can soon turn into a nightmare! That’s why as a time coach and trainer, I help people take back control of their time and then channel it toward their personal and professional goals.

Here’s how to time block your schedule to stay focused and motivated:

• Decide on Start and Stop Times: Not only will setting your hours keep you from feeling guilty, but also it will keep you focused when you are working because you have established a time when you are free to stop.
• Set Your Top Goals: Each week, Review your top priorities and write them at the top of your weekly calendar or put them in a visible place on your digital calendar. This will keep you thinking about what’s most important.
• Time Block Your Projects: To keep moving forward on your goals each week, “soft schedule” blocks of time when you will complete projects or devote time to certain activities. For instance you could block out two hours on Wednesday to write up a proposal or set aside one hour each morning to answer e-mail.
• Plan Your Day: Each morning, make a quick list of your meetings and your top tasks. Number your activities in order of importance and write down how long you think it will take you to do each one. Then start moving through your day, moving from one project to the next in number order. If a project is taking longer than you expected, reevaluate whether you should continue with it or move on to the next task on your list.

Time blocking is so effective because it:

• Gives you a clear outline of what needs to get done and when you can complete it so that you feel less overwhelmed.
• Keeps you moving forward on key priorities on “autopilot” instead of procrastinating and stressing out about big projects at the last minute.
• Turns your days into quick sprints of work instead of never-ending marathons.
• Allows you to feel good about what you accomplished
• Helps you realize when you’ve overcommitted and need to scale back.
• Gets you back on track quickly when unexpected activities arise.

Elizabeth Grace Saunders does Schedule Makeover coaching with clients throughout the country. If you’re struggling to stay focused and motivated, contact Elizabeth at esaunders@RealLifeE.com to get help today!

Inc magazine, NBC, and The Chicago Tribune are just a few of the places where Elizabeth has appeared, and she’s happy to offer you tips on savvy scheduling and time management for work/life balance. You can sign up for more info at http://www.RealLifeE.com/coaching or http://www.ScheduleMakeover.com

Here are my time saving moving tips in video format. If you’d like to read the related blog post, check out Move Stress Free & $500 From Penske.

This post was inspired by the fact that I won $500 in a Penske Share Your Move sweepstakes with a story and photo of my journey from Des Moines, Iowa, to Ann Arbor, Michigan. To check out my story, and find out how Penske can help you save time and money, go to: Share Your Move

Have a brilliant day! Thank you Penske!

Elizabeth

P.S.–Also, you can find other fun photos of my moving adventure in this Facebook album: Click Here

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is a key note speaker, trainer, and does phone and e-mail coaching on time management for work/life brilliance™ through her exclusive Schedule Makeover™ process. Inc magazine, NBC, and The Chicago Tribune are just a few of the places where Elizabeth has appeared, and she’s happy to offer you tips on savvy scheduling and time management for work/life balance. You can find out more at http://www.RealLifeE.com/coaching or http://www.ScheduleMakeover.com

Find out how I won $500 by clicking on this photo

Over the last nine years, I’ve averaged 1.4 moves/year (i.e. almost as much time packing, moving, and unpacking as simply settling into a place). No matter how many times you move, it’s not easy.

Fortunately, I’ve discovered a few time coaching strategies to reduce moving stress:

Start a List

As soon as you decide you’re moving, a million little to-dos from talk to your banker to pack grandma’s vase in bubble wrap will start to float around in your head. This can lead to two not-so-helpful responses:

• Manic running around in an attempt to do way more than you can do in a night or weekend.
• Paralyzing despair that you can never get everything done so you might as well flip through channels or flit through Facebook for hours.

May I suggest this much more helpful alternative: Create a list in a word processing document, your phone, or PDA where you write down everything that comes to mind.

As you add to this list, categorize to-dos by date and/or by milestone. For instance, if you know you need to have your apartment cleaned out by September 20, you can put that task under that specific date on the list. But if you know you need to talk to your insurance agent after you’ve decided where you will live, you can categorize that action under the heading “Once I know where I am living.” To keep yourself on track, set aside specific times each week when you will review the list and move forward on what you can accomplish right now. Everything that you can’t do until a future designated time or milestone stays out of your mind and on the list.

Block Off Your Schedule

No matter how well organized you are, unexpected delays and activities will happen. To stay on the safe side, block off one to two weeks before and after your move to focus solely on packing and moving activities in your time outside of work. I know it sounds extreme, but it’s critical that you limit lunch dates, sporting games, TV time, networking events, and almost everything else that’s even somewhat optional from your schedule. Try to avoid planning personal and professional meetings during that time frame, and if necessary, put up out of office messages that tell people your response will be delayed.

It’s so much better to give yourself extra time and space before and after your move than to freak out on your friends when you’re no where near done and the moving van is pulling up or to spend months getting settled because you didn’t unpack using the initial post-moving momentum. (Trust me-this works!)

Recruit Help

You can move alone, but I don’t advise it. If you’re not having professional movers pack you up, ask friends & family to come over and help you pack or at the very least assist with lugging boxes. If you choose the former, make it into a movie and pizza night that happens to include boxes and packing tape in place of a tub of popcorn in their hands.

If you need help the day of the move, I recommend contacting a large number of people about a month in advance and then sending out reminders, two weeks, one week, and a day before. Offer free food and drink and express your undying devotion and appreciation for their service to you. (Believe me–you’ll be so happy you did!)

Also, if you’re planning on renting a truck, check out Penske! When I did my research, I found that they had much less expensive truck rentals than other companies (especially if you sign up to be a AAA member). Plus the staff helped me with all of the timing of picking up and dropping off my truck and car trailer in the most efficient manner.

I had such an amazing experience with Penske that I entered their sweepstakes with a story and photo of my journey from Des Moines, Iowa, to Ann Arbor, Michigan. And I won $500! To check out my story, and find out how Penske can help you have a stress-free move, go to: Share Your Move

Have a brilliant day! Thank you Penske!

Elizabeth

P.S.–Also, you can find other fun photos of my moving adventure in this Facebook album: Click Here

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is a key note speaker, trainer, and does phone and e-mail coaching on time management for work/life brilliance™ through her exclusive Schedule Makeover™ process. Inc magazine, NBC, and The Chicago Tribune are just a few of the places where Elizabeth has appeared, and she’s happy to offer you tips on savvy scheduling and time management for work/life balance. You can find out more at http://www.RealLifeE.com/coaching or http://www.ScheduleMakeover.com

Elizabeth Grace Saunders Time Coach

I focus on time management coaching but my clients naturally end up asking me about other topics related to their business and life. One question that recently came my way from a client who decided to pursue full-time entrepreneurship was: “How did you feel making the first steps into self employment? Were you nervous?”

I loved this question because it reminded me of the importance of authenticity in sharing about our experiences and supporting one another. Here was my response:

“So glad you shared your heart and I’m so happy to share mine back with you—

The answer is, Yes! I felt incredibly nervous when I quit my job without a clear idea of what was ahead. I remember feeling like there were two enormously strong forces inside of me: One was my heart telling me that I needed to do what God had called me to do. That following God and obeying what He was calling me to do was no risk at all because He is a good and perfect father. But on the other hand, my head was screaming at me that this was impractical and that I didn’t know what was to come and that I should just wait–that it wasn’t worth it.

But I followed through and left my job and was actually truly amazed at how supportive my personal and professional contacts were about the whole situation. Right after I started my business, I experienced fear again. Not because I didn’t have work at the moment but because I felt like the future was a black hole of uncertainty. But thankfully, the Lord has taught me to find my security in Him and to daily do His will.

I encourage you to stand firm, pray hard, and as you said, be careful with who you share your dream. You not only need practical advice but also lots of support and encouragement as you step out in faith and take flight.

Take care! I’m confident God has beautiful things in store for you!”

Elizabeth

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is a key note speaker, trainer, and does phone and e-mail coaching on time management for work/life brilliance™ through her exclusive Schedule Makeover™ process. Inc magazine, NBC, and The Chicago Tribune are just a few of the places where Elizabeth has appeared, and she’s happy to offer you tips on savvy scheduling and time management for work/life balance and sales success. You can find out more at http://www.RealLifeE.com/coaching or http://www.ScheduleMakeover.com