With so many online personal time management tools, just choosing one can be daunting and time consuming!

Fortunately, expert time coach Elizabeth Grace Saunders has done the work for you. Elizabeth’s helpful article on, Design*Sponge, breaks down online calendars, to do lists, social media management tools and syncing options to help you function optimally. Check out her easy-to-navigate comparisons now. Then choose the tool that works best for you!

Read Elizabeth’s article, “Biz Ladies: How to Organize your Life with Online Tools”

About Real Life E®

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is the founder and CEO of Real Life E® a time coaching and training company that empowers individuals who feel guilty, overwhelmed and frustrated to feel peaceful, confident and accomplished through an exclusive Schedule Makeover^TM process. Real Life E® also increases employee productivity, satisfaction and work/life balance through custom training programs.

Elizabeth has appeared in Inc magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and on NBC. She was selected as one of the Top 25 Amazing Women of 2010 by Stiletto Woman and as a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Council featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Mashable, and many other media outlets.

expert time coach Elizabeth Saunders never thought she would be an entrepreneur!

Now featured in TIME online, Elizabeth shares how her career journey has evolved. Best of all, Elizabeth divulges valuable tips and advice for budding entrepreneurs. Anything is possible…even if it’s not exactly what you had planned!

Read Elizabeth’s article, “Confessions of an Accidental Entrepreneur.”

About Real Life E®

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is the founder and CEO of Real Life E® a time coaching and training company that empowers individuals who feel guilty, overwhelmed and frustrated to feel peaceful, confident and accomplished through an exclusive Schedule Makeover^TM process. Real Life E® also increases employee productivity, satisfaction and work/life balance through custom training programs.

Elizabeth has appeared in Inc magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and on NBC. She was selected as one of the Top 25 Amazing Women of 2010 by Stiletto Woman and as a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Council featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Mashable, and many other media outlets.

I’ve had complete freedom over my schedule for more than half a decade.
During my first couple of years as a full-time entrepreneur, I didn’t set boundaries on when I worked and what I did when.

• Frustration when I just wanted to take an evening or weekend off but felt like I couldn’t.
• Guilt when I had any open time but wasn’t working.

Deciding to limit how much I worked and when I worked really changed everything. (I did experience withdrawal symptoms when I first started this process: Step away from the computer Elizabeth!) But I persevered in setting boundaries, and since then, I’ve been able to “let go of work” mentally and emotionally and enjoy free time without guilt.

One of my bedrock routines that gives me a sense of peace and control is daily planning and processing described in detail below. But first a few notes:

• Like with my Morning Routine, this is an example for you to gain insight from, not a template for everyone. Some of my coaching clients plan in the evening, others have fewer steps in their process, others use more tech tools–routines should be your personal servant not your master.
• This is my own variation based off of some of David Allen’s Getting Things Done philosophies. I found that I procrastinated when I only tried to do a big weekly review but can consistently do a daily review.
• Daily processing and planning does seem to take a lot of time, but it is the only way I’ve been able to keep on top of responsibilities with clients around the world and work 40 hours or less a week. It’s worth it.

See below for an inside look at how I start my work days…

Elizabeth’s Planning Routine

• Going through my morning processing and planning checklist is totally mindless. I don’t need to wonder what to do first when I start my day–it’s always the same. (This really helps when I’m unmotivated, tired or down.)
• My work is very dynamic and my priorities shift on a daily basis. I don’t feel comfortable making a final decision on my daily to-do’s until I’ve gone through all of my inboxes.
• I really don’t like answering e-mail or doing other mundane processing. Before I made clearing out my inboxes part of my morning routine, I always felt guilty and behind. Now I effortlessly keep on top of e-mail, voicemail, mail, etc.

When I start my day, especially if it’s a Monday, I don’t know what needs to be completed for the rest of the day. But I know that by the time I finish my routine, I’ll have found clarity and feel in control. I have many clients who are super techy (which is awesome), but I’m not. So my tools and methods are relatively simple.

On Mondays, I look over my Google calendar to make sure that there are no appointments from the prior week that I need to move or follow up on and that all of my current week’s appointments are in the calendar. Then I make a pdf of the current week’s calendar and print it out.

I know this may make some paper-free people shake their heads, but I find that having a custom printed out schedule of the week makes it much easier for me to visualize my schedule and priorities. So I do what works for me.

During my Monday weekly processing and planning, I also:

• Review my Personal Projects List
• Process all the mail from the past week that I collect in a lateral desk file.
• Confirm appointments and anticipate any scheduling problems.
• Schedule Facebook and Twitter updates on Hootsuite.com
• Review my Google Calendar To Do Lists: Professional Priorities, Professional Someday/Maybe, Personal Priorities, Personal Someday/Maybe
• Write out at the top of my printed out calendar my top personal and professional goals for the week.
• Sketch in on the calendar when I should have time to get my goals done.

• Review my printed calendar and if necessary, make alarm reminders for meetings. (I usually set them for 15 minutes before the start time.)
• Review my calendar Word doc where I keep supporting notes/links/thoughts for daily activities organized by day.
• Review my Professional Projects List organized by deadline.
• Answer all my business e-mail. (If something will take more than a few minutes for a response, I make answering the specific e-mail a to-do item to be completed later that day.)
• Answer the most important personal e-mail.
• Organize papers from the past day and look at my Tickler file.
• Listen to and respond to any voicemail or text.
• Check Hootsuite.com for any Twitter.com @replies or DM’s and respond.
• Comment on or share relevant time management posts.
• Make a final decision on my daily priorities and the order in which I will complete them.
• Ask myself: How can I bless my clients today? Then do anything that comes to mind.

• I don’t give myself a choice in whether I do these steps, but I have complete freedom in choosing what order I complete them. I bounce all around within these possibilities depending on what I feel like doing next.
• Not everyone needs this many steps–this is just what makes me feel in control and on top of life.
• All kinds of online and paper Calendars and To Do List systems can work. The important thing is that you stick with one consistently.
• This can take a long time: On a daily basis, I’m usually done by 10 a.m. at the earliest. On Mondays, it’s closer to 11:30 a.m.
• But… I have the whole afternoon free to execute without worrying about my priorities or what to do next.
• These routines are the magic cure for almost any type of ailment. I can start the day tired, listless, crying–whatever!–and by the time they’re done, my brain and heart are in gear and ready to take on the day.

One of my time coaching clients shared these thoughts with me, which I’m sharing with his permission, about why initially adopting these planning and processing habits is so hard:

“I’m getting more disciplined about time blocking (progress!).

But one of the things that good time blocking does is make you aware of how little discretionary time you actually have.  So, then I started thinking about “Where can I cut back on something I’m doing?”, and immediately I thought of exercise.  Most of my workout sessions (when you include travel, changing, showering, etc.) are 1.5-2 hours.  But then, almost instantly, I said to myself, “No, that’s not negotiable.  I’m not going to cut back on exercise, because it brings me so many benefits in terms of my energy level, my long-term health, and even the emotional value of the assertion of self-worth.”  Then it hit me — I’m struggling to “find the time” each day to purge my index cards, time block my day, and to do good weekly reviews.  But I’m not talking about hours a day:

I find the time for exercise. Why not time management?

I thought of a few reasons:

1.  At some level, I’m still not convinced that I’ll see the deep benefits.  Rationally, I believe there will be benefits. But since I haven’t experienced the higher state, I don’t have enough evidence to have a deep emotional connection with the benefits.

(Note from Elizabeth: I hope my deep emotional connection with the benefits encourages you in this area! They will come with experience.)

2.  I’ve worked at exercising for years, and seen the benefit of exercising, and the negative results of not exercising. I know how big the benefits are of exercising because of the contrast at various times.  I haven’t had the same history and experience.

3.  I know how to exercise, and I’ve done it enough that I’m good at it. It feels good, and I feel good about being good at it. I’ve got lots of things down to a routine, and set up to make it easy.  I own enough exercise clothes that I don’t have to worry about laundry.  I’ve had my workout routines designed by a fitness center trainer so I’m confident I’m doing things that will work.  I have my checklist for packing my exercise clothes, and it’s part of my daily routine.  I know what times of day I can usually fit it in, and part of looking over my daily landscape is figuring out when to fit it in.  I don’t really question whether or not I want to fit it in; it’s a “given”.

With time management, in many ways I’m still a novice, don’t feel like I’m really good at it, and just don’t have enough history and experience as to how to respond to the various challenges.

Therefore:

• I need to focus on simple things I can do, make them very concrete, and keep practicing until I get good.
• I need to be patient and gentle with myself, not set an extremely aggressive goal and then beat myself up when I don’t reach it.  It’s the equivalent of starting to exercise by walking around the block once, then twice, then working up to where you can do 20-30 minutes of intense aerobics.  It takes time, you need to be patient with yourself, and you have to have the belief that the benefits are there if you keep going, and holding on to that belief is one of the key challenges.
• Another thought from Drive was “Mastery is painful.”  To get really, really good at something, you have to have extremely disciplined practice over an extended period of time, like the NBA player who shoots 500 foul shots at the end of every practice.

Doesn’t he do an awesome job of describing the process of lasting behavioral change with time management?! I’m so happy for and proud of my clients when they share these ephiphenies with me.

I hope that seeing how someone whose mastered daily planning and processing gives you insight in how it could happen for you.

Your time coach,

Elizabeth

P.S.-If you need help in making this happen, reach out to me and we can set up a time to talk.

P.P.S.–Thanks so much for all of your fabulous feedback last week! Feel free to send me your thoughts on this week’s newsletter and to comment on last week’s morning routine posted on my blog.

This recent article published on Forbes.com by expert time coach, Elizabeth Saunders, gives valuable insights into how to make networking work for you.

Go to events you want actually want to attend, and build relationships with peers whom you’re really excited to get to know.

Check out Elizabeth’s advice, and learn how to make better connections in less time.

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is the founder and CEO of Real Life E®

a time coaching and training company that empowers individuals who feel guilty, overwhelmed and frustrated to feel peaceful, confident and accomplished through an exclusive Schedule Makeover^TM process. Real Life E® also increases employee productivity, satisfaction and work/life balance through custom training programs.

Elizabeth has appeared in Inc magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and on NBC. She was selected as one of the Top 25 Amazing Women of 2010 by Stiletto Woman and as a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Council featured in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, Mashable, and many other media outlets.

Working from home is a balancing act for the whole family and requires everyone’s respect and support. Sixteen year-old, Matt Simon, knows this from first-hand experience. Check out Matt’s illuminating article, and get a teen’s perspective about what it’s really like to have a parent working from home.

When Parents Work at Home: “My Name is Matt…and My Mom Works from Home”

Matt is a teen writer for Radical Parenting.com, a parenting website written from the kid’s perspective with 82 teen interns! He is a 16-year-old from New York City, NY. He loves to be social and spend time with his friends, as well as being an active leader in his community. However, school also plays an important role in his life and he is motivated to achieve his dreams. For more articles by teens please check out RadicalParenting.com.

My mom has officially worked from home for about three years now. Like everything my mom does, I see the positives and the negatives of this drastic change in her life. Because of this, I feel the need to discuss a few things with those teens who, like me, have a parent working at home.

Personally, I LOVE knowing when my mom is working and when she’s open to do whatever. Don’t get me wrong, I love my mom, however, she can be aggressive sometimes. Because of this fact, I need to know when I can talk to her and when I should stay clear of her office/my sister’s old room. Because my mom is the only source of income for my family (my dad hasn’t worked for over twenty years), I feel the need to let my mom do what she needs to do in order to keep the bacon flowing.

Since my mom started working at home and started her own law firm, the rest of the family developed their own respective “roles” during the my mom’s working time. I do my homework or go to work, my dad prepares dinner and/or does the laundry. My mom does her work. Simple. At 7:30 every night marks the end of my mom’s work time because that’s when we all sit down and have dinner together and share stories about the days we’ve had. I personally love it like this. However, I do understand the other side, where there is a more flexible time of work. In my opinion though, I feel as if the work will never truly be completed. I think we have a balance at my family, and it works out perfectly!

My mom usually stops her work after dinner, however there are those nights where she works all night. To be honest, this really does not bother me because on weekdays and Saturday nights, I am very independent from my parents. After dinner, I either finish my homework or go out and hang out with my friends. Therefore, if my mom were to work after dinner, it would not phase me. However, my time with my parents is Sunday nights. I would be DEVASTATED if my mom worked on Sunday nights. I wouldn’t cry or anything–I’m almost seventeen–but I would be disappointed. We always watch movies on Sunday nights, all together as a family. That includes my mom!

Now, for the main event: How does my mom working at home affect my stress level?

I have a valid answer, in my opinion. I really don’t feel more stressed or less stressed on a daily basis. That may just be because of my personality, or maybe because of my age. However, those days when my mom is stressed… I get stressed! She comes out of her office sometimes, completely frazzled– and I NEVER use that word! She either has just dealt with a nasty client, or hates the case she’s working on, or anything. Whenever she’s in her “mood,” we ALL feel it.

I actually see a correlation between my test grades and my mom’s stress level. When she’s stressed, I’m stressed and I don’t reach my full potential at school. Other than that though, I like knowing that my mom is home most of the time. I feel comfortable knowing that if there is ever a problem, I can always tell my mom, even if it is before dinner.

My name is Matt, and my mom works from home. There are some positives and negatives. In my opinion though, I prefer my mom working out of the house, just because then I can cherish her time at home more. However, either way, I enjoy knowing the fact that my mom is still doing what she loves to do, no matter of the location.

For those teens out there: I’d love to hear your take on this!

For those parents out there: I’d love to hear your take too!

This is definitely something that affects everyone in the family as a whole.

About Real Life E®

Set Expectations so You Can Take a Real Vacation

When you and your customers don’t see eye-to-eye on the timing of communications, deadlines and billing—stress happens!

To help you prevent frustration and feel more in control, here’s expert advice from Elizabeth Grace Saunders, CEO of Real Life E®, a company that provides time coaching and training services that help business owners feel peaceful and accomplished, about how to set expectations with customers.

So, why is setting time expectations so important?

The challenge for business owners is that if you don’t set expectations, your customers will. That means you may go for months–or even years–feeling like you’re constantly being thrown for a loop by everyone else’s whims. Most customers don’t know what’s reasonable in your business so for everyone to be happy, you need to let them know what to expect.

What’s one of the biggest problem areas?

Communication is by far one of the biggest issues. If business owners don’t set clear boundaries on when they will and won’t be available to answer customers’ questions, they never feel like they have a break.

What do you suggest to set time expectations about e-mail, voicemail, etc.?

Set limits on when you and your staff will be accessible, and as much as possible, stick with them. Also try not to set the expectation that you will answer communication immediately. If you consistently answer e-mail and voicemail in about 24 hours, customers won’t be upset if they don’t hear from you right away. (For more info on this topic, check out my blog post on How to Set E-mail Expectations.)

What about when you don’t hear back from customers?

When customers don’t communicate a decision until right before a deadline, it can wreak havoc on your workflow. You can use this type of approach to set standards for communication with your customers:

Dear customer:

I’ve attached the proposal for the work we discussed. In order to meet your deadline of Friday, December 17, I’ll need to hear back from you by Friday, December 10. If I receive a decision from you after the 10^th, we’ll need to move back the deadline.

We look forward to serving you well.

All the best,

Business Owner

Are there any other ways business owners can eliminate deadline stress?

If you don’t make promises to deliver products or services “by tomorrow” or “by next week,” you can reduce stress by increasing your timeline. Also, business owners shouldn’t make commitments to a deadline until they have a clear sense of when they can complete the work. Just because a customer wants something as soon as possible, doesn’t mean that you should stay up until 2 a.m. trying to finish everything for them.

What about billing?

Try to get some or all of the payment before delivering the work. This reduces stress on both sides and makes it completely clear when payment is due. If that’s not possible, bill promptly and ask for payment due upon receipt. Then take note of when to follow up—depending on your industry either two weeks or four weeks later. Staying on top of billing and following up quickly tends to reduce stress and confusion caused by an invoice months past due.

Any other final time tips?

If there’s any part of your business that’s causing you time stress, ask yourself the question, “Should I be setting my expectations differently for myself or others?” Most of the time the answer is, “Yes!”

Thanks so much Elizabeth for this great advice! And if you would like to receive more great time tips from Real Life E®, go to http://www.ScheduleMakeover.com

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is the founder and CEO of Real Life E® a time coaching and training company that empowers individuals who are overwhelmed and frustrated to feel peaceful, confident and accomplished through an exclusive Schedule Makeover^TM process. Real Life E® also increases employee productivity, satisfaction and work/life balance through custom training programs.

Elizabeth has appeared in Inc magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and on NBC. She was selected as one of the Top 25 Amazing Women of 2010 by Stiletto Woman and as a member of the Young Entrepreneurs Council that includes HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes and Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich fame.

Wow! It’s an honor and a privilege to have been selected as one of the Top 25 Amazing Women of the Year by Stiletto Woman Magazine.

“Through Stiletto Woman hopefully women can see that anything is possible—that life has a way of twisting things upside down, but we have the opportunity to adjust, and make it work to our benefit,” says Karlena L. Wallace, founder & CEO of Stiletto Woman.

For 25 Inspiring Stories of Amazing Women, check out: Stiletto Woman Magazine Summer 2010.

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.

Here’s what students had a chance to say about my speech, “The Best is Yet to Come!” on how to turn every difficulty into an opportunity to succeed:

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

She also does women in business keynote speeches about how to have confidence, present yourself professionally, and work effectively with men and women in the business world.

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

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