E Tips

Simple Work/Life balance is sooo yesterday.

Right now we’re dealing with Job-Business/Life balance or Business 1-Business 2-Business 3/Life balance.

Last week, I lead a time management strategies conference call with these fabulous entrepreneurs: Lauren Berger, Jason Duff, Doug Fath, Morgan First, and Michael Simmons. Each one of us has at least one, if not five, businesses and an abundance of friends and interests and passions.

As a young female entrepreneur who has run a writing business for 3 1/2 years and started a time management coaching company in 2007, I understand the challenges of balancing multiple items on the “work” side of the equation.

Here are some of my tricks for making time choices and using time strategies so you can succeed at building businesses and still have a life:

• Identify Income Sources: Have a clear picture of what activity generates income and make sure that is a large part of how you spend your time. Also look for ways to generate passive income streams and/or increase your hourly rate.
• Focus Business Development: Think carefully about what activities actually lead to income: is it networking at a young professionals event or at industry conferences, is it making cold calls or writing blog posts? If you’re pressed for time, only do the ones that bring results and limit your time doing these activities.
• Say No (nicely): If someone asks you to do something that 1) Doesn’t generate income, 2) Doesn’t develop your business, and/or 3) Doesn’t interest you, tell them: “I really appreciate the offer, but right now I’m afraid it won’t fit in my schedule.”
• Organize Your Responsibilities: The key to avoiding overcommitment is to have absolute clarity on your commitments and how you will keep them. This means having a calendar, a list of projects ordered by deadline, and written business development goals. It’s good to have quarterly, monthly, and weekly reviews, but I find nothing trumps reviewing these documents each morning. This allows me to set and adapt my daily priorities in light of the current situation. (If the CEO and Chairwoman of Xerox can find time to plan in the morning, you can too!)

I am PASSIONATE about empowering entrepreneurs to build businesses without burning out and am REALLY excited about unveiling a home study course on this topic this summer (All of the secrets of my coaching process in an easy-to-use guide!)

To brilliantly balanced lives!
Elizabeth

P.S.–If you’re a student, check out Lauren Berger’s fabulous blog post on How to Manage an Internship and a Job.

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is a time strategies expert. Her time management coaching empowers entrepreneurs to build businesses without burning out. Elizabeth has been featured in Inc magazine, The Chicago Tribune, and on NBC.