The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment: How to Achieve More Success With Less Stress - Hardcover

Saunders, Elizabeth Grace

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0071808817 ISBN 13: 9780071808811

Verlag: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

Time management skills that work! Reboot your entire life in three simple steps

Quick Reference Guide included with over 30 online tools and 40 done-for-you routines

Is it possible to keep up on life, let alone enjoy it, when you’re overloaded and overwhelmed--with work, with errands, with emails and texts, and with relationship responsibilities? You get things done, but do you get them done well? Do you have enough time for other people--and for yourself?

The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment takes you beyond simple time management to provide you with the skills and outlook you need to completely revamp the quality of your life. You'll learn how to reorient your mindset and use simple routines to accomplish more than you ever dreamed possible.

Packed with tips and advice about how to overcome crippling emotions like guilt, let go of the compulsion to be perfect, and overcome the most common obstacles to a life well managed, this powerful, holistic, total-life guide is founded on three powerful principles:

Secret #1: Clarify Action-Based Priorities
Determine what's most important to you and define exactly what you will do to invest in those priorities

Secret #2: Set Realistic Expectations
Shift expectations of yourself and others from the realm of the ideal to the realm of the possible

Secret #3: Strengthen Simple Routines
Develop healthy habits so the flow of your life moves effortlessly toward your highest goals

A renowned authority in her field, Elizabeth Grace Saunders illustrates exactly how her methods work through case studies of time-coaching clients, and she provides a quick-reference guide of real-life example routines on everything from exercising regularly to moving forward on a dreaded project.

The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment does more than help you make the best of the time you have. It gives you the tools, insight, and guidance you need to overhaul your entire life.

Praise for The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment:

"You don't just need to manage your time, you need to invest it. This book offers key insights on what it means to live life well by getting things done and enjoying the ride." -- Marshall Goldsmith, New York Times bestselling author of MOJO and What Got You Here Won't Get You There

"If you lack grit--which most of us do--read this book. Elizabeth's practical insights on how to strengthen good time investment habits can help you develop the focus, discipline, and tenacity you need to achieve success." -- Heidi Grant Halvorson, PhD, author of Succeed and Nine Things Successful People Do Differently

"I love the main thesis of this book--that time management is less about managing your time and more about managing your emotions. That alone is a good reason to read this book." -- Peter Bregman, CEO of Bregman Partners, Inc., and author of 18 Minutes

"From the very phrase 'time investment,' you know this book is something special. Direct and powerful and easy to implement, Elizabeth has a key ingredient to your success right here." -- Chris Brogan, CEO of Human Business Works and New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Impact Equation

“If you are going to go from ordinary to extraordinary success, you need to invest your time in your top priorities. Elizabeth teaches you how to do just that.” --Scott Gerber, founder of the Young Entrepreneur Council

“This book can help you move past your blocks, invest your time wisely, and ultimately transform your life in the process.” --Jenny Blake, author of Life After College: The Complete Guide to Getting What You Want

“This book is magical.” --Ash Kumra, cofounder of DreamItAlive.com; author of Confessions from an Entrepreneur series; and public speaker

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is the founder and CEO of Real Life E, a time-coaching and training company that empowers overwhelmed individuals to feel peaceful, confident, and accomplished through an exclusive Schedule Makeover coaching process and training programs. Stiletto Woman named Saunders one of the "Top 25 Amazing Women of the Year" and The Stevie Awards for Women in Business selected her as a finalist in the "Best Young Entrepreneur" category.

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THE 3 SECRETS TO EFFECTIVE TIME INVESTMENT

How to Achieve More Success with Less StressBy ELIZABETH GRACE SAUNDERS

McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2013 Elizabeth Grace Saunders
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-07-180881-1

Contents

Chapter One

EFFECTIVE TIME INVESTMENT

Achieve More Success with Less Stress

It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.

—DALE CARNEGIE

The Seductress

It all began innocently enough at the end of a hectic day.

In an attempt to loosen some of the tension in your shoulders, rest your eyes, and regain the ability to focus, you had leaned back in your chair, putting your torso at an obtuse angle with your work surface and allowing your feet to splay out a bit in front of you.

You squeezed your eyes shut and then stretched them wide open a few times. Blink. Blink. Blink. You rolled around your neck. Crickle. Crack. And you extended your fingers out and then clenched them into tight fists. Out. In. As if this action could get your internal pistons firing enough to squeeze the last bit of productivity out of a day that had already left you dry—or, more accurately, parched.

But then you somewhat abruptly sat up, your body at attention and alert. Someone ... or something ... had delicately brushed a fingertip along your shoulder.

"Crazy!" you thought. "I'm the only one here. But yet I'm sure I felt something."

Cautiously, you swiveled your head like a submarine periscope looking for danger.

You don't see anyone, but you do hear a whisper in your ear. "You know," she begins in a low, poignant tone, "if you stay late tonight, we could get soooooooooo much done."

"But that's ridiculous!" you retort. "I've already done too much today. I need to get my mind off work and take a break for a while."

"But what about tomorrow?" she continues undeterred. "You'll have so much to do if you leave. If you stay with me now—where we're alone and it's quiet—you'll feel so good in the morning. You'll do what needs to be done. You'll be in control, in charge, and just about everyone will think you're amazing."

"Really?" you ask, a bit incredulously but starting to warm up to the idea.

"Really," she echoes back to you with a slight edge of triumph in her voice.

Your brow furrows as you ponder whether you should accept this advance from the initially unwelcome but increasingly attractive stranger. On the one hand, you feel exhausted, and you just want to exhale and truly kick back. On the other hand, though, you think that maybe she has a point, and you begin to doubt your initial intentions. Maybe I'm just lazy. Maybe staying later would really help me to dig out from this never-ending backlog. Maybe it will only be for one night.

So you stay that evening and do get a bit more done than usual.

But it soon becomes clear that your visitor desires more than a one-night stand; she wants you one night, then two, and then three.

What initially began as a reluctant decision on your part becomes an obsessive passion. You know you can't sustain the pace. You know that you risk losing all you hold dear—your relationships, your interests, your health, yourself.

Yet you no longer know how to resist the siren song of the Seductress of Overwork.

The Couch Potato

He came in completely uninvited.

No doorbell ring. No knock. No nothing.

He just meandered in as if he owned the place, plopped down on the couch, and started to blankly flip through TV channels.

"How absolutely bizarre," you thought to yourself as you happened to catch the back of his head, complete with a shock of unkempt hair, on your way to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. "I didn't expect a visitor."

But he seemed harmless, and you thought maybe someone else gave him permission to pass a bit of time in the living room, so you shook your head and then went back to your computer.

A few days passed without disturbance. Then he came back.

Longer this time—and the next and the next.

Soon it seemed as if this strange man, who had an unquenchable thirst for endless streams of TV programming and a voracious appetite for all things sweet, salty, and generally within the category of nonnutritious (the escalating grocery bills astounded you!), had taken up permanent residence in your home.

He never said a word or even really made eye contact with you.

But his presence shifted the energy of the house: gradually ... subtly ... a sense of general malaise descended like a dense, dank fog over an environment that once quivered with vibrant, focused productivity.

You no longer sprang out of bed in the morning, but instead you hit "Snooze" until your alarm got tired. Then—eventually—you rolled off the edge of your bed in an attempt to plunge yourself into the cold reality of the day.

But somehow even once you got vertical, everything seemed difficult. He was always there, and his nonverbal communication said it all: Why are you working so hard? Will it really come to anything? Why not just sit down next to me for a second ... or two? It's so much easier not to do anything. Why don't you just treat yourself? Give yourself a break. Kick back and relax a little. You can always do that work tomorrow ... or the next day. Just one more show. Do you want another drink? How about a donut? I've only eaten half the box....

Before you knew it, the entire day slipped away like a glistening rivulet of water circling and then slipping down a drain.

What did you have to show for it? Nothing.

"Errrrrrrr.... This is so frustrating," you think to yourself, letting out a grunt of angry disgust. "I need to do more. I must do better next time. I will set my alarm earlier. I will get up and do everything all at once."

But once the Couch Potato of Ambivalence took up residence, the strong opposing forces of desiring to achieve high productivity and wanting to simply relax and do nothing resulted in a listless, emotionless, seemingly insurmountable state of dullness.

Your Choice

Do either of these scenarios sound familiar? Or maybe both, depending on the situation? (Just for the record: The Seductress can show up at home, and the Couch Potato has been known to become a squatter in the most formal of offices.) If so, I can reassure you that you're not alone. As the founder and CEO of Real Life E Time Coaching & Training, I've built a business around helping people in these situations take back control of their time and their life.

It's often not your fault that you find yourself trapped in a vicious cycle. Usually the onset happens so slowly and subtly that you don't realize what's happened until you have a seemingly unchangeable compulsion to act in a certain way.

Given the right environment, almost everyone has the potential to succumb to the Seductress of Overwork or the Couch Potato of Ambivalence. You shouldn't feel guilty or ashamed of being tempted, or even for times when you haven't made the best time investment choices. You can't change the past. But you can learn from it and ...

This is huge, so really focus in here: You have a choice to be different starting now.

You can take the principles in this book and apply them to your life in a way that works best for you. Or you can give up and go back to the status quo.

Which path will you choose?

If you...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: McGraw-Hill Professional
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0071808817
• ISBN 13: 9780071808811
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 255
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar