Real Simple commissioned a national survey about women and time. Because, just in case you didn’t know, most of us feel like we don’t have enough of it. Ever.

The study “Women & Time: Setting a New Agenda,” designed by Families and Work Institute surveyed about 3,200 American women between the ages of 25-54 in October and November of 2011.

It revealed that much of the time pressure that women feel is actually self-imposed.

The top culprits: poor delegating and not letting go of control.

To help contextualize the study, Real Simple held a breakfast this week at the Time & Life Building in New York City that featured a panel of super accomplished, super busy women (pictured above from L to R):

TIME senior editor Ruth Davis Konigsberg
ABC News correspondent Claire Shipman
Yale Law professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother Amy Chua
founder & CCO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics Bobbi Brown

The panel was moderated by Real Simple managing editor Kristin van Ogtrop (pictured far right). “There is a startling connection between scheduling free time and happiness – and an equally startling connection between the ability to delegate and happiness,” said van Ogtrop. “We hope these findings will spark a national dialogue to help women everywhere reclaim their free time and use it in a way that will ultimately make their lives better.”

For Brown, finding more time required an attitude adjustment where she enjoyed the little things. She recommended that everyone rent the movie Click (yes the one with Adam Sandler) to help put the whole time thing into perspective.

Chua said that declaring that she was bad at a lot of things has been very liberating. She outsources the things that she isn’t good at as well as those things she doesn’t enjoy, like grocery shopping.

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Real Simple has found its Publisher after a search that spanned four months. It’s Sally Preston, who left her position as group publisher of Martha Stewart Living Optimedia (MSLO) in November.  Preston was with MSLO since 2005, and did so well there that last year The Delaney Report named her the “Publishing Executive of The Year.”

Evelyn Webster, Executive Vice President of Time Inc.’s Lifestyle Group, said Preston’s experience made her a perfect fit.

“A media industry veteran and a dynamic leader, Sally is the ideal executive to continue to buildon the success of the Real Simple brand across all platforms,” explained Webster. “Working closely with Managing Editor Kristin van Ogtrop, Sally will capitalize on Real Simple’s achievements and will help lead the brand to even greater growth in the years ahead.”

RealSimple.com, the online home base for Real Simple magazine, has created a new managing editor position to lead its digital team, and brought on an experienced Web editor to fill the role.

Jennifer Mirsky is joining the lifestyle site from Meredith Interactive, where she served as editor-in-chief of women’s lifestyle, overseeing content for LadiesHomeJournal.com, More.com and FitnessMagazine.com. Through her career, which has spanned more than two decades, Mirsky has also worked as vice president of editorial programming for NBC Universal‘s iVillage.com and vice president of the Hearst Magazine group for iVillage.

In her newly created position, Mirsky will be reporting to Real Simple managing editor Kristin van Ogtrop, who said, “Jennifer inherits an exceedingly strong realsimple.com team and a Web site that is growing robustly by the month. Her industry knowledge and expertise make Jennifer the ideal leader for taking realsimple.com to a whole new level.”

Full release after the jump.

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Real Simple will be debuting a new look with its November issue, on newsstands next week.

The new issue will feature 14 new columns, including “Trends Worth Trying” and the fitness column “15 Minutes And You’re Done.”

“Over the past ten years, our 8.8 million readers’ lives have evolved dramatically, and Real Simple is evolving with them,” said the magazine’s Managing Editor Kristin van Ogtrop. “When Real Simple launched a decade ago, a woman’s life didn’t include Blackberries, iPhones or blogs. With readership up significantly, and research confirming that rapid change and unlimited choice are complicating women’s lives more than ever, our mission has become even more relevant.”

The revamp sounds similar to one announced by Southern Living last month. Real Simple made sure to add that its ad pages are up 10 percent in the November issue from last year, while Southern Living saw pages increase by 12 percent. Looks like an update is good for business. But will readers follow?

Full release after the jump

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