Extrait

From the Introduction
ARE YOU TOO BUSY TO READ THIS BOOK?
Do you feel you’re too busy to read this book? If so, the irony is not lost on me. Although if that’s true, may I suggest you need this book more than ever? I acknowledge your time is stretched thin right now, but please indulge me and let me review some simple math to illustrate how reading this book will pay off.
The average adult reads about three hundred words a minute. I know you’re anything but average, but let’s play this out. This book is approximately eighty thousand words, which means it will likely take you a little more than four hours to read it from cover to cover. This equals approximately 17 percent of one day. Yet the strategies outlined here can help you reclaim this amount of time, or more, each day for the rest of your career. You can’t save time, as we’ll discuss later, but you can redirect your time and achieve a bigger payoff.
Your career is an endurance event, a marathon. While you may feel like you are always sprinting, you want to consider the long game; you want to set yourself up so that you can excel over the course of a long journey. Ultramarathoners plan to stop in rest stations, despite competing in events where every minute counts. Similarly, race-car drivers pause for pit stops in the middle of lightning-fast races so they can refuel and re-tire. Expert chefs take the time to sharpen their tools before a big culinary event. Professionals in every industry invest in their continuing education throughout their career. As all of these examples show, elite performers value the power of continuing to invest in themselves.
Think of this book as your re-tooling. You are about to discover strategies that will help you spend more time on what you love — in every aspect of your life. These tools will help you feel less stretched, more accomplished, and even happier. This book will help you become a Workday Warrior.
WHAT IS A WORKDAY WARRIOR?
What exactly is a Workday Warrior? The term likely conjures up an image of someone involved in an intense battle to get through yet another gruelling day. You can probably relate to this. You may feel like it takes all your blood, sweat, and tears to survive the barrage of work that’s regularly fired at you.
But I see things differently. True warriors excel in challenging careers in a manner that could be considered almost superhuman. At the same time, they balance rich and dynamic personal lives. Yes, they work hard. But they also leverage tools and strategies to make results come easier. Indeed, they seem to be relaxed and even enjoying the thrill of meeting the challenges they face. Watching them in action is captivating.
Workday Warriors have the same demands placed on them as everyone else. Yet they manage them with much more finesse. They run their days instead of letting their days run them. They work smarter, not harder. This doesn’t mean they skimp on quality. On the contrary, they are the ones scaling the biggest hurdles and making the most impressive impact. They are the ones getting promoted and enjoying the financial rewards and personal satisfaction.
Workday Warriors aren’t fictional characters. They are walking among us, in our midst. You likely work with a handful of Workday Warriors. I do, and many of those I met earlier in my career served as my inspiration to become a Workday Warrior myself.
The ways of a Workday Warrior don’t need to be kept secret, known only to an elite few. Rather, they are extremely learnable and well within your reach. You can be a Workday Warrior too. You, too, can adopt their winning strategies and radically transform your work and your life for the better. This book will show you how.
IS IT REALLY POSSIBLE TO MAKE WORK EASIER?
Many people (and this may include you) have searched for a streamlined approach to how they work, which isn’t necessarily easy to find. But I assure you, an easier way does exist. We can level up. We can win the battle against time. We can overcome overwhelm and all the stress associated with too much work. We can change how we work and get more done without working more. In fact, we can often work less.
But no one can simply cross their fingers and hope they’ll stumble upon a way to better manage their time. Believe me, I’ve tried. Early in my career, I found myself running faster and faster on the proverbial hamster wheel. I kept throwing time at my growing list. In turn, I regularly neglected sleep, exercise, friends, and more. But doing so only provided short-term fixes. I was still struggling with the underlying problem: my work habits hadn’t scaled with my career. Despite my efforts, I couldn’t find enough time. Little did I know I could use a better, and easier, approach.
IS IT REALLY POSSIBLE TO MAKE TIME?
I often hear people say they have to find time for this, or make time for that. I’ve said the same thing many times over. It really is an enticing concept. But is it really possible to make time? Or to find time?
The simple answer is no. It’s not possible to make or alter time. As of when this book went to press, time machines still didn’t exist. We can’t create, save, or borrow time. We have the
same twenty-four hours a day that everyone else has. More specifically, we all have a finite 1,440 minutes a day and 168 hours a week, or, roughly, four thousand weeks in the life of the average person living today, as highlighted by Oliver Burkeman, bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks.
So, we can’t find time. We also can’t make time. But we can protect time. And once we do, our calendar opens up in ways you may never have imagined. I’m excited to show you how to make this happen.
But before we get there, we need to address the top three underlying barriers that sabotage our time.
Top three time barriers
After almost two decades working with busy people, I’ve discovered that they share three common time challenges. I’d like to share these now and ask you if you can relate to them.
• Time-limiting barrier #1: Too many priorities: When we try to do too much at once, we spread ourselves thin, which often leads to longer work hours and marginal results.
• Time-limiting barrier #2: Too much flexibility: When we don’t protect time and establish necessary boundaries, we are forced to adopt a reactive mode — we always feel pulled and always feel “on.”
• Time-limiting barrier #3: Too much complication: It doesn’t matter how productive we are, many days can still feel too complicated, leaving us with no breathing space for the inevitable unknowns that land on our desk and set us even further behind. If we want to continue growing, we need to find opportunities to simplify.
Overcoming these barriers doesn’t require more willpower, more discipline, more stamina, or new magical powers that allow us to fabricate more time. Nor do we need to push harder and make more sacrifices. The ironic truth is that at a certain point working harder and longer rarely leads to better long-term results. Short-term sprints can help us meet a pressing deadline. But if we’re always racing, burnout ensues and our pace inevitably slows. The quality of our work drops, we struggle to meet deadlines, and we feel frustrated.
You may have been searching for more time for years. Or perhaps you know you could be making better use of your time. Or maybe you’re tired of constantly pushing yourself well past your limits. If you are busy — too busy — you are due for a fresh, practical approach to overcome modern-day time scarcity. It’s time for you to become a Workday Warrior.

Table des matières

Contents
Introduction ix
Part 1: Clarify xix
1 Time Barrier #1: Too Many Priorities 1
2 The Power of Three 14
3 How to Deal with Your Other Work 37
4 Your Most Essential Productivity Tool 46
5 How to Build Your Master Action Plan 59
6 How to Plan Your Day 77
Part 2: Fortify 85
7 Time Barrier #2: Too Much Flexibility 87
8 Introducing Your Proactive Routine 95
9 Habits Drive Results 108
10 Energy Oscillates 122
11 Focus Beats Multitasking 141
12 Define Your Time Budget 153
13 Build Your Proactive Routine 174
14 Implement Your Proactive Routine 194
Part 3: Simplify 205
15 Time Barrier #3: Too Much Complication 207
16 The Simplify Filter: Scale Back 218
17 The Simplify Filter: Streamline 233
18 The Simplify Filter: Seek Help 252
Action Plan: Be a Workday Warrior 263
Acknowledgements 271
Endnotes 275

La description

Reclaim control of your workday with a proven time-saving method.
Life is busier than ever before. We are working longer hours to keep up with longer to-do lists. Yet we’re experiencing more stress and seem to fall further and further behind. Our so-called leisure time is punctuated with interruptions, constantly pulling us back to work. We are led to believe we can prioritize our way out of this, but prioritization is broken.
In Workday Warrior, productivity expert Ann Gomez presents a fresh approach that smashes today’s time challenges: too many priorities, too many interruptions, and too much complexity. We don’t need more willpower, discipline, or hours in our day. Instead, we need a straightforward approach to help us reclaim our time and upgrade our work habits. We need to concentrate our priori ties, protect our time, and simplify our work to amplify our results.
This book will help you become a Workday Warrior. Find more time in your day, play at a higher level, and feel more in control of your time. Your work (and life!) will never be the same.

Reviews

Ann Gomez is a true expert in time management. The three simple tools she shares in Workday Warrior makes it easy for anyone to successfully manage their time. You will be surprised at how much time you will save each week if you follow the strategies in Ann’s book. Ann taught me these valuable skills when I first started my business. Twelve years later, I am still using these principles to simplify my life.

- LAURA BERG, Professor, Author, and President of My Smart Hands Inc.

Ann has written an engaging and compelling book about our most valuable resource: our time. I’ve always considered myself to be productive, and yet I still learned several strategies that would have saved me countless hours over the years. This book is a must-read for anyone who feels stretched too thin.

- BRUCE BOWSER, chair, AMJ Campbell

I was so busy, yet at a standstill in my business until I read Workday Warrior. These tools solved my dilemma and have allowed me to take my business to the next level!

- ALYSON SCHAFER, parenting expert, TV personality, and author

Ann Gomez provides the core strategies that professionals need to align their efforts and optimize their performance. This book is a wonderful companion, guide, and cheerleader for anyone who wants to level up their productivity, efficacy, and confidence.

- MARISA MURRAY, author, TEDx speaker, and chief executive coach at Leaderley International Inc.

This extremely practical and compelling book is written by a true expert on productivity, setting (and sticking to) priorities, and time management. Ann’s approach is simple, solution-oriented, and very achievable. Her tried and tested approach is backed by data and examples we can all relate to. Keep it close at hand for continual reference. We can all become Workday Warriors!

- VAL SORBIE, partner and managing director, Gibraltar & Company

In an era where the way we approach and think about work is going through drastic changes, this book provides a practical guide for successfully navigating your relationship with work and life.

- BILL BECKER, associate professor, Virginia Tech

Ann has a special talent for motivating and inspiring others. In a culture where being busy is tied to our identity, this book helps us to step back and become more productive.

- MART Y BRIT TON, president and CEO, Britton Management Profiles Inc.

The advice in this book can be applied to both in-office and at-home work…Gomez offers easy tips and tricks to streamline one’s day.

- Anne Logan, I've Read This blog and CBC Radio host

Workday Warrior is as impactful as it is because of Ann. The experiences that she shares, the jokes she writes, the stories she recalls of her clients and the research cited by her — everything is purposeful.

- Armed with A Book blog

Ann Gomez brings a wealth of expertise and years of experience to her new book. It’s an excellent guide to improving personal productivity. Ann includes relevant examples from her training business, improving the lives of clients. And she relates her own personal stories while providing a concise model for making improvements every day. Definitely worth a read if you are hoping to improve your results by becoming a Workday Warrior.

- Mark Ellwood, Productivity Consultant

Ann Gomez understands that if you need to get something done you give it to a busy person. This book is a must-read for anyone who has too much to do and not enough time, as it gives you the strategies and tools to become much more productive, even when you consider yourself already productive.

- MART Y PARKER, president and CEO, Waterstone Human Capital

With Workday Warrior, Ann Gomez has created and walks us through a clear and simple approach we all can use to help us achieve our goals — professional and personal — that will empower even the most successful individuals and teams to use their time more effectively to accomplish more of what counts. I highly recommend this book.

- STEVEN BUSHONG, CEO, Bushong Media LLC, and retired senior vice president, The Walt Disney Company

Time is a great equalizer. We are all given the same twenty-four hours a day. It’s what we do with them that matters most. In Workday Warrior, Ann Gomez lays out easy-to-action steps to truly seize each day.

- STEPHEN “SHED” SHEDLETZKY, speaker and author of Speak Up Culture

If you have a zillion things to do and you’re feeling frustrated with lack of control of your time, this book will help you. While you can’t find time or make time, you can protect time. The secret is to narrow your priorities, reduce your flexibility (counterintuitive, I know!), and limit your complications. Let Ann Gomez help you become a Workday Warrior.

- DAPHNE GRAY-GRANT, Publication Coach

If you’re a productivity novice or an expert, check out this book — you’ll find something to streamline your life. The three simple tools approach feels very achievable, and the included action plan is essential.

- PAULA RIZZO, media consultant, author, speaker