Ann Gomez

Welcome, friend! I am thrilled to share an interview with Ann Gomez, author of Workday Warrior: A Proven Path to Reclaiming Your Time, a non-fiction book I adore. What had felt like a book to transform work gave me so many insights about personal life too and I was very happy to get a chance to connect with Ann and chat about routines, lists, writing and much more.

---

Welcome to Armed with A Book, Ann. Please tell me and my reader about yourself.

I help people do their best work at all stages of their career. Before I launched my training company in 2004, I was an overworked and overwhelmed management consultant who sometimes had an unrealistic relationship with time. I have always been a dreamer, and though I loved my work and would strive to take on more and more, I soon realized I was beginning to sacrifice parts of my life that mattered most, including family and friends. I hit what I call a “time ceiling” and I became determined to find a better way to work – and live. This compelled me to start studying time management and eventually write this book, Workday Warrior.

Your latest book, Workday Warrior: I love the cover, the superhero cape in the shadows as well as the name! The symbolism, the colors, everything works so well! Tell me more about the title and cover! 

Why thank you Kriti! I love hearing that and I love the cover too. It conveys exactly what I want people to get out of this book: we all have a superhero inside of us. But sometimes work can feel harder than it needs to be. This book outlines a simple framework to help busy people reclaim their time. Success at work doesn’t need to be a hard-fought battle, requiring us to make multiple personal sacrifices. For even the most demanding careers, we can bring more ease, flow and excellence into our work – just like true warriors!

How did you get into mentorship and consulting?

In 2004, I launched my company, Clear Concept Inc., with the vision of giving people practical tools to do their best work. Today, our company has grown into a thriving training organization, focused on productivity, collaboration, mindset, and wellbeing. 

Our workshops, coaching and online training offer practical solutions to help busy, high performers achieve their best, both personally and professionally. We all deserve to see our efforts pay off with the results we work so hard to achieve. At the same time, I believe we all deserve to honour our personal priorities, including family, friends, and our own wellbeing. 

Clarity, Fortify and Simplify work amazingly together, supporting one another. When did you start to see these patterns emerging? What was building your first MAP and Proactive Routine like?

This book was 20 years in the making, while I’ve been working with many of the world’s busiest people. I’ve been studying, teaching, and experimenting with the best of the best when it comes to time management. I’ve been helping clients build their own MAPs (Main Action Plan) and Proactive Routines for years. I truly love helping people create their own unique tools that build on core productivity principles. 

Over time, I’ve been able to distil productivity down to three work habits: clarify what’s most important (because we can’t do it all – believe me, I’ve tried); fortify your boundaries to protect time for what’s most important; and apply the Simplify Filter to scale back, streamline, and seek help.

How often do you revisit your Proactive Routine? How important is updating it?

Building and keeping a Proactive Routine is one of the secrets of the world’s most successful people. It’s about protecting time for what you deem to be most important. Routines also help reduce overwhelm by helping us define what needs to be done by when. I describe your Proactive Routine as your golden ticket to live your life by design versus default

But we need to remain open to updating our routines. I think of routines like closets. You may have the most organized closet, but as you acquire new items (make way for the spring wardrobe!), you’re going to need to streamline and edit the rest of the closet. Likewise, we need to adapt our routines as our priorities evolve.

I find I need to revisit my Proactive Routine about three times a year. During the summer, when my kids are out of school, I find I need to adjust my work schedule to meet their needs. Then, not surprisingly, my routine in September looks very different. Fall is our busy season at Clear Concept, which means I need to shift my focus. Then again in January, I find myself tweaking my routine again to align to any new goals I’ve set. 

Why are few people able to embrace the Proactive Routine? What are some obstacles that come in the way?

You’re right – many people struggle to embrace routines. People often tell me they don’t have enough control over their work. Or they tell me that other people control their schedule. But often I find this is more of a mindset barrier than an actual barrier. Most of us have more control over our time than we may believe we have. 

Yes, there will always be exceptions and I encourage people to be flexible when there is a good reason. But we want to start by paying ourselves first. Protect time for you your priorities before other things get in the way. For example, can you protect the first hour of your day for independent focus work? Can you shift your meetings to a certain time of day, over to certain days?  

Many people wait for that elusive “free time” that never shows up instead of carving out this time for their core priorities. On the contrary, protecting our time before other things get in the way is the key to getting the right things done.

Which chapter or part of the book did you enjoy writing the most? Which one was the most difficult to edit?

Oh this is a hard question! It’s like asking me which is my favourite child. I truly love all the concepts I outlined in this book and have seen all of them make such a big difference for busy people. But if I had to choose my favourite, it would be chapter 5: How to build Your Main Action Plan. I’ve helped countless people do this and I consistently see what a game changer a MAP is for busy people. I find this incredibly rewarding. 

I can’t pinpoint a chapter that was hard to write. They all flowed pretty easily based on the work I do. My challenge was editing – and this applied to all chapters. Editing always takes waaaaay longer than writing! But editing is so important to create clear and concise messages. Overall, I’m really proud of the effort I put into editing and I feel this book outlines a clear, practical plan to help busy people. 

If there was one thing everyone could do today to reclaim more of their time – one simple act – what would you suggest it to be?

I would tell people to stop trying to do so much at the same time. When we have too many so-called priorities, we spread ourselves thin, delay our progress, and generally feel overwhelmed which isn’t fun. I recommend people concentrate their efforts on three core priorities so they can concentrate their efforts and make progress on what’s most important. 

THEN, if I could add a bonus strategy, I would say to stop multitasking. We are far more effective and efficient (and far less stressed) when we commit to doing one thing at a time. So, turn off those notifications and minimize email when you’re doing other work!

I loved your advice to lean into lists and how they keep us growing and stretching. I have seen their influence and I have many lists I am actively adding to. Is there a list that you are enjoying growing?

I love lists too! And you are correct, I believe we should all embrace our lists. The goal is not to complete our lists. Sure, we want to keep up with our deadlines and commitments. But our lists will continue to grow while we scratch other tasks off. I believe this helps us thrive: when we are growing and contributing and adding things to our lists.

Right now, I’m excited about my list of book promotion ideas. I am excited to teach these productivity principles to busy people and a book plus all the related workshops I lead are a great forum for this. There is an easier way to manage a busy life and we all deserve to know what this is.

What was the most challenging part of writing Workday Warrior? 

Running a company and leading awesome training programs is my full-time “day” job. Plus, I have found active kids that keep me (together with my husband) busy during non-work hours. So ironically, protecting the time to write a book was probably my biggest challenge. Thankfully, I know a few things about time management, and you can be sure I applied every one of my recommendations to make this dream come true!

What were you most excited to share with your readers?

I’m most excited to be sharing the best of the best when it comes to reclaiming your time. This book is the result of having studied and coached busy people for over two decades. The three strategic – and easy to use – tools I share will transform the way you work and live. I love hearing from readers who share how the Workday Warrior tools have helped them achieve lasting, positive results. 

I don’t have any further questions. Is there anything you would like to add?

I’d love to reinforce that work doesn’t need to feel so difficult. Yes, we’ll work hard, but we can also achieve meaningful results. Anyone who wants to thrive at work and in life deserves to know how to make the most of their most valuable resource – their time. 

Thank you for chatting with me today and writing this amazing book. 🙂

---

Thank you for hanging out with Ann and me. Connect with Ann on her website, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Add Workday Warrior to your TBR on Goodreads. Read my review here.

---

Many thanks to Ann for being open to this interview and the wonderful folks at Clear Concept Inc. for coordinating. Also, thanks to the publisher, Dundurn Press for the opportunity to review a complimentary copy of Workday Warrior. It’s a book I am going to come back to again and again.