Welcome to the non-fiction feature of the month of March! Today I am sharing about a recent addition to the productivity section of my home library: Workday Warrior: A Proven Path to Reclaiming Your Time by Ann Gomez came out at the turn of the year and I have enjoyed reading it every time I have picked it up. What felt like a book to transform work gave me so many insights about personal life too. Let’s take a look at what this book is about and then read on for my review.
Workday Warrior: A Proven Path to Reclaiming Your Time
By Ann Gomez | Goodreads
Reclaim control of your workday with a proven time-saving method.
Life is busier than ever before. We are working longer hours, with more stress and more priorities, yet we seem to fall further and further behind. Our so-called leisure time is punctuated with interruptions, constantly lulling 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 will smash 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 straight-forward approach to help us reclaim our time and upgrade our work habits. We need to plan our workdays, protect our time, and pivot when required.
Find more time in your day and feel more in control of your time. Your work will never be the same.
Workday Warrior: Takeaways
When I pick up productivity books, I don’t often think about applying it to my work. I am on the search for ways in which I can continue to be productive at work but also continue to hone my passions of reading and writing. Since starting the blog, it has become such an integral part of my life that I can’t imagine not having it. To sustain it, all I have to do is keep reading and writing!
What I loved about the writing (and Ann)
Ann is a mom of 4 kids and the owner of a successful business. I have coworkers who are amazing at their jobs, have school-going kids, an active social life and a passion for the outdoors. How do they do it?
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. I also loved how she writes for all people no matter how productive they think they may be. Her exercises and questionnaires are inclusive and encompass a wide array of situations. I could always relate to something! This is important because if I can’t relate, I am not likely to ever implement the strategies of the book.
With Workday Warrior, I could not wait to dive in. Seeing advanced examples, I had the freedom to create my Proactive Routine before the chapter that went into it and then compare how I had approached it.
Workday Warrior has an upbeat tone that encourages action. Ann clearly loves her work and her passion comes through in her words. My career journey is still in its early years. I started working full time in 2019 and enough time has passed that I understand the demands and cycles of my work. Workday Warrior was an honest conversation about working life and living. I thought of Abu, my aunt who passed away recently, and I could see her telling me many of these things if we had had the time. A heart to heart that is only possible with a loved one who understands the world and weaves their secrets into your connection.
Being Strategic
Work is not just having the skills to complete the tasks. It has social interactions, time pressures, and context. Our personal life and commitments affect it too. Mentors can be very helpful in succeeding in a career but conversations about productivity and work-life balance are not always comfortable ones. That’s where we need books like Workday Warrior to remind us how we can thrive even when everyday feels the same.
Ann describes a holistic system to make time work for us: clear grasp of priorities, a routine that protects time for things that are important, and the tools with which we can simplify our lives. I have read or heard of many of the books mentioned by Ann and I felt that she took the teachings from them and gave me something that I could apply to my work and home life. There are strategies to identify our core priorities, make time for the supporting tasks, reduce decision fatigue, use energy levels during the day to our advantage – this book is a powerhouse of ideas and if you go into it wanting to learn something, you will come out a winner.
One of my favourite takeaways was the power of language: Workday Warriors are not surprised when things don’t go according to plan. They believe in their abilities and see the ‘unexpected’ as just the ‘unknown’. I am internalising this idea.
Me, The Workday Warrior
Being a Workday Warrior is doing what I love, being satisfied with all the effort I put in today, whether it went as planned or not. When new tasks show up, an opportunity that should not be ignored presents itself, I do what I think is right. Most days though, I follow my routine and each piece of the day energizes me, keeps me going!
Chess, the popular strategy game, has a well defined system of ratings and accolades. Becoming a grandmaster, playing at an international or regional level, world champion, there are titles to strive for or to maintain. There isn’t anything comparable in my realm. I am not a student on my way to a degree. My work life has reached a stability where I have lots of room to grow without taking on more responsibility. All I have is to continue to do what I love doing – living, reading, writing, sharing, and being creative. I was attracted to the title of Workday Warrior. I wanted to level up and here I am with the tools to continue.
I love being a Workday Warrior and am grateful that I have come across a book which I can go back to when I need a refresher on how to make this magic happen.
“You deserve to end each day feeling like the star you are.”
Workday Warrior: A Proven Path to Reclaiming Your Time, pg 94
Are you ready to become a Workday Warrior?
Whether you are in early years of your career or have a few more years to go, I recommend giving Workday Warrior a read. Work might serve as a great practicing ground for the techniques and who knows, you might like the empowerment they provide and use these skills to make more time for all the things you want to do when you retire? 🙂
“We set ourselves up for a good tomorrow when we celebrate today.”
Workday Warrior: A Proven Path to Reclaiming Your Time, pg 96
Will you give Workday Warrior a read? Add it to your Goodreads shelf. Stay tuned for an interview with Ann Gomez in the coming weeks!
In the last half year, I have started to create lists of interests. Ann encourages this habit. I want to read more books about work-life balance and since putting that intention out there, I have come across some inspiring literature! Once I have read a few, I will be sharing the list. 🙂
Every single one of my books I have read so far has taught me something. Workday Warrior brings home lessons I learned from The Book of Boundaries by Melissa Urban (raved), Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking by Jon Acuff
(blog-raving long overdue; if you want an upbeat, uplifting read about stopping overthinking, you need to read this book: It has done me wonders!)
and another of my favorite work-life balance books, Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky, next month’s feature. I am excited to tell you about it too! While Workday Warrior takes a strategic big picture lens, Make Time offers everyday strategies to make each day memorable. It is an amazing book and a wonderful companion to this one!
Many thanks to the publisher for providing me a review copy of the book for an honest review.
Interesting review. Normally I see books like this and, mildly ironically, never find the time to check up on them.
I love the language of not being surprised. It’s how I am, then sometimes get made to feel like I shouldn’t be by how many people are going “I WAS SHOCKED”… but really, if you pay attention to life, you quickly figure out the only surprise is when there’s none, right?
Anyway, thanks for posting!
Thanks for reading! I am glad you found the review interesting and something there resonated with you. I am working on not being surprised too. 🙂