Last week I gathered with friends, family, and clients in my hometown of Austin, Texas. Together we celebrated the 20-year anniversary of my business, and the release of my sixth book, EVERYONE WANTS TO WORK HERE: Attract the Best Talent, Energize Your Team, and Be the Leader in Your Market.
And I’m happy to share that the book just earned a spot on the National Indie Bookstore Bestseller list for nonfiction paperback!
The Early Days
My first job out of college was with Time/system International, a global company with affiliates in 43 countries (initially called Time/design in the U.S.). The company sold the world’s best paper planners, and in the U.S., we taught people time management skills, and how to make the most effective use of them.
I loved learning about the most effective productivity techniques so much that I ended up spending a decade working there. I traveled overseas and worked in a variety of positions at the company, and with a variety of people who would go on to become legends in the space. This includes David Allen, eventual author of Getting Things Done, and Dr. Valerie Young, founder of the Impostor Syndrome Institute.
Regain Your Time
In 2003, after I left Time/system, I started my own company. I called it Regain Your Time, because I knew I had the insight and skills to help corporate clients truly recapture time in their schedules by changing their habits.
By the time I started my company, the internet had begun to impact every aspect of our daily lives, and I could see that the traditional time management techniques were becoming insufficient to accommodate the burgeoning information age.
I could see my clients becoming more and more distracted, impatient, and stressed. A few years into my new business, it became clear to me that not only were many of the traditional “time management” techniques no longer helpful, the phrase itself was holding us back. Not having enough time was not our problem. In 2010, I wrote my first piece on “attention management,” a concept I adapted from a variety of sources. Applying attention management to personal productivity had not been widely explored before.
The Empowered Productivity™ System
Since 2003, when I founded the company, I’ve been developing and refining my Empowered Productivity System, which is a collection of skills and habits that can help everyone accomplish more with far less stress. My first book detailing my System—which was also the first published work on attention management for personal productivity, as far as I know—was published by Wiley in 2012: Personal Productivity Secrets: Do what you never thought possible with your time and attention, and regain control of your life!
I’m proud to say that in the past two decades, I’ve trained thousands of global leaders to use the Empowered Productivity System to transform unproductive and unfulfilling business cultures and recover millions of dollars that were being lost to distractions.
Over the last few years, I’ve published several more books on the Empowered Productivity System. Each book breaks down a component of the System and provides step-by-step details for how to implement the strategies. These books include:
Work Without Walls, An Executive’s Guide to Attention Management, Productivity, and the Future of Work
Attention Management: How to Create Success and Gain Productivity Every Day
From To-Do To Done: How to Go From Busy to Productive by Mastering Your To-Do List
The Happy Inbox: How to Have a Stress-Free Relationship With Your Email and Overcome Your Communication Clutter
And just out this month…
Everyone Wants to Work Here: Attract the Best Talent, Energize Your Team, and Be the Leader in Your Market
We also have free book discussion guides. We made the guides so that teams can read the books together and then discuss how to implement the strategies in their particular workplace.
Everyone Wants to Work Here
I’m especially excited about the latest book in my Empowered Productivity series, Everyone Wants to Work Here, because it’s for leaders. It provides the strategies leaders need to dismantle a difficult work culture and replace it with one in which all employees can unleash their genius.
I’m proud to say this book is already receiving rave reviews like these:
“Every one of Maura’s books has been awesome but this book does a great job of showing how productivity—when people can be more productive in the job—actually makes them happier at work and more satisfied. This means they’ll stay longer and work smarter. The truth of the matter is that if they’re working smarter and they’re more productive, it’s not only good for the employee, but its good for the company. Every boss should read this book.”
Thom Singer, CEO, Austin Technology Council
“In the book, Maura Thomas writes, ‘The most important job of a leader is to THINK.’ That line really hit me because it’s so true and so overlooked. Slow down, do the work of considering what the team needs. It’s not hard work, but it takes time and prioritization. The author really breaks down the steps to unsticking some of the toughest management challenges of our time. Highly recommend!”
Jenny Magic, Change Facilitation Consultant and Author of Change Fatigue
“Maura Thomas is a world-renowned leader in team productivity and the future of work. This book compiles insights from her vast knowledge and extensive client work with some of the brightest minds and brands around the globe. Everyone Wants to Work Here is an important tool for anyone seeking to build a thriving modern team and attract (and keep!) the best talent.”
Chase Warrington, Head of Remote, Doist
Thanks To So Many
Training teams across the globe and sharing my strategies worldwide has been the privilege of a lifetime. I couldn’t have done it without the support of so many, including my husband, Shawn, who joined Regain Your Time in 2015, and serves as Chief Operating Officer. Also integral to the team are trusted professionals who have been with me for years, including Shana Burg, Deena Silverman, Rita Kerins (my mom!), Erin Peereboom, and Samantha Fagan. Also thanks to Amy Carr, who joined to help with the book launch and the party planning.
I also want to thank the communities that are constantly helping me think, grow, and expand my ideas, including the National Speakers Association, Women Communicators of Austin, and the many smart people whom I’ve been in various mastermind groups with over the years.
My sincerest thanks to everyone who has read my books, hired me for one-on-one training in the early years, attended a team training program, brought me into your company to give a keynote address, or taken my online course for individuals.
Together, we are recreating what a vibrant, productive workplace looks like, and we are spreading the message that we don’t need to work 24/7 to accomplish our most important goals. To quote myself in many of my books, “EXHAUSTION IS OPTIONAL!”
