Book of the Month - February 2026
At Your Best
Carey Nieuwhof - ISBN: 978-0735291362 - 2021
Author:
Carey Nieuwhof
Carey Nieuwhof is a bestselling author, speaker, former attorney, and he hosts one of today’s most influential leadership podcasts. His podcast, blog, and online content for leaders are accessed over 1.5 million times each month. He speaks to leaders around the world about leadership, change, and personal growth. Carey and his wife, Toni, live north of Toronto.
Brief Synopsis:
You deserve to stop living at an unsustainable pace. An influential podcaster and thought leader shows you how.
Overwhelmed. Overcommitted. Overworked. That’s the false script an inordinate number of people adopt to be successful. Does this sound familiar:
Slammed is normal.
Distractions are everywhere.
Life gets reduced to going through the motions.
Tired of living that way? At Your Best gives you the strategies you need to win at work and at home by living in a way today that will help you thrive tomorrow.
Influential podcast host and thought leader Carey Nieuwhof understands the challenges of constant pressure. After a season of burnout almost took him out, he discovered how to get time, energy, and priorities working in his favor. This approach freed up more than one thousand productive hours a year for him and can do the same for you.
At Your Best will help you:
replace chronic exhaustion with deep productivity
break the pattern of overpromising and never accomplishing enough
clarify what matters most by restructuring your day
master the art of saying no, without losing friends or influence
discover why vacations and sabbaticals don’t really solve your problems
develop a personalized plan to recapture each day so you can break free from the trap of endless to-dos
Start thriving at work and at home as you discover how to be at your best.
Insights:
“Time off won’t heal you when the problem is how you spend your time on.”
“In the end, who you’re becoming is so much more important than what you’re doing.”
“So, here we are as a culture. Busy is the default. Slammed is normal. Crazy time is all the time. Life has been reduced to going through the motions.”
“Our inability to control our use of technology is making us sicker, more anxious, and more distraught than ever before.”
“Workaholism is, after all, the most rewarded addiction in the nation. You can be fired for drinking too much, but working too much usually gets you promoted. It also gets you a raise. So you dump yourself into bed exhausted most nights, only to do it all again tomorrow.”
Should I read it or skip it?
Warning: This review will be longer than normal, but I think it is worth it.
Carey Nieuwhof’s At Your Best: How to Get Time, Energy, and Priorities Working in Your Favor is a practical, honest, and highly actionable guide for leaders who feel stretched thin. Rather than offering another time-management system built on efficiency alone, Nieuwhof focuses on something deeper: managing energy, not just hours. The result is a book that feels less like a productivity manual and more like a leadership survival guide for the modern era.
Nieuwhof argues that time is fixed, but energy is renewable. Most leaders try to squeeze more into their calendars, but the wiser approach is to align priorities with the natural rhythms of their energy. When you learn to work with your energy instead of against it, you become more effective, less stressed, and more present in both ministry and family life.
The book centers on a simple but powerful framework:
Work from your green zone, protect it, and build your life around it.
Nieuwhof divides the day into three energy zones:
Green Zone – Peak energy and focus. Best for your most important work.
Yellow Zone – Moderate energy. Good for meetings and collaboration.
Red Zone – Low energy. Best for routine tasks or rest.
This framework is memorable, realistic, and easy to implement. It also helps leaders see why they often feel burned out: they’ve been doing their most important work in their lowest-energy hours.
Strengths of the Book
1. Clear and Memorable Frameworks
The green-yellow-red energy model is simple enough to remember but powerful enough to change habits.
2. Practical, Not Theoretical
Each chapter includes concrete steps. Nieuwhof doesn’t just say, “Guard your priorities.” He shows you exactly how to restructure your schedule.
3. Leadership-Focused
This is not a generic productivity book. It is written with pastors, executives, and organizational leaders in mind.
4. Emphasis on Sustainability
Instead of encouraging hustle culture, the book pushes readers toward long-term effectiveness and personal health.
Here are my key takeaways:
You don’t need more time; you need more energy for the right priorities.
Protect your best hours for your most important work.
Saying “no” is often the most strategic leadership decision.
Your calendar reflects your true priorities, not your intentions.
Structural Schedule Changes Inspired by At Your Best
Here is a practical list of structural changes a leader could implement after reading the book:
Daily Structure Changes
Identify your green zone hours (usually a 2–4 hour block each day).
Block those hours for your most important work (writing, sermon prep, strategic thinking).
Move meetings to your yellow zone (midday or early afternoon).
Schedule routine or administrative tasks in your red zone (late afternoon).
Stop checking email first thing in the morning.
Create a fixed daily shutdown time to protect family and rest.
Weekly Structure Changes
Designate one “focus day” per week with no meetings.
Batch meetings into one or two specific days.
Schedule sermon or strategic planning in the same weekly time block.
Build margin blocks into the week for overflow or unexpected needs.
Take a consistent day off and treat it as non-negotiable.
Monthly and Seasonal Changes
Plan a personal retreat or planning day each month.
Review your calendar to remove low-priority commitments.
Align major projects with your highest-energy seasons.
Schedule vacation and recovery time a year in advance.
Should I read it or skip it?
If you feel busy but not productive, exhausted but not effective, At Your Best is worth your time. It may not just change your schedule—it may change your leadership.
