Productivity and Time Management: Books & Reading Lists

The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan-there is no need to wait and every reason not to, especially in unpredictable economic times. Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, experiencing high-end world travel, or earning a monthly five-figure income with zero management, The 4-Hour Workweek is the blueprint.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey (Read by) In this seminal work, Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, honesty and human dignity--principles that give us the security to adapt to change, and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates.

Atomic Habits by James Clear Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits—whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.

Deep Work by Cal Newport In DEEP WORK, author and professor Cal Newport flips the narrative on impact in a connected age. Instead of arguing distraction is bad, he instead celebrates the power of its opposite. Dividing this book into two parts, he first makes the case that in almost any profession, cultivating a deep work ethic will produce massive benefits. He then presents a rigorous training regimen, presented as a series of four "rules," for transforming your mind and habits to support this skill.

Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy The saying goes: if the first thing you do each morning is eat a live frog, then you're done with the toughest thing for the day. Eating that frog means tackling your most challenging task-and it's also the one that can have the greatest positive impact on your life. Productivity and time management coach Brian Tracy shows you how to organize each day so you can zero in on these critical tasks and accomplish them efficiently and effectively.

Essentialism by Greg McKeown The Way of the Essentialist isn't about getting more done in less time. It's about getting only the right things done. It is not a time management strategy, or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution towards the things that really matter.

Feel-Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You by Ali Abdaal Dr Ali Abdaal – the world's most-followed productivity expert – has uncovered an easier and happier path to success. Drawing on decades of psychological research, he has found that the secret to productivity and success isn't grind – it's feeling good. If you can make your work feel good, then productivity takes care of itself. In this revolutionary book, Ali reveals how the science of feel-good productivity can transform your life. He introduces the three hidden 'energisers' that underpin enjoyable productivity, the three 'blockers' we must overcome to beat procrastination, and the three 'sustainers' that prevent burnout and help us achieve lasting fulfillment. He recounts the inspiring stories of founders, Olympians, and Nobel-winning scientists who embody the principles of Feel-Good Productivity. And he introduces the simple, actionable changes that you can use to achieve more and live better, starting today. Armed with Ali's insights, you won't just accomplish more. You'll feel happier and more fulfilled along the way.

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern fixation on "getting everything done," Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing how many of the unhelpful ways we've come to think about time aren't inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we've made as individuals and as a society—and that we could do things differently.

Getting Things Done by David Allen; James Fallows (Foreword by) David Allen's Getting Things Done has become one of the most influential business books of its era, and the ultimate book on personal organization. "GTD" is now shorthand for an entire way of approaching professional and personal tasks, and has spawned an entire culture of websites, organizational tools, seminars, and offshoots.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg In The Power of Habit, award-winning business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. Distilling vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives that take us from the boardrooms of Procter & Gamble to the sidelines of the NFL to the front lines of the civil rights movement, Duhigg presents a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential. At its core, The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, being more productive, and achieving success is understanding how habits work.

Productivity for How You're Wired by Ellen Faye If you’ve put in the work, tried the apps, planners, and time management systems, but still aren’t getting the results you’d hoped for — it’s not hopeless! You just haven’t discovered the way YOU work best. Because it’s not about doing more — it’s about doing the right things in the way that’s right for you — not just for better productivity, but for a less stressful, more intentional and fulfilling life. Productivity for How You’re Wired provides a customized three part plan with applicable, real-life solutions that empower you to: Build a foundation of self-understanding Create systems and habits that fit how you’re wired Apply these strategies for lasting change Brought to you by productivity, business, and leadership coach, Ellen Faye. Her approach is a proven-from-the-trenches, easily personalized framework that’s been guiding clients to their own success for over two decades. Productivity for How You’re Wired is more than a time management method. It’s your guide for discovering the strategies that work for you. You’ll learn to create better habits, and be more productive in the right ways, so you can stop worrying about what you’re NOT doing and get your important work done.

The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy by Chris Bailey Chris Bailey turned down lucrative job offers to pursue a lifelong dream--to spend a year performing a deep dive experiment into the pursuit of productivity, a subject he had been enamored with since he was a teenager. After obtaining his business degree, he created a blog to chronicle a year-long series of productivity experiments he conducted on himself, where he also continued his research and interviews with some of the world's foremost experts, from Charles Duhigg to David Allen.

Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond Productivity Culture by Jenny Odell Saving Time tugs at the seams of reality as we know it—the way we experience time itself—and rearranges it, imagining a world not centered on work, the office clock, or the profit motive. If we can “save” time by imagining a life, identity, and source of meaning outside these things, time might also save us.

Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland This is the definitive account of the Scrum methodology from its co-creator and the CEO of Scrum, Inc., Jeff Sutherland. Scrum is the revolutionary approach to project management and team building that has helped to transform everything from software companies to the US military to healthcare in major American hospitals. In this major new book its originator, Jeff Sutherland, explains precisely and step by step how it operates - and how it can be made to work for anyone, anywhere.

Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport From the aggressive rethinking of workload management, to introducing seasonal variation, to shifting your performance toward long-term quality, Slow Productivity provides a roadmap for escaping overload and arriving instead at a more timeless approach to pursuing meaningful accomplishment. The world of work is due for a new revolution. Slow productivity is exactly what we need.

Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg "NEW YORK TIMES "BESTSELLER From the author of "The Power of Habit "comes a fascinating book that explores the science of productivity, and why managing "how" you think is more important than "what" you think with an appendix of real-world lessons to apply to your life. At the core of "Smarter Faster Better" are eight key productivity concepts from motivation and goal setting to focus and decision making that explain why some people and companies get so much done.

Uptime: A Practical Guide to Personal Productivity and Wellbeing by Laura Mae Martin Google's Executive Productivity Advisor offers insights on how to make the "new way of work" work for you, providing actionable steps to optimize your productivity, accomplish more, prevent burnout, and cultivate a harmonious work-life balance.

When: the Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink Daniel H. Pink, the #1 bestselling author of Drive and To Sell Is Human, unlocks the scientific secrets to good timing to help you flourish at work, at school, and at home. Everyone knows that timing is everything. But we don't know much about timing itself. Our lives are a never-ending stream of "when" decisions: when to start a business, schedule a class, get serious about a person. Yet we make those decisions based on intuition and guesswork. Timing, it's often assumed, is an art. In When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, Pink shows that timing is really a science.