My 5 Favorite Productivity Books
TL/DR:
My top 5 productivity books of all time are listed below.
Along with WHY I love them so.
The Whole Shebang:
One thing about me: I’m a voracious reader. (Last year I read 101 books!)
And while reading books about productivity isn’t really my preferred genre (I don’t know about you, but I like most of my reading to be about stuff unrelated to my work), I have read most of the popular (and some obscure) productivity books out there because:
1) I love research and
2) I gotta stay abreast of what’s going on in my industry.
But there are a lot of boring, basic, judgy, impractical and/or just not very well written productivity books out there, and I want to spare you from wasting your time reading them.
So, without further ado, here are my 5 favorite productivity books of all time:
Four Thousand Weeks, by Oliver Burkeman
Most ambitious humans have a single belief that's holding them back and that's the idea that somehow, there's a way to Tetris your time so that you can do everything you want to do.
You can't.
Almost all my clients come in with this belief at first. And if you believe this, it's actually quite difficult to prioritize and to feel good about your time.
Four Thousand Weeks is a meditation on the fact that you have a very limited time on earth (~4000 weeks) and that there's no way you can do it all.
You can't read all the books (hence, this very list).
You can't finish all the projects, etc.
And once you accept the reality that you can't do it all, you can get to the business of prioritizing the things that will help you to feel good about your time.
Once you recognize you can't do it all, it's possible to start actually prioritizing in such a way that you can feel confident every day that the things you did were more important than the things you didn't do, instead of staying stuck in analysis paralysis.
This book is an absolute gem and I wish I would have written it myself. I’ve never read a book more aligned with how I approach time.
How to Have A Good Day, by Caroline Webb
Caroline Webb dives deep into the behavioral science of how to have a good day.
And a good day, is a productive day, for most people.
Packed with practical tools and the science to back them up, this book is far from dry.
It's a page turner that leaves you with tangible tools you can implement immediately to have better days.
Time Surfing by Paul Loomans
Everyone's brain is different, and this book is for folks who eschew the to-do list and want to take a Zen-like approach to getting things done, to productivity.
It's a quick read, and perhaps the most divergent take on productivity I've read.
Beware: if you don't have a good memory (and I definitely do not) the strategies in this book might be more difficult for you (and me!) to implement.
But there's value in the idea that productivity doesn't have to be a relentless march to "more" and that you can lean into yourself and trust yourself to get the important stuff done.
The Four Tendencies, by Gretchen Rubin
While perhaps more of a "personality" book than a "productivity" book on it's face, I put this one in the camp of "best productivity books" because it helps us to answer the question:
“If you’re not doing something you ostensibly want to do, why is that? And what strategies can you use to get yourself to do the thing?”
Most people I work with struggle with procrastination, analysis paralysis, resistance to certain types of work, etc. And this makes them feel less than productive.
I’m guessing the same might be true for you.
My definition of productivity is “doing what I intended to do” and if you can’t get yourself to do what you intend to do, well, that can feel problematic and demoralizing.
The Four Tendencies helps you understand how you handle internal and external expectations and provides practical solutions for how to support yourself towards getting things done and making progress, based on your “tendency”.
And, as an added bonus, I find this book super insightful and practically application not just to yourself, but to your relationships with other people.
Personally, I’m a “Questioner” type, and so is my husband. And the Questioner needs to understand WHY a thing should be done, and agree with that reason before doing it.
This changed how I relate to my husband in a positive way. The reality is that he’s never gonna do a thing just because I asked him to.
He’s gonna want to know WHY it’s important.
And instead of getting annoyed by that, now I just start with the why.
Getting Things Done, by David Allen
And lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the OG, David Allen's "Getting Things Done".
In my opinion, this book has single-handledly shaped the productivity space, and leads with the tenet that "your mind is for having ideas, not for holding them".
Many of my clients have come to me with the goal of having a "mind like water" as Allen talks about in this book.
Another of Allen's primary contributions in this book is codifying the importance of a clear next action for all tasks and projects (something you may have heard me talk about, ad nauseam, if you’ve been around these parts for any length of time).
This seemingly simple idea is actually profound, as many people skip this step and wonder why their projects are lagging and why they're not moving things forward on the things they want to make happen.
Got a productivity book you LOVE that I didn't mention?
Hit reply and tell me what it is and why you loved it!
(PS. The links above are affiliate links, so if you choose to buy one of these books via the link, I’ll get a tiny percentage. Full disclosure.)
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