Issues bordering on procrastination, over use of social media and not having a detailed plan for the day are reasons why people don’t focus. Each day passes by and they realize they’ve not been productive.
Reading a productivity book or two, even though it doesn’t sound like what’s appropriate at the time, could help you get back on track. This article reviews the top 10 productivity books. We hope the lessons therein will help you start working towards your goal.
Why Do We Read Productivity Books?
These books are centered on core topics that tackle challenges relating to and propose solutions to the same. By reading these books, you get inspired to get over the problems you may be having with maintaining focus.
Top Productivity Books to Read Today
The books we review below cut across the different facets of life meant to help mirror common issues in most people’s daily lives. You’ll learn anything from quitting procrastination to focusing and developing solid habits to help you become a better individual.
1. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Some of us grew up with the belief system that talent or what we can do is a major factor contributing to our success. However, Angela Duckworth, a psychologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania thinks otherwise. In her book “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance,” she elaborates further that other factors like the ability to persevere and be passionate about what one does make the most difference.
2. The 12 Week Year: Achieve More in the Next 12 Weeks Than Others Will Achieve in 12 Months
Each year has 52 weeks and within this time, many people try to hit all their goals or most of them. However, the duo of Brian P. Morgan and Michael Lennington believe that more can be achieved in the shortest time. Hence, they authored the book “The 12 Week Year,” which encourages business owners and even employees to get most of the tasks done and the goals smashed in a record 12 weeks!
The book teaches you not to depend on annualized thinking, but to do the following:
- How to move away from thinking of completing tasks in a year to 3 months or less.
- You’ll learn how to identify what matters the most and develop a sense of urgency to carry on with the tasks to complete those.
- Create steps to achieving the goals by leveraging the templates and exercises in the book.
3. The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal
Jim Loerh and Tony Schwartz, two best-selling authors, put their thoughts together to come up with this book. Published in 2009, this 222-page book talks about the need to move away from the thought process that managing time is all there is to be productive. Instead, this productivity book teaches you:
- Mastering how to use energy as a means of enduring and improving high performance.
- Provides a life-changing road map to becoming fully engaged on and off the job.
- Create and maintain a high-energy environment for getting tasks done on time.
4. The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life: Before 8 AM
The early hours of the day can be productive if you know how to maximize them. Hal Elrod, in this productivity book, developed the concept of S.A.V.E.R.S:
- Silence: learn how to use a noiseless environment to be productive.
- Affirmations: learn how to say positive things to overcome your fears.
- Visualization: develop a better mentality that transforms how you approach each day’s tasks.
- Exercise: engage in physical activities to get active.
- Reading: expand your knowledge base by reading from experts on different topics.
- Scribing: discover the art of putting down your thoughts and keeping a journal to track your progress.
5. Outliers: The Story of Success
Written by Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers is one of the productivity books that jostle you back to reality. It gives a different view of the lives of the rich and successful and society. Rather than focusing on their personality or what they’re like, the book helps you understand the impact of where these people came from, their experiences, the information they have access to, and their generation in their success.
6. Do It Today: Overcome Procrastination, Improve Productivity, and Achieve More Meaningful Things
Published in 2018 and written by Darius Foroux, this productivity book helps you overcome procrastination in the following ways:
- Talking about the author’s work philosophy and life as a way of motivating you.
- Hinting at the closer we’re to dying and why that should “force” you to get things done in time.
- Giving tips on how to improve your productivity.
7. Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done
David Allen wrote Ready for Anything and had it published in 2003 to help serial procrastinators discover the dangers of putting things off. With a mix of know-how, wit, and inspiration, the book shows you exactly how to create defined structures and clear your head to induce creativity and focus. These factors, when combined with taking actions consistently will have you get more done in a short time and without stress.
8. Feel-Good Productivity: How to Do More of What Matters to You
Some of us procrastinate simply because we haven’t found a need to do something that will be of immense benefit to us. That is why, in December 2023, Ali Abdaal released this book: Feel-Good Productivity to teach you to stop procrastinating simply by finding pleasure in what you do. The idea is that if you “feel good” about something, you’d want to keep doing it.
9. Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business
Written by Charles Duhigg and first published in December 2023, this book shows you how the human thought process could be a catalyst for growth. As Much As we may not have control over what we think, especially if our environment encourages it, we can, however, decide on the best ways to think. Read Smarter Faster Better to find out how to think and use that as a tool to make positive transformations in your life and business.
10. Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time
To wrap up our list of productivity books to read is Eat That Frog, a 2001 classic by Brian Tracy. This is one of the best books for procrastinators, as it contains invaluable lessons centering on the following areas:
- Using the ABCDE framework to batch tasks, based on their relevance.
- Outsource some of your work or decline the irrelevant ones.
- Pick a goal you’ve been procrastinating on and develop steps to completing it.
- Make sure to put down your goals on paper. Not only that. List the steps to achieving those and set deadlines too.
Concluding Thoughts
Productivity books are designed to make the readers realize the folly of keeping things off and creating different mechanisms and or pathways to getting back on track. The books listed in this article are some of the best you can find out there so grab one or two, read and start implementing the lessons.