15 Best Productivity Books To Get More Done In Less Time
If there’s one thing that most people struggle with, it’s being productive. It’s challenging to get things done when you have multiple competing priorities and responsibilities. We all have limited time and energy each day, so it’s essential to use that time wisely. The best way to accomplish this is by reading books about productivity. And this article is all about the best productivity books you can read.
These books will give you the knowledge and advice you need to become more efficient in your daily life. Whether you struggle to get things done or are just looking for ways to improve your efficiency, reading about productivity can help you make the most of your time. The best books on productivity will challenge and inspire you while teaching actionable strategies you can implement immediately.
15 Best Books About Productivity, Efficiency, And Better Focus
There are tons of different methods you can use to improve your productivity. You can start by setting realistic goals for yourself. It’s essential to break down large tasks into smaller ones to make them more manageable. It’s also important to schedule your day in advance. Many people don’t realize how often they’re distracted by things they could have scheduled in advance.
You can also try setting up a routine that you follow daily. Routines can help with making sure you stay productive throughout the day, especially if you’re someone who struggles with self-discipline. There are tons of other methods you can use as well. With the help of these best productivity books, you should be able to get more productive and manage more in less time.
1. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
James Clear – Oct 16, 2018
“A supremely practical and useful book. James Clear distills the most fundamental information about habit formation, so you can accomplish more by focusing on less.”
Mark Manson
If you’re having trouble changing bad habits, it’s likely because you have the wrong system for change. This book provides a proven framework for habit formation and behavior change, with strategies to help you form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.
Clear’s new book shows you how to make good habits inevitable and bad habits impossible. With true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians, he shows how the science of small habits can be used to master your craft and vault to the top of your field.
Atomic Habits is a book that will help you transform your habits by changing your thoughts about progress and success. It can be applied to teams, organizations, or individuals who want to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.
2. Outliers: The Story of Success
Malcolm Gladwell – Jun 7, 2011
“Learn what sets high achievers apart — from Bill Gates to the Beatles — in this #1 bestseller from “a singular talent”.”
New York Times
Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers,” the best and brightest, the most famous and most successful individuals in this stunning book. He asks the question, What makes high-achievers different?
Read the summary: Book Summary: Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell
He finds that we pay too much attention to what successful individuals are like and too little to where they are from, that is, their cultural heritage, family history, generation, and life experiences. He reveals the secrets of software billionaire tycoons, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the world’s most incredible rock group.
3. The Magic of Thinking Big
David J. Schwartz – Apr 2, 1987
Millions of people worldwide have utilized The Magic of Thinking Big to improve their lives. Using this book’s strategies, you will be able to manage, generate profits, and enjoy greater peace of mind.
Read the summary: Book Summary: The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz
Read inspiring quotes: 53 Best Quotes From The Magic Of Thinking Big
David J. Schwartz, a renowned motivational expert, is the man to consult if you wish to improve your sales, cope with your company, or earn more money. This book provides the information you need to think and act in a way that will get you where you want to go.
4. The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
Gary Keller – Apr 25, 2014
“The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan is an easy to read but profound book that helped me to focus on keeping the main thing the main thing in all areas of my life.”
Brandon Turner
The ONE thing is undoubtedly one of the best books about prioritization. People are taking advantage of this straightforward yet practical approach to concentrate on what is most significant in their work and individual lives. Companies are aiding their workers to be more productive with mentoring, workshops, and coaching. The sales staff are increasing their sales. Churches are offering classes and recommending them to their members.
Read the summary: Book Summary: The One Thing by Gary Keller
People are leading more prosperous lives by devoting their energy to just one thing at once; they are constructing their careers, improving their funds, slimming down and keeping fit, intensifying their faith, and reinforcing their marriages and personal relations.
You are looking for less. You desire fewer interruptions and have less on your plate. The daily deluge of emails, texts, tweets, notifications, and meetings diverts and stresses you out. The combined demands of work and family are taking a toll on you. What is the cost? Substandard work, tardy submissions, small salaries, fewer promotions, and a great deal of stress.
Read inspiring quotes: 35 Quotes From The ONE Thing To Succeed In Any Field
You have aspirations to be more productive in your job and have more money to enjoy a better standard of living. You seek more contentment in life and more time to spend with the people that you care about. The ONE Thing can produce astonishing outcomes in your work, home life, and mental and spiritual well-being. So, what is the ONE Thing that you are determined to achieve?
5. Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life
Jim Kwik – Apr 28, 2020
“Jim Kwik knows how to get the maximum out of me as a human being.”
WILL SMITH
Limitless is a self-help book written by Jim Kwik, the world’s #1 brain coach. It contains practical techniques and tips that unlock your brain’s superpowers and change your habits. For over 25 years, Kwik has worked with successful men and women in all fields to help them unlock their true potential.
In this top book on productivity, he reveals science-based practices and field-tested tips to accelerate self-learning, communication, memory, focus, recall, and speed reading to create fast, complex results. Your brain is like a supercomputer, and your thoughts program it to run.
The Kwik Brain process starts with identifying assumptions, habits, and procrastinations that stifle you, redrawing the borders, and moving from negative thinking to positive possibilities. It also helps you uncover what motivates you. This is where your passion, purpose, and energy meet to move you closer to your goals. The process also unleashes your brain’s own superpowers for accelerated learning.
Read the summary: Book Summary: Limitless by Jim Kwik
Read inspiring quotes: 29 Limitless Quotes By Jim Kwik To Achieve Your Full Potential
6. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Stephen R. Covey – May 19, 2020 (first published 1988)
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is one of the most influential books written and one of the best productivity books, having a lasting effect on presidents, CEOs, educators, and parents for almost three decades. This 30th-anniversary edition of the timeless masterpiece has been updated with new insights from Sean Covey.
Read inspiring quotes: 51 Quotes From The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
This book has been widely embraced by millions of people because the habits it contains are proven to work. With Sean Covey’s new ideas on how habits can be applied to our modern lives, the wisdom of the 7 Habits will be reintroduced to a new age of leaders. The 7 Habits include:
- Habit 1: Being Proactive
- Habit 2: Starting with the End in Mind
- Habit 3: Putting Priority on the Important
- Habit 4: Seeking Win/Win Solutions
- Habit 5: Listening First and Then Being Understood
- Habit 6: Working Together
- Habit 7: Refining Yourself
This classic book offers a principle-centered approach to achieving success.
7. High Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way
Brendon Burchard – Sep 17, 2017
“High Performance Habits shows you what you need to do to achieve your highest potential. It is research-based, immensely practical, and will make a big difference in your life. Brendon Burchard is my high performance coach and I know he can help you.”
Daniel G. Amen
After extensive original research and a decade as the world’s highest-paid performance coach, Brendon Burchard reveals the six habits that help you succeed. These habits seek clarity, generate energy, raise necessity, increase productivity, develop influence, and demonstrate courage. The habits are based on one of the most extensive surveys on high performers ever conducted, which showed that just these six habits move the needle the most in helping you succeed.
Read the summary: Book Summary: High Performance Habits By Brendon Burchard
This is one of the best books about efficiency, and it will help you get more done, lead others better, develop skills faster, or increase your joy and confidence. The habits are illustrated by powerful vignettes, cutting-edge science, thought-provoking exercises, and real-world daily practices.
8. Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done
Jon Acuff – Sep 12, 2017
92% of people who make New Year’s resolutions fail. The most effective way to achieve goals is to take the pressure off by focusing on the process rather than the outcome. Perfectionism is the sneakiest obstacle to meeting your goals. We’re our own worst critics and will quit if we think we’re not going to do something right. The strategies in this book are counterintuitive, but they’re based on research with hundreds of participants. They’ve been found to be effective, with people who have more fun being 43% more successful than those who don’t.
If you’re tired of being a chronic starter and want to become a consistent finisher, you have two options: You can continue to beat yourself up and try harder since this time that will work. Or you can give yourself the gift of done.
9. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Jul 1, 2008 (first published 1990)
“Flow is important….The way to happiness lies not in mindless hedonism, but in mindful challenge.”
New York Times
The renowned psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has performed several studies on the concept of “optimal experience” and concluded that the best experiences are derived from a psychological state known as flow. During flow, individuals often feel a sense of profound joy, creativity, and total absorption in life. In this revised version of his famous work, Csikszentmihalyi, who Newsweek called “the foremost researcher of ‘flow states’,” demonstrates how this positive state can be actively achieved instead of relying on luck.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience outlines how, by organizing the information that reaches our minds, we can make it possible to find true contentment, realize our full potential, and upgrade the quality of our lives. This is one of the best books for focus.
10. The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
Charles Duhigg – Feb 28, 2012
“Charles Duhigg’s thesis is powerful in its elegant simplicity: confront the root drivers of our behavior, accept them as intractable, and then channel those same cravings into productive patterns. His core insight is sharp, provocative, and useful.”
Jim Collins
The Power of Habit by award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation.
We learn why some people and companies struggle to change while others seem to remake themselves overnight. We learn how the right habits were crucial to the success of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, and civil-rights hero Martin Luther King, Jr. We go inside Procter & Gamble, Target superstores, Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, NFL locker rooms, and hospitals and see how they changed their habits.
The key to success is understanding how habits work. Habits aren’t destiny. We can transform our businesses, communities, and lives by harnessing this new science.
11. Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
Cal Newport – Jan 5, 2016
“DEEP WORK makes a compelling case for cultivating intense focus, and offers immediately actionable steps for infusing more of it into our lives..”
Adam M. Grant
Deep work is focusing without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It will make you better at your job and provide a sense of fulfillment. Most people have lost the ability to go deep and spend their days in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media.
In Deep Work, author Cal Newport argues that cultivating a deep work ethic benefits almost any profession. He presents a training regimen of four “rules” for transforming your mind and habits to support deep work.
Deep Work is a mix of cultural criticism and actionable advice, including advice on how to focus your work in a distracted world. The book explores how to quit social media, be more focused, and practice being bored.
12. The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape the 9-5, Live Anywhere and Join the New Rich
Timothy Ferriss – Apr 24, 2007
“The most surprising self-help hit of the decade.”
Men’s Journal
In times of economic uncertainty, there is no reason to delay and every reason to proceed. Whether you dream of relieving yourself from the rat race, enjoying the finest world travel, earning a high-quality monthly income with zero management, or just living more and working less, this book is the blueprint.
Read the summary: Book Summary: The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
This step-by-step guide teaches you how to live the dream: Tim, a former $40,000-a-year cashier, now makes $40,000 per month with only 4 hours of work per week. You will learn how to outsource your life to overseas virtual assistants for $5 per hour and do whatever you want, how to eliminate 50 percent of your work in 48 hours using the principles of an Italian economist, how to travel the world without quitting your job, how to save 50 percent of your work in 48 hours, and much more.
This new and updated edition offers more than 50 practical suggestions, including more than 50 tips on how to live the dream.
13. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Greg McKeown – Apr 15, 2014
Is your life feeling too tight? I think you may be overworked and underutilized. Sometimes you feel busy but not productive. You feel like your time is constantly being taken away by other people’s agendas. Is that right? If you answered yes to any of those questions, the Way of the Essentialist is the solution. It’s not about squeezing more accomplished in less time. The Way of the Essentialist is all about identifying what is vital and eliminating everything else.
By forcing us to choose more carefully what is essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own decisions about where to spend our time and energy, instead of granting others implicit permission to make those choices for us. It’s not just one more thing. It’s a whole new way of doing everything. This book is a must-read for anyone wishing to learn how to do less but better in every area of their lives.
14. Eat That Frog! Action Workbook: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time
Brian Tracy – Jul 24, 2017 (first published 2007)
An old adage declares that if the first thing you do in the morning is to eat a live frog, you will have the comfort of knowing that you have finished the most unpleasant task that you will have to do the entire day. According to Brian Tracy, the “eating a frog” simile refers to taking on your most difficult challenge, yet the one that can have the most excellent positive effect on your life.
Eat That Frog! illustrates how to organize each day so that you can focus on these essential tasks and complete them efficiently and effectively. The three components of successful time management are decision, discipline, and determination; this workbook puts the ideas from the original book into practice.
The chapters in the workbook correspond to the chapters of the book and each one has exercises that you can do to reflect on your own habits. Additionally, you will gain knowledge through the story of a character experiencing difficulty with procrastination at work and home and using the Eat That Frog! approach to enhance her time management skills.
15. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
David Allen – Dec 31, 2002
In our modern era, the approaches of the past are not enough. In his book, Getting Things Done, David Allen, a veteran coach, and consultant, explores the strategies for achieving stress-free productivity that he has imparted to thousands of people. Allen’s main idea is easy to understand: our productivity is directly linked to our capability to remain calm. Only when our minds are clear and our ideas are organized can we reach a successful level of productivity and unleash our creative potential. In Getting Things Done, Allen explains how to:
- Implement the “do it, delegate it, defer it, drop it” rule to make your inbox empty
- Reevaluate goals and remain concentrated in ever-changing circumstances
- Organize projects and get them out of a deadlock
- Overcome feelings of confusion, stress, and being overwhelmed
- Feel comfortable with what you are not doing
From fundamental concepts to demonstrated techniques, Getting Things Done is one of the best books to improve work performance can totally alter the way you work, demonstrating you how to increase the pace without exhausting yourself.
Setting up the right habits and the right mindset is vital for success in life. These books will help you set the proper habits to become more successful. They will also help you get the right mindset to become more successful. You learn in these books about prioritization, time management, how to improve work performance, and how to focus more.
That’s it with my list of the best productivity books. Many more books are out there, but these have been proven to work. They have been read by thousands of people and have received positive feedback. They are recommended for a reason.
The most important thing is that you pick up a book and start reading. Knowledge is power, and these books will give you the knowledge you need to succeed.
Best, Fabian
More Topics That Might Interest You:
