Below are 5 books that if you haven’t already read them, will change the way you think about productivity. They’ll also give you a rich variety of ideas, thoughts and tools to make you your most productive ever! Let me know what you think about the recommendations and feel free to share any of your own recommendations.
1.) Getting Things Done – David Allen – This one is vastly different to any other book you’ve ever read about productivity. Try it and adopt the mindset/philosophy and it will completely change how you organise yourself and work. A total game changer. It’s not for everyone but it will definitely give you some ideas and tools you’ve never even thought about before.
2.) The One Thing – Gary Keller – A book about prioritising and finding your most important tasks. It’s also a really well designed book with important words and passages already in bold and underlined for useful skim reading and there’s plenty of graphics and illustrations to demonstrate making it a really accessible text. There is a boat load of great ideas and thoughts in this and it will also make you think about your wider priorities.
3.) Eat That Frog – Brian Tracy – This book is about completing your most difficult or painful task first – “eating your frog”. Like a lot of Brian Tracy’s books this is a really easy text to read and pick out useful tips and summaries. There’s some interesting ideas and some general self improvement wisdom.
4.) The 80/20 Principle – Richard Koch – Although this is more of a “business book” per se – the Pareto or 80/20 principle in the book will make you think differently about work and life. In effect – the vast majority of results come from a minority of actions – focusing on those can maximise your outcomes with less effort or less multi-tasking.
5.) 10 Days to Faster Reading – Abby Marks-Beale – A great text on how to become more efficient at reading. Something that many people don’t consider as we stop focusing on reading speed and comprehension when we get to a certain age. Even if you don’t want to “speed read” – the practical examples included will give you a good yard stick to measure your current reading practices and look at ways to improve.
Effecutivity 