Books I Recommend If You’re Trying to Manage Your Time Better.
Effective time management, as they say, takes time to perfect. There are many ways to help you plan, focus, and get work done, but actually achieving all of this without the right guidance and mindset is quite difficult. If you’re struggling with time management, it might be worth spending some time researching the topic and listening to expert opinions. Here are some of the best books I recommend for improving your time management skills.
For a full day of major repairs
The 5 AM Club: Take Control of Your Mornings. Improve Your Life. By Robin Sharma.
If your goal is to wake up every morning and start your day feeling productive and focused, try reading Robin Sharma’s bestselling book on how to love your mornings ( I’ve been trying for a few months now ). Sharma believes that success begins early, so if you can harness the power of your morning routine and get up early to face the day, you’ll be more focused, productive, and happy—and I’ve certainly found this to be true, although getting used to waking up earlier is certainly not easy. It doesn’t take much: just one hour each morning is enough, which aligns perfectly with the ” Power Hour ” concept, which is also described in the book you should read . Reviewers call it a “game changer” and “extremely important.”
To achieve maximum time reduction
The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Doing More with Less (Richard Koch)
You’ve probably heard the old adage that 80% of our success comes from 20% of our work—or the Pareto principle, which I wrote about, if you need a refresher —but what do you do with this information and how do you apply it to your life? Koch’s book is all about identifying and focusing on the 20% of your effort that truly matters for productivity. It’s great for people with too much to do. Reviewers say it can “add hours to your days” and boost your happiness.
Focus on the main thing
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport.
I often recommend Newport’s deep work practice here, and for good reason: being able to focus on important tasks is key to effectively completing responsibilities and getting work done. Deep work aims to improve efficiency by eliminating distractions, allowing you to get more done in less time. It’s an integral part of achieving a state of flow , and mastering this skill is essential if you want to succeed with other productivity approaches, such as the Pomodoro Technique . Newport encourages focusing on truly challenging tasks rather than finding shortcuts to avoid them, making this technique ideal for those who truly care about the quality, not just the quantity, of their work.
If you don’t know where to start
“Eat That Frog!: 21 Powerful Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time” – Brian Tracy.
If you want to evaluate the vast number of productivity tips and figure out which one works best for you, try this 21-tip book, now in its third edition. It’s part of Tracy’s series, so you can purchase a student version or add-on cards, but the original book’s success is no accident. The most famous tip, of course, is to ” eat the frog “—that is, tackle the biggest, most difficult task right away each day—but the book also offers other helpful ideas that anyone can use if that method doesn’t work for you. ( “Eat the frog” isn’t my preferred time management method , but that’s why there are so many options.) Reviewers call the steps “practical” and praise Tracy for providing consistently helpful advice over the years.
Embrace the old classics
“The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” by Stephen R. Covey
You’ve probably heard of this book. Perhaps you’ve heard of the teen version, or seen someone else using the supplemental workbook. It’s been around for over 30 years and is a classic in the world of productivity. Covey recommends taking initiative, starting tasks with the end in mind, prioritizing, thinking win-win, seeking to understand before being understood, leveraging synergy, and making time for recuperation—and if this sounds vague, it’s because he elaborates on it later in the book itself, which reviewers say should be part of your permanent library.
To get an idea of the situation
168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think. By Laura Vanderkam.
If you feel like there’s simply not enough time in the day to get everything done, it might be because you’re misperceiving the situation. Instead of thinking in terms of 24 hours in a day, try thinking in terms of 168 hours in a week—and figure out where to fit important tasks to ensure you get everything done. Vanderkam recommends identifying what’s truly important and what’s not, and then creating a schedule based on that, taking into account that you actually have time for it. The only problem? You’ll no longer be able to use “too much to do” as an excuse not to do what you want. I really love this method and have used it with great success to reframe my busy weeks.
For setting goals
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals (by Oliver Burkeman)
I’ve already recommended one of Berkman’s principles —the 3-3-3 method —but his full book, a New York Times bestseller, goes into much more detail about what he believes are the secrets to maximizing your productivity. Hint: You’ll be thinking long-term—even longer than Vanderkam suggests—because the first thing you need to do is realize that not only is your life finite, but on average, you only have 4,000 weeks. When you think about it, that doesn’t seem like much, right? The goal is to figure out how to make the most of them, and reviewers say the book helps with that by reconciling readers to the fact that you can’t do everything , so you need to decide what’s most important to do.