Productivity Books That Can Change Your Life

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I think the New Year is the perfect time for reading books on something you want to get better at. These can be books on health, finances, productivity, or even house cleaning.

On this list I focused on productivity. The great thing about good productivity books is they can often help you in any area of life, not just business. You can apply the techniques in many of these books to your financial, health, or business goals.

I think books like this can truly be life changing. Have you ever picked up a self-help book of some kind and it completely changed an area of your life? I bet you have! I hope one you choose from this list is that kind of book for you!

Best Books on Productivity

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Atomic Habits by James Clear

I think anyone who reads a lot of non-fiction has probably already read Atomic Habits but if not you need to pick it up. It is a wonderful book on building good habits and building on them. What I love the most about this book is the way it gives practice tips on making those habits stick and they are very effective. If you are trying to build habits that enrich your life, your business and even your family you need to read this one.

Feel Good Productivity-How to do More of What Matters to You by Ali Abdaal

I picked this book up because I’m a huge fan of Ali Abdaal’s YouTube channel. His videos are motivating and filled with great productivity tips and hacks. Ali was a medical doctor that started his career in emergency medicine. I don’t believe he practices anymore but instead is teaching millions on how to be productive in all areas of their lives. He often uses his experience in medicine to teach others about doing what matters the most to them.

Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad by Austin Kleon

Austin Kleon is very creative. His books help you use your creativity and your art to accomplish great things. Keep Going is short but effective in encouraging you on staying creative. One of the things I struggle the most with is keeping my mind and work flowing when I’m going through hard things, this book can help you with that.

The Mountain is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self Mastery by Brianna Wiest

I believe this book was a TikTok sensation with a lot of young people. My 19-yr old daughter at the time (a couple of years back) encouraged me to read it. It is very different, and I don’t think I have read a book quite like it. It gives you a problem you think you may have and tells you what the problem is in a different light. It made me think about so many areas of my life and what they all really mean. I think we can all self-sabotage easily and this book can help you break that cycle.

The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extradorinaiy Results by Gary Keller & Jay Papasan

This is probably my very favorite book on this list. I don’t know exactly what it is but it spoke to me in so many ways. I think everyone should have this title on their bookshelf. We are taught to focus on so many things at once that sometimes we dabble here and there, and we don’t accomplish much of anything. It is how we have been taught but if we slow down and begin to focus on our ONE thing at a time, we may be amazed how much we can accomplish. If you look at the people you know who are very successful, my guess is they have mastered this to some point.

Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most by Cassie Holmes

I read this one with a bookclub. It is based on the author’s wildly popular MBA class at UCLA, she demonstrates how to immediately improve our lives by changing how we perceive and invest our time. Happier Hour provides empirically based insights and easy-to-implement tools that will allow you to:

-Optimally spend your hours and feel confident in those choices
-Sidestep distractions
-Create and savor moments of joy
-Design your schedule with purpose
-Look back on your years without regrets

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

This book teaches you about focusing on the task at hand. How to get in the zone with fewer interruptions and to focus on true deep meaningful work. I love the part of the book where he talks about what a waste meetings can be and how employers need to rethink interrupting their employee’s workflow time. I never thought about how “off track” work meetings can get you. Great practical tips on getting true work done!

The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran & Michael Lennington

I absolutely love this book and this concept. So many times, we focus on the New Year as a time of recharge and restart. We make these big “resolutions” for our business, family, and health. But what if we had a restart every 12 weeks? You could set very specific goals for all the areas of your life. You could break them into doable tasks and if you don’t accomplish what you hoped (sometimes life really can throw us some curveballs) then you get a restart in the next 12 weeks. I started working my life this way a few years back after reading this book and it changed so many things for me. The authors also have a workbook you can work through, called the 12 Week Year Field Guide

All it Takes is a Goal: The 3-Step Plan to Ditch Regret and Tap Into Your Massive Potential by Jon Acuff

What if you could have a fulfilling career, a thriving marriage, strong friendships, and rewarding hobbies, all while being in the best shape of your life? What if every day you lived was better than the one before? What if tapping into your potential wasn’t as hard as you think?

According to New York Times bestselling author Jon Acuff, it might not be. In fact, All It Takes Is a Goal.

In this book, Jon shows you how to plan goals that you’re guaranteed to reach by

● focusing on your best moments
● navigating the three zones of performance
● finding ways to fuel your passions
● enjoying the ride

Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention-and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari

There are so many forces that fight for our attention. We blame ourselves for lack of focus but there are so many things fighting for it in society and we don’t realize how forceful they can be. This book will help you drown out all the noise and once again focus on what is important to your work.

Crucially, Hari learned how we can reclaim our focus—as individuals, and as a society—if we are determined to fight for it. Stolen Focus will transform the debate about attention and finally show us how to get it back.

Inner Excellence : Train Your Mind for Extraordinary Performance and The Best Possible Life by Jim Murphy

This one was the book recently read by A.J. Brown on the sidelines of the Eagles/Packers playoff game. The picture of him going that went viral and the book shot to number one on the Amazon list overnight.

Brown has spoken about how his teammates have started referring to the book as “The Recipe.” “This game is 90% mental and 10% physical for me,” Brown said. “I bring it to every game, and I read it between each drive. I use it to refocus and lock in despite what may transpire in the game, good or bad.”

Have you read any great books on productivity lately?

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