10 Must-Read Books That Will Make You Ridiculously Productive

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Product Hunt

9 min readJul 15, 2016

Ahhh, productivity. The revered topic in both the business and personal world. It seems we’re all looking for a magic bullet to help us get more done in less time. In the end, there’s no substitute for rolling up your sleeves and actually sitting down to do the work that will, one step at a time, help you accomplish all of your goals. But, a little inspiration never hurt. The books below will give you frameworks, strategies, and action items to help you make the most of the time you have each day.

While there isn’t a perfect productivity formula for everyone, the 11 reads below will inspire you to create your very own process that works for getting more stuff done—and enjoying every day more in the process.

1. Deep Work

Have you ever sat down to do work and then, without realizing it, end up spending an hour (ahem, or two) unintentionally falling into a huge YouTube/social/blog/news hole? We’ve all been there. It seems there is so much grabbing at our attention these days, it’s hard to even get in the state of mind that allows us to get our best work done. In Deep Work, author Cal Newport addresses the increasingly important topic of focus. Learning how to do deep work—the ability to focus on a cognitively demanding task without distraction—is the key to producing better results in less time. Newport offers up no-bullshit advice, suggesting that we should practice being bored and quit social media altogether (…even if you don’t, his argument is worth reading). If you’ve ever spent a workday in a haze of tweets and emails and wondered what you did all day, this book is for you.

2. The 80/20 Principle

Oh, the glorious Pareto Principle, which states that approximately 20% of your work drives 80% of your results. This book by Richard Koch takes readers through how they can achieve more with fewer resources, time, and effort simply by identifying and focusing our effort on the most import 20% of work we can do. A few of his tips include: focusing only on what you can do best (and outsourcing the rest), keeping things simple, and retaining your best employees and customers for life. Koch walks through the 10 highest value and lowest value uses of time, as well as why it’s so important to do more of the right stuff—not just more work in general. This is a great read for anyone who needs a reminder that being highly effective is about how you do your work, but also the work you choose to do in the first place.

3. Eat That Frog

Eat That Frog is a classic productivity book that you can breeze through in an afternoon. But, the 21 different strategies Brian Tracy shares in this gem are worth many lifetimes of productivity. The main premise of this book is that you should eat your “frog”—your biggest, most important task—first every day. This should also be the task that has the greatest positive impact on your life and results at the moment. The follow up rule is this: “If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.” In other words, when you’re given a big task, it’s best to get started on it right away. Tracy also walks you through techniques like the ABCDE Method, single-tasking, and the Law of Forced Efficiency. This is a book you won’t soon forget, and we highly recommend actually doing all of the recommended exercises as you work your way through it.

4. The Checklist Manifesto

Seriously…this book might single-handedly be responsible for reinvigorating the power of a simple checklist. Author Atul Gawande, an accomplished surgeon, explores a challenge that impacts just about every corner of the modern world: how professionals deal with the ever-growing complexity of their responsibilities. He talks about the difference between errors of ignorance (e.g. mistakes we make because we don’t have the knowledge to make better decisions) and errors of ineptitude (e.g. the mistakes we make because we don’t properly use the knowledge we already have). Most failures today, he argues, are examples of the latter. Enter: the checklist. Gawande, using poignant examples in industries like medicine, aviation, and construction—where errors can be the difference between life and death—makes the case for using checklists to reduce the load of the sheer volume and complexity of knowledge required for most of us to do our work well today. This is a thought-provoking read; you’ll never see a simple checklist in quite the same way again.

5. The Effective Executive

This is a fantastic read, particularly for current and aspiring leaders. The ultimate boss, Peter Drucker, reminds us of the golden rule in business productivity: getting done what others overlook, as well as avoiding work that isn’t productive or could easily be outsourced. In The Effective Executive, he helps readers focus on where their time goes—and how to make better use of it in the future. Drucker also emphasizes the focus on results over effort, and staffing people based on their strengths. While some chapters in this book are about building and managing teams, the rest of them are highly personal. You’ll learn about the power of concentrating on one task at a time, creating the right mind space to make important strategic decisions, and making choices based on dissenting opinions. This is a timeless book that will change the way you think about leadership and personal productivity.

6. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up

You’ve probably seen or heard about this book if you haven’t completely been living under a rock for the past year. Author Marie Kondo takes readers through her step-by-step organization method called “KonMari.” This book is all about cleaning up your physical space (which in turn, she argues, impacts your emotional and mental space). The heart of this book rests on asking yourself the question about all of the things you own: “Does this bring me joy?” If the answer is yes, you keep it and find a home for it. If the answer is no, you toss it—no matter how much it cost, who gave it to you, or how difficult it is to let it go. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up was a #1 bestseller for a reason: it’s a quick read that will make you want to organize the crap out of your space and change the way you think about your belongings forever.

7. Getting Things Done

Of all the productivity books ever written, this one might be the most popular. David Allen has a pretty in-depth process for getting shit done and helping you clean up the physical and digital mess that is currently overwhelming the crap out of you. The key concept in Getting Things Done is this: every task, assignment, and project on your list has a place and time. GTD is organized into three main sections; the first gives you an overview of Allen’s entire process, the second details out how to implement it, and the third sheds light on the benefits of using the process daily. It can be summarized in five steps: (1) collect, (2) process, (3) organize, (4) decide, and (5) act. It’s not inherently rocket science, but the way he breaks it down makes you want to move into action. While the system can, at times, feel quite complex, it’s a great “take what you need” kind of book. If you’ve ever gotten stuck because you weren’t exactly sure what to focus on or how to get started on a big project, this book is definitely worth a read.

8. The Power of Less

If Getting Things Done and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up had a book baby, The Power of Less would be it. Author Leo Babauta talks about the principles and practice of limiting yourself to only the essential in both business an life. In the first part of the book, you’ll learn about setting limits, simplifying, creating new habits, and starting small. The second part of the book is where the real gold is, though. Babauta takes you through his approach to managing goals, projects, tasks, email, filing, daily routines, and more. This book is essentially a distillation of the most important concepts in a book like Getting Things Done (which Babauta references often throughout his writing)—perfect if you want to get organized, but also want to keep your process really simple.

9. The One Thing

The premise of this book is surprisingly simple: remove distractions, figure out what the most important thing is, and focus on it relentlessly (are you noticing a pattern on this book list?). The cost of all the distractions—the unlimited emails, tweets, messages, and meetings—is work that falls short of what you know you’re truly capable of. The One Thing is about cutting through the noise, overcoming overwhelm, and mastering what matters most to you in every area of your life (e.g. your professional, family, money, and health goals). What’s the one thing you can do next that will have the greatest impact on the quality of your life? This book will help you figure out what that one thing is—and then give you the framework you need to act on it right now.

10. Do The Work

Look, no matter how many productivity books you read, in the end it comes down to doing the actual work that so many people aren’t willing to do. What’s truly getting in the way of you producing your best work? How do you finish projects you start? What have you been too afraid to start in the first place? In Do The Work, author Steven Pressfield says it’s not about better ideas or more time…but rather, moving through resistance and doing the work it takes to get through any long-form project (like a book, album, screenplay, app, website, etc). He reiterates that you are not crazy (nor alone) in the “I’ve-hit-a-wall” stage. We all go through it at some point. What makes the difference in what you end up achieving is what you do when you brush up against inevitable resistance. This motivating manifesto is a must-read for anyone working on big, slightly intimidating creative pursuits.

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10 Must-Read Books That Will Make You Ridiculously Productive

Written by Product Hunt