If someone asked you what the most important thing in your life was, what would you say?<\/p>\n According to Kevin Kruse, author of 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management<\/em>, the correct answer to this question is \u201ctime.\u201d<\/p>\n Why is time so important? Because unlike everything else in your life, including money, a job and even a spouse (he asserts), you can’t get it back. But time \u201cis irreplaceable. Once it’s gone, it’s gone for good.\u201d<\/p>\n Kruse has interviewed hundreds of successful people for this book, including Sheryl Sandberg, Marissa Mayer and Jack Dorsey, and shares the common themes he’s gleaned from them.<\/p>\n \u201cHighly successful people don’t think about time much at all. Instead, they think about values, priorities, and consistent habits.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe single most important thing when it comes to time and productivity isn’t a tactic or a trick\u2014it’s a shift in mindset.\u201d<\/p>\n He recommends identifying priorities, then creating systems around them. The first step is identifying your MIT, or most important thing. Next, create a habit of dedicating the first two hours of your day to your MIT, because that’s when your cognitive powers are the sharpest.<\/p>\n A great schedule (not a list, he makes clear) releases stress, as it creates a slot for all your priorities. Anything on the schedule is treated like an appointment with the dentist. It’s not shifted around or cut short.<\/p>\n Kruse doesn’t waste his readers’ time with 15 Secrets. In only 200 pages, he covers a lot, including sections titled: Procrastination Cure, How to Leave the Office by 5:00, Master Your Email, and Meeting Hacks. It’s written in first person and includes many personal anecdotes.<\/p>\n It’s helpful for people with all sorts of lifestyles. He ends each section by clarifying how his lessons apply if you’re an entrepreneur, a stay at home parent, a student, a freelancer and an executive.<\/p>\n Kruse is a prolific writer. He’s contributed over 100 articles to Forbes, and has written the books Employee Engagement 2.0<\/span><\/em> and Unlimited Clients<\/em>. Readers find his style and voice relatable, and his presentation in 15 Secrets upbeat and fun.<\/p>\n Four Thousand Weeks<\/em> touches on this notion of \u201cliving versus existing.\u201d<\/p>\n Its British author, Oliver Burkeman, notes that in modern society, we regard time like it’s a resource, the same way we regard water, food and money. Assuming we live into our 70s, our entire life, then, can be codified, valued, sized up and measured into around four thousand weeks.<\/p>\n He contrasts this attitude with peasants in pre-industrial England, where there was no clock hanging on the wall or daily planners at anyone’s desk. The seasons determined daily tasks, and the sunset determined when one fell asleep at the end of the day.<\/p>\n He ventures that our modern approach to time robs us of our peace of mind. When time is seen as a scarce resource, we’re haggling ourselves over whether we’ve spent it wisely. This leaves us feeling chronically dissatisfied after a hard day’s work.<\/p>\n This book is helpful for someone who never finds any satisfaction for a job well done, or who’s guilt-ridden for mis-managing time. He asserts that removing ourselves from a treadmill-approach to life makes us more productive in the long-term.<\/p>\n Burkeman presents methods for developing a healthy relationship with time, drawing on lessons from psychologists, philosophers, and spiritual teachers, \u201call who rejected the struggle to dominate or master [time].\u201d<\/p>\n He also discusses a concept called \u201cdeep time,\u201d which is similar to timelessness. In deep time, we forget about the treadmill and the ticking clock. \u201cThe boundary separating the self from the rest of reality grows blurry, and time stands still.\u201d Deep time is the realm of prayer and contemplation, \u201ca realm where there is enough of everything, where we are not trying to fill a void in ourselves and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n In Four Thousand Weeks<\/em>, Burkeman evaluates modern lifestyles through the lens of a historian. Chapters include \u201cThe Loneliness of the Digital Nomad\u201d and \u201cBecoming a Better Procrastinator.\u201d<\/p>\n Readers have found that the themes and ideas in the book flow naturally, and that it’s a substantive self-help book.<\/p>\n Burkeman also writes a blog and a column for The Guardian<\/em> called \u201cThis Column Will Change Your Life.\u201d<\/p>\n Procrastination is a bit of a conundrum. For example, why do we put off something so simple as paying a bill? All it entails is either making a few clicks on the computer or putting a stamp onto an envelope then walking to the mailbox.<\/p>\n \u201cWe tend to pursue what is easiest and most likely to deliver immediate gratification, even if doing so is inconsistent with our long-term goals,\u201d Damon Zaharaides writes in The Procrastination Cure.<\/em><\/p>\n He writes this book for the dilly-dallier, the chronic procrastinator, the person who can put off a boring task even when the stakes are high. To some extent, this is all of us.<\/p>\n Zahariades stresses that procrastination is a fact of life. We’ll never entirely recover, but his book aims to decrease procrastination tendencies and so \u201cincrease productivity, and better manage your time.\u201d<\/p>\n A procrastinator not only pays practical consequences, but emotional ones as well: he lives with the guilt and angst that comes from putting off necessary tasks. The Procrastination Cure<\/em> is about creating emotional well-being through living a responsible, productive lifestyle.<\/p>\n \u201cTaking action causes the discomfort and guilt associated with procrastination to evaporate. It also erases the stress and worry of doing the task. And just as importantly, it gives us the momentum we need to continue working until the task has been completed.\u201d<\/p>\n The book is well organized. It begins with a simple definition of procrastination, then covers Zahariades’ personal history as a chronic procrastinator, paying car tabs after they’re due (and getting his car towed), ending relationships way too late and turning projects in way past their deadline.<\/p>\n Then he provides reasons why we procrastinate (\u201cFear of Failure,\u201d \u201cFear of Success,\u201d \u201cFeelings of Overwhelm,\u201d \u201cLaziness,\u201d \u201cInability to Make Decisions\u201d) and finishes with 21 tactics for overcoming procrastination, including \u201cEat the Frog<\/a>,\u201d \u201cReward Yourself,\u201d \u201cAsk Others to Set Deadlines,\u201d \u201cTake Small Steps\u201d and \u201cGet Rid of Distractions.\u201d<\/p>\n Zahariades runs a content marketing agency, and has a blog called the \u201cArt of Productivity.\u201d Readers say the book provides motivating tips that really work; Netflix is getting shut off, the sock drawers are getting organized and the lawn is getting mowed.<\/p>\n We’re living in a complex world. Even an everyday activity like going to the gym entails collecting at least fifteen items into a duffel bag. How many times have you gotten to the car, put the gym bag in the back seat and then returned to the house to retrieve a forgotten water bottle or towel?<\/p>\n The bestseller Checklist Manifesto<\/em> promises to be a powerful antidote to the complexity we face in our everyday lives.<\/p>\n In the book, surgeon and author Atul Gawande recounts numerous anecdotes he’s heard over the years from colleagues overlooking \u201csmall\u201d details in what otherwise is an earnest effort to treat a patient.<\/p>\n In one anecdote, a man shows up at the Emergency Room with a stab wound. \u201cEveryone involved got almost every step right…except no one remembered to ask the patient or the emergency medical technicians what the weapon was.\u201d As it turns out, the weapon was a bayonet, and due to this lack of knowledge, the patient nearly died.<\/p>\n In the modern world, Gawande argues, the cause of failure is more commonly due to ineptitude than ignorance. We know what we need to do, but things are so complex that we fail to capture and execute on all the details.<\/p>\n The checklist, he proposes, captures<\/a> all of the requirements in a project, a task or a routine and keeps them front of mind. It is a system that applies to all areas of our lives.<\/p>\n The Checklist Manifesto<\/em> is for anyone who feels overwhelmed or suffers from \u201cbrain clog.\u201d Creating a list for everyday things such as what to pack for a weekend trip, a camping vacation or a session at the gym reduces brain clutter and keeps us from thinking too hard about any one thing.<\/p>\n Gawande is a surgeon working in Boston, a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of another bestseller, Complications<\/em>.<\/p>\n Readers find the stories in Checklist Manifesto<\/em> gripping, even for someone with no medical background.<\/p>\n Brushing your teeth every night is such a tiny action. It only takes a few minutes. Yet, looking over the span of thirty or more years, imagine the consequences of not doing it. By the age of 60 or 70 you may well be removing a set of false teeth from your mouth at the end of each day.<\/p>\n James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits<\/em>, is all about the impact of small actions like teeth brushing. He makes a comparison between small habits and compounding interest, claiming that a small lifestyle change, compounded over time, completely alters the course of your life.<\/p>\n \u201cImproving by 1 percent isn’t particularly notable\u2014sometimes it isn’t even noticeable\u2014but it can be far more meaningful, especially in the long run.\u201d<\/p>\n His message is heartening to someone who struggles with time management or procrastination. The remedy isn’t changing your lifestyle by 180 degrees. Rather, a tiny change has enormous long-term repercussions.<\/p>\n Something like routinely leaving work thirty minutes early in order to eat dinner with the family doesn’t seem like a big deal in the day-to-day. Over the span of a decade, however, that’s a huge chunk of quality family time. Or, spending thirty minutes each weekend decluttering the garage may look insignificant at first, but it starts to make a huge impact after a whole year.<\/p>\n \u201cA slight change in your daily habits can guide your life to a very different destination,\u201d writes Clear.<\/p>\n This \u201csmall strokes fell great oaks\u201d message works both ways. Habits like negative thoughts, stress and outrage compound into real effects with consequences that we live with.<\/p>\n Changes don’t happen linearly as we’d expect, Clear points out. Rather, like compounding interest, the effects accumulate slowly, and then at some distant future date, we cash in on our habits.<\/p>\n Clear writes the book in five parts, with chapters such as \u201cThe Truth About Talent,\u201d \u201cWalk Slowly, but Never Backward\u201d and \u201cThe Secret to Self Control.\u201d It’s easy to read, with plenty of stories and graphs to communicate his compounding message.<\/p>\n Atomic Habits<\/em> is a bestselling book that’s sold over 5 million copies. Clear speaks to Fortune 500 companies on habits and decision marketing and sends out a \u201c3-2-1\u201d newsletter to a million subscribers.<\/p>\n Readers find Atomic Habits<\/em> informative, if somewhat redundant.<\/p>\n Desire Map<\/em> is for people who’ve set goals and stayed on track to achieve them, only to arrive at the finish line disappointed. They experience no satisfactory emotional payoff.<\/p>\n In order to avert this disappointment, author Danielle LaPorte proposes we establish goals around the emotions we want to experience and feel in our lives, and then build out our daily routines in pursuit of these emotions.<\/p>\n Her method isn’t about setting concrete goals such as taking a vacation or earning a certain income. \u201cFour feelings. Stuck in my Day-Timer. Referred to every day. Guiding my choices,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n Her system often leads to paradigm shifts in people’s lives, she warns. \u201cSo when you get clear on how you actually want to feel, your life-planning process might get turned upside down.\u201d<\/p>\n When readers realize their current track leads to dead-end emotions, they end up in new careers, or find new approaches to things like budgeting.<\/p>\n Desire Map<\/em> is helpful for someone who feels trapped in a web of \u201cshoulds.\u201d It’s about aligning all of a person’s precious time with her core desires.<\/p>\n It consists of two books: The Theory and The Workbook, with chapters like \u201cRecalibrating the Compass\u201d and \u201cThe Benefits of Clear Desires.\u201d She’s also included action sheets to keep goals on track, including monthly and weekly check-ins.<\/p>\n The book reads like online content, which makes sense as LaPorte’s home turf is the internet. The san-serif text changes size frequently. Huge all-cap text and bold text intermingles with the regular-sized text throughout the pages of her book.<\/p>\n Readers love LaPorte for her energy, and believe she’s brought a lot of herself to this book, and that it includes thoughtful details.<\/p>\n LaPorte has an eponymous website that’s been named by Forbes as one of the top 100 websites for women, where she dispenses life and business advice. Her charismatic online presence has amassed an enormous social media following. She also wrote The Fire Starter Sessions<\/em>.<\/p>\n Sometimes we may have a solid two hours for a task, yet it barely reaches the finish line even so. Too many \u201cYa got a minute?\u201d knocks at the office door results in a sloppy deliverable that’s not at all representative of our best work.<\/p>\n According to Cal Newport, author of Deep Work<\/em>, this level of performance won’t cut it in the current economy. As robots swoop in to replace labor, only highly skilled employees can retain their positions.<\/p>\n Performing at a skilled, elite level requires what he calls \u201cdeep work.\u201d Deep work is a method for improving output that maximizes the cognitive value of your brain, and requires \u201cdistraction-free concentration.\u201d He contrasts deep work from shallow work, which includes things like sorting papers and answering emails.<\/p>\n Deep Work<\/em> takes a refreshing spin on time management, as it’s about how to improve the quality of work time, rather than how to structure a workday. It provides specific instructions on how to create an environment to produce exceptional work.<\/p>\n Newport illustrates the concept of deep work with the story of Nate Silver, who in 2008 garnered praise for predicting the presidential outcome by using a thorough analysis of polling data. Using the same \u201cdeep work\u201d method, Silver\u2019s gone on to predict things like the recipients of Oscars at the Academy Awards.<\/p>\n Even at the book’s 2016 publication date, the Nate Silver story sounds dated, especially since \u201cdeep work\u201d is a cutting-edge phenomenon. Chapters in Deep Work<\/em> include no-brainers such as \u201cQuit Social Media.\u201d<\/p>\n But the book was a bestseller nonetheless. Newport is a Georgetown professor, and author of other bestsellers, including Digital Minimalism<\/em> and A World Without Email<\/em>. He hosts the podcast \u201cDeep Questions\u201d and speaks regularly on NPR.<\/p>\n Readers have noted the concepts presented in deep work have been around for some time. Finding a quiet place to work and eliminating distractions is common sense. And producing high-quality work isn’t a cutting edge notion. It’s been a requirement in several professions for some time now.<\/p>\n You know in the movies when the camera focuses on one person’s face, and everything in the background goes fuzzy?<\/p>\n Time blocking is like this<\/a>. It’s when you focus on one activity for an hour or two, and let everything else around you \u201cgo fuzzy.\u201d It’s also known as batching, boxing and chunking.<\/p>\n In his book Time Blocking<\/em>, author Abe Wood believes time blocking is the key to insane productivity. Sometimes we only have an hour to dedicate to an important task. Time blocking is about maximizing the productivity of that hour.<\/p>\n \u201cThe idea of time blocking is to pre-plan your day before it arrives…before you go to sleep, you’ll spend a bit of time creating a plan for the next day. Then, when you wake up, you’ll immediately know what you need to get started on.\u201d<\/p>\n The book has two parts, and includes the chapters \u201cUnload and Free Your Brain,\u201d \u201cDon’t Be a Tyrant with Yourself,\u201d \u201cThe Elon Musk Method\u201d and \u201cThe Cal Newport Method.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"15](\"https:\/\/www.teamly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/15-Secrets-Successful-People-Know-About-Time-Management-Book.png\")
Publisher<\/strong>: The Kruse Group
\nYear Published<\/strong>: 2015
\nNumber of Pages<\/strong>: 202<\/p>\n<\/span>Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals<\/strong> by Oliver Burkeman<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"Four](\"https:\/\/www.teamly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Four-Thousand-Weeks-Time-Management-for-Mortals-Book.png\")
Publisher<\/strong>: Farrar Straus and Giroux
\nYear Published<\/strong>: 2021
\nNumber of Pages<\/strong>: 288<\/p>\n<\/span>The Procrastination Cure: 21 Proven Tactics for Conquering Your Inner Procrastinator, Mastering Your Time, and Boosting Your Productivity!<\/strong> by Damon Zahariades<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.teamly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The-Procrastination-Cure-Book-on-Time-Management.png\")
Publisher<\/strong>: Art of Productivity
\nYear Published<\/strong>: 2017
\nNumber of Pages<\/strong>: 166<\/p>\n<\/span>The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right<\/strong> by Atul Gawande<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.teamly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The-Checklist-Manifesto-Book-by-Atul-Gawande.png\")
Publisher<\/strong>: Picador
\nYear Published<\/strong>: 2011
\nNumber of Pages<\/strong>: 240<\/p>\n<\/span>Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones<\/strong> by James Clear<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"Automic](\"https:\/\/www.teamly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Automic-Habits-Book-on-Time-Management.png\")
Publisher<\/strong>: Avery
\nYear Published<\/strong>: 2018
\nNumber of Pages<\/strong>: 320<\/p>\n<\/span>The Desire Map: A Guide to Creating Goals<\/strong> by Danielle LaPorte<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.teamly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/The-Desire-Map-Book-on-Time-Management.png\")
Publisher<\/strong>: Sound True
\nYear Published<\/strong>: 2014
\nNumber of Pages<\/strong>: 288<\/p>\n<\/span>Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World<\/strong> by Cal Newport<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"Deep](\"https:\/\/www.teamly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Deep-Work-Book-by-Cal-Newport.png\")
Publisher<\/strong>: Grand Central Publishing
\nYear Published<\/strong>: 2016
\nNumber of Pages<\/strong>: 304<\/p>\n<\/span>Time Blocking: Destroy Procrastination, Get More Done, and Feel Great About It<\/strong> by Abe Wood<\/span><\/h2>\n
![\"Time](\"https:\/\/www.teamly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Time-Blocking-Book-by-Abe-Wood.png\")
Publisher<\/strong>: Thomas Steel
\nYear Published<\/strong>: 2021
\nNumber of Pages<\/strong>: 47<\/p>\n
![\"Getting](\"https:\/\/www.teamly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Getting-Things-Done-The-Art-of-Stress-free-Productivity-Book.png\")
Publisher<\/strong>: Penguin Books![\"Mind](\"https:\/\/www.teamly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/Mind-Mapping-Book-on-Time-Management.png\")
Publisher<\/strong>: MindLily