Best Productivity Books In 2022

Have you ever found yourself using the classic phrase, ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’? Come on, we all have, this is why you need a book like this. Get Sh*t Done: The Ultimate Guide to Productivity, Procrastination, & Profitability is a goldmine of information for those who find execution challenges. Get Sh*t Done is a book for those who are not confident in their abilities to make things happen and how you can go about changing that narrative and creating something for yourself. Written by Jeffrey Gitomer, Get Sh*t Done educates you on procrastination, why it occurs, and what you can do about it.

The author, who is a well-respected writer, business teacher, and professional speaker, helps you understand what is getting in your way when you want to get things done. The book doesn’t stop there; it also gives you tips and tricks which you can use to move obstacles out of your way as you embark on a journey to get sh*t done! Additionally, Get Sh*t Done comes in an audio format, meaning you can listen to it anywhere you go and at any time.

If you speak to a lot of people about bad behaviors that they may possess, they may give you an answer like, ‘I know. I want to be better, but change is hard.’ Well, they are lying. They might not know they are telling a fib, but they are, because, as you’ll find after reading Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything, change isn’t as challenging as it is made to look. In Tiny Habits, BJ Fogg challenges some of our deepest preconceived notions and explains how they could be ruining our lives.

It’s possible to have been sold on the idea that willpower is the best way to deal with an addiction or stop an otherwise harmful habit, but after reading this, you might come away with the idea that this isn’t always accurate. Also, the reader gets to learn about the importance of flexibility and how being a stickler to a set plan could take you back rather than move you forward. You need to read Tiny Habits, and when you’re done, you just might realize that the insurmountable goal you once thought you had, might not be so impossible to attain after all. For more amazing titles to help you get started, check out our guide to the best books for entrepreneurs.

For years, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman has influenced some of the world’s most influential authors and speakers including, Malcolm Gladwell and Steven Pinker. Finally, he has deemed it fit to share some of his astounding knowledge with us. For as long as we can remember, the inner workings of the mind and how people think has held an unmistakable allure for the average human being. It is for this reason that crime shows are so popular as we try to piece together how people think.

In his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman definitively explains the two modes of thinking that drive our lives: fast, emotional reasoning, and slow, deliberate, and logical thinking. The book delves into details about how these concepts work in our minds and how they lead us to do some of the things we do. That’s not all; the book is also written simply and concisely which is easy to grasp and doesn’t need you to be a behavioral scientist to understand. What’s more, if you purchase a physical copy of the book, you also get a free audiobook, which you can easily listen to anywhere. You may also like some of the best coffee table books from our list, so check them out.

You’ll be surprised at the number of people who self-sabotage themselves. Whether it is messing up an incredible relationship because they feel they aren’t good enough or ruining their careers due to imposter syndrome, self-sabotage is a real problem. However, self-sabotage is also sh*t and should be eradicated from your life. How do I do that? I hear you ask. Well, for one, you can get a copy of Stop Doing That Sh*t: End Self-Sabotage and Demand Your Life Back, which is the quintessential book for those looking to end self-abuse.

Gary Bishop has an important message for people in this book; you can turn your life around. In this book, the author tries to explain the mental mechanisms that make us so prone to self-sabotage, because, it is easier to stop doing something if you know why you do it in the first place. Furthermore, the reader is privy to information about how to take back your life even after it seems to be going out of control. Therefore, buying this book is a way to invest in yourself, or you can get it as a gift for someone who truly needs it. For more amazing titles like this, check out our selection of the best strength conditioning books.

In what can only be described as a classic, Stephen Covey teaches us about the habits that the people who are doing better than us have employed to make their lives that way. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change is a book that has changed lives for the last two decades, and even with so much time, the lessons in the book are no less poignant. In the book, Covey lists the seven crucial habits as Be Proactive, Begin With The End In Mind, Put First Things First, Think Win-Win, Seek First To Understand Then Be Understood, Synergize, and Sharpen The Saw.

That’s not all; the author also takes us in-depth into each habit, explains it, and demonstrates how it can be implemented into your everyday life. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People has been read by everyone from presidents to blue-collar workers, and it would be a shame if you were to miss out on learning the great secrets this book has to offer. If you like reading while spending time in nature, check out our guide to the best camping books for the outdoor and pick your favorite titles.

If you look through a list of the richest men in the world, there’s a chance that 0.001% of them earned their success by sheer luck. More often than not, success is obtained through intentional steps that lead the voyager to their intended destination.

Therefore, it is fair to say that successful people don’t act the way regular people do. So, how do they act? What do they do? These are the questions that The 10X Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure sets out to answer for the reader. In this book, Grant Cardone explains the difference between those who succeed and those who fail and the critical distinction between them. Add to that lessons about never settling, achieving goals, and fear, and you can see why this is such an impactful book. You may also be interested in some of the best graphic novels for adults, so check them out.

In the discussion about the best productivity books, you would be remiss to leave out Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. This classic book focuses on the high-achievers and high-flyers and tries to answer the question: What makes them so different from everyone else? Most times, the answer you would be provided with is their investing techniques, the habits they have imbibed, and other metrics. Gladwell flips the script and points at other factors to success that you might not have taken into consideration.

Some of these factors include upbringing, social status, nationality, and life experiences. Outliers is a fascinating read that delves into some of the secrets of success that you could implement in your life. In addition, it also helps you understand some of the others who have found success and what life experiences shaped them to achieve infamy. Besides, the book is filled with lively stories about the Beatles and why they are considered the best band in the world, and other stories about success and the unlikely factors that might have made it happen. For more valuable titles like this, check out our guide to the best business books that will help you achieve your goals.

What you might discover after some time is that successful people are usually the life of the party (not all of them.) This isn’t merely because they are successful, but because they know how to hold a conversation. Verbal communication is crucial, and closing important business deals require a level of likability that can only be brought about through contact.

For some, striking up a conversation with strangers is a huge problem, and this sometimes stands in the way of them and a goal. In How to Talk to Anyone: 92 Little Tricks for Big Success in Relationships, you’ll learn how to scale this hurdle and talk to just about anyone. The book promises you 92 little tricks, but in reality, it gives you so much more. Learn to talk to celebrities, make powerful first impressions, feed someone’s ego (when necessary), and so much more. How to Talk to Anyone is an essential investment in yourself further to improve your relationships, both personal and professional. For chess lovers, we have prepared our selection of the best chess books. Check them out.

You know when you play an action video game, and you enter an area with no enemies? Well, more often than not, this means you’re in an area you’ve explored before or, you’re going the wrong way. For many gamers, the presence of enemies is an indication that they are going in the right direction. Life is somewhat similar as obstacles could be turned into opportunities and could be a marker for the path that we seek to chart.

Think about it, we’ve all faced hurdles, some of us have given up at these hurdles, but in The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph, you get to learn that giving up is not the right option. In this book, you get to learn about how some of the most iconic people in history, including Steve Jobs, Amelia Earheart, and others, were able to convert their trials into triumph. Moreover, you also get to learn about the Roman governor, who laid down the philosophical principles with which anyone could scale the walls that life puts in front of us.

Many authors who write self-help books talk from their own experiences or notions that they think should hold. Sometimes, they try to distill principles from the lives of famous people; however, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise does things a little differently. For over 20 years, Anders Ericsson studies athletes (both mental and physical) who were at the top of their game and learned about how they were able to improve in their craft. Ericsson has now used the data from this research to bring to us a book that teaches us how to get better at the things that matter.

On top of this, the book helps to shatter a couple of myths we might have been holding on to about how people acquire skills and improve. This is a book for those who want to get better at something, or who know someone in desperate need of improvement. It is suitable for almost any sport and is precepts that can even be used in your everyday life. Peak, has been lauded by many with Fortune magazine even saying of the book: “Anyone who wants to get better at anything should read [Peak]. Rest assured that the book is not mere theory. Ericsson’s research focuses on the real world, and he explains in detail, with examples, how all of us can apply the principles of great performance in our work or any other part of our lives.” Peak deserves to be read by everyone, get it today!

We’ve already featured a Malcolm Gladwell book on this list, and there is no need to introduce this luminary in the self-help and development scene. In Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Gladwell once more challenges our thinking and suggests that we look at things differently. In the book, we get valuable knowledge on the psyche of humans and what makes some people great decision-makers while others flounder. Additionally, it explains the thought process behind a split-second decision, and Gladwell tells the stories of extraordinary people who make on-the-spot decisions and are usually right.

Not only that, but Gladwell also delves into the stories of people who made the wrong decision at critical moments and the thought process behind those actions. Malcolm Gladwell’s books are always well researched and pay attention to the data and science when forming hypotheses for us to consider. Blink is no different, and in it, we are confronted by cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology, which lays bare the mechanisms that drive some of the decisions we make that we don’t even know we thought about. If you are also into cooking, be sure to read our reviews of the best cookbooks.

As students, we’ve all probably resorted to certain methods to help us retain knowledge and keep the stuff we’ve read in our heads. There were different techniques for different people, but we probably did things like highlight, cram, read certain sections of text, again and again, all in the hopes that we retain the knowledge gained. Peter Brown challenges this line of thinking in the ever thought-provoking Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning.

As it turns out, Brown believes that a lot of the methods we have erstwhile been used to study are actually counter-productive. What Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning does, is point out the wrong ways we’ve been studying and introduces new methods that we can use to learn more effectively. Besides, it doesn’t just gloss over these techniques; rather, it goes in-depth into it and helps the reader understand how to implement these processes. 

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear is an informative piece of literature that helps you with the age-long struggle of keeping up a good habit and ending bad ones. Clear is one of the leading minds on habit formation, and in this in-depth piece, he shares the secrets to breaking a bad habit that you may have been struggling with for years. Furthermore, he shares the small habits that you can start to implement that could lead to remarkable results.

For so long, when you find it impossible to break a habit, you tend to think that you are the problem; however, it is your system that is the problem, and a tweak of the system could lead to very impressive changes that you would ordinarily have thought impossible. More impressive still is a simple way Clear breaks down these concepts and makes them accessible for anybody. You should give Atomic Habits a try; you will not regret it. It also makes a useful graduation gift any graduate would appreciate.

Many people live and die without ever practicing their true talent, which is why it is popularly believed that the cemetery is the richest place on earth. The world is filled with so much untapped potential that it is frightening to watch. However, you don’t have to join the legions who go through life without finding purpose. You can read StrengthsFinder 2.0, and unlock your hidden talents with it. A follow up to the wildly successful StrengthsFinder, 2.0 comes with new and improved techniques through which you can discover your unearthed potential and start putting it to work.

This amazing book is one that can be finished in one sitting, but which contains information that you will use for decades to come. In StrengthsFinder 2.0, you get to learn about various strategies that aid you in applying your strengths. Also, the book comes with a website that also hosts vital information that you can use to change your life. Take control of your life today, read StrengthsFinder 2.0, and start using the strategies therein to turn your life around.