There is a big difference between being busy and being productive. Regardless of how busy one is, one’s success can only come from relentless productivity. – Edmond Mbiaka
Have you ever felt you have too many things to do and too little time?
Out of all the books I have read on productivity, I found the following three books to be the best. You will find answers to most of your questions here.
If you want to improve your personal productivity, you only need to read the following 3 books.
Read in the same order
- Brian Tracy – Eat that frog
- David Allen – Getting things done
- Stephen Covey – First Things first
Brian Tracy Eat that frog
What I like about this book.
It is short and simple.
All the important concepts about productivity are explained in a simple manner.
The book is very practical and with no jargons whatsoever.
The most important insight from the book
“If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.” This is another way of saying that if you have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first.”
Title of the book is derived from the quote of Mark Twain
“ Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
The frog is a metaphor for the task you will most likely procrastinate on or the dreadful task you don’t want to do.
Brain Tracy recommends you to finish that task in the morning. Give that task your top priority.
Once you finish that task, you will feel more empowered and your day will be productive.
David Allen – Getting things done
This book is the most popular books in productivity genre and the system is followed by millions of people all across the world.
This book explains the entire system in a step by step format. This makes it easier to understand. There are 5 steps in total.
The most important insight from the book
“There is no reason to ever have the same thought twice unless you like having that thought.”
One of the important lessons in the book is – “Don’t keep anything in your mind. Put down everything on paper.”
At the beginning of the book, the author recommends you to list down everything that is incomplete in your life. He calls them open loops.
During this exercise, you brain dump everything on paper (or on the computer). This exercise could take anywhere between 30 minutes to 4 hours. By the end of the exercise, you will have a lot of clarity.
Other steps in the system will help you become more organized and get these tasks done.
One habit which the author recommends is the habit of Weekly Review. During the weekly review, you analyze the week that went by. You will analyze what went right, what you could have done better etc. You also make a plan for the next week.
If you do weekly review a regular practice, you will see a huge shift in your productivity in just a few weeks.
Stephen Covey – First Things first
What I like about this book.
One thing that sets this book apart for all the books is Authors give a lot of importance to Vision, roles than daily routine tasks.
The most important insight from the book
“it is that a meaningful life is not a matter of speed or efficiency. It’s much more a matter of what you do and why you do it, than how fast you get it done.” ― Stephen R. Covey, First Things First:
An important insight I got from the book is the authors ask you to separate the tasks into Urgent or Important. The resulting quadrants include:
- Important and Urgent
- Important, Not Urgent
- Urgent, Not Important
- Not Urgent, Not Important
Most people spend most of their time in quadrants 3 & 4 and very less time on quadrant 2. We need to structure our lives in a way, where we spend most of the time in Quadrant 2.
Most people spend a lot of time doing the tasks that are urgent and ignore what’s important. It is important that you spend more time on the tasks that are important and may not be urgent.
Action step:
Decide one book you want to read.
Amazon links:
If you have any questions about improving your personal productivity, email me at srinivas@srinivasvakati.com
All the best
Srinivas
