productivity Book Summaries

The War of Art explains how you can do more creative work and overcome your procrastination, distraction, and paralysis. Steven Pressfield says inside all of us is Resistance, a tricky enemy that sabotages our dreams, and it is the source of our fears, doubts, excuses, and poor habits.

Deep Work is about focusing deeply so you can thrive in your professional career. Cal Newport says reducing distractions and increasing our ability to concentrate will allow us to learn new skills faster and produce higher quality work.

The 4-Hour Workweek is about escaping the default 9-5 rat race and designing your ideal lifestyle. Tim Ferriss says we can improve our productivity by eliminating, automating and outsourcing the work we don't enjoy. He also shows how to build a passive income business to fully liberate our time.

Atomic Habits is a guide to building good habits and breaking bad ones. James Clear says all our habits follow a 4-Step Habit Loop which includes: cue, craving, response and reward. He explains practical techniques to "hack" each step so we can achieve lasting personal change.

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big is about the hilarious wisdom and many business failures of Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert. He shares pragmatic strategies for increasing our odds of success—by using systems over goals, building a talent stack and repeating (mysteriously powerful) affirmations.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is one of the most popular self-help books ever, selling over 25 million copies. Stephen Covey explains 7 principles that will help us become more effective. They include: taking 100% responsibility, playing the long-term game, and building win-win relationships.

Getting Things Done is a system to help us be more organized and productive. It basically turned into a popular movement during the early 2000's. David Allen says we can feel in control of our busy work lives, simply by learning to manage our daily tasks effectively.