Best Productivity Books to Read in 2024

Here's our best picks of books to make you more productive. Each book provides tips, lessons and habits to create a more productive lifestyle to get more done.

Productivity books can help us be better and improve various routines in our daily lives.

There are so many to choose from, and new productivity books are released every day from big and small publishers.

Ranging from healthy-focused productivity to the more hardcore-focused hustle culture books. Let's explore the best productivity books for this coming year.

What is a productivity book?

A productivity book is focused on self-development. It helps you get more done and addresses personal issues related to your work. Reading is a healthy habit for productivity.

Best Productivity Books to Read: Picks

• 1. Getting Things Done by David Allen - For task and note management
• 2. Building A Second Brain by Tiago Forte - For building a notes system.
• 3. Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracey - How to handle tough tasks.
• 4. Atomic Habits by James Clear - For habit tracking and healthy routines.
• 5. Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky - Creating Healthy Approaches
• 6. Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman - The importance of balance and life.
• 7. How to be a Productivity Ninja by Graham Allcott - To enjoy productivity.

Let's dive into a little more detail about each productivity book.

1. Getting Things Done

Stress-Free Task Management

• Author: David Allen
• Reviews: Art of Getting Things Done - GoodReads

Getting Things Done by David Allen was first published in 2001 and was the beginning of the GTD methodology. The GTD method is a way of gaining control over your tasks to get more done and achieve a less stressful life.

The book talks about how most people experience stress due to their unprocessed thoughts and unfinished tasks. Most of us can relate to it since life is so busy, thoughts leave our minds quickly and we forget what needs to be done. There are a range of GTD apps that work with his process.

Getting Things Done helps users organize their tasks to reduce the mental clutter many of us have when trying to do more than one thing at a time with no set plan or method. Throughout the book, you can learn how to handle personal life and work life with a better balance.

Overall, Getting Things Done advises on handling life, work, stress, managing thoughts, and creating a system to complete daily tasks with less stress to achieve a more balanced lifestyle.

2. Building a Second Brain

Creating a Digital Brain

• Author: Tiago Forte
• Reviews: Building a Second Brain - Goodreads

Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte was first published in 2020 and was created to teach others how to manage their notes and knowledge in a "Second Brain" system.

The book talks all about how to enhance your personal knowledge management by Building a Second Brain to capture, organize, and retrieve information to help you remember things, achieve goals, and store important thoughts or notes you may need in the future.

The book goes over different apps you can use to create a Second Brain and different methods like the PARA method for organizing your notes and thoughts. Illustrations and graphics help the reader understand the concept a little better too.

Overall, Building a Second Brain teaches you how to make the most of your thoughts, notes, ideas, and knowledge to create a system that helps you achieve goals. You can use apps such as Obsidian and Logseq to begin building your second brain system.

3. Eat That Frog!

Forward Focused Tasks

• Author: Brian Tracey
• Reviews: Eat That Frog! - Goodreads

Eat That Frog by Brian Tracey was first published in 2001, the book helps to motivate readers to complete their important tasks first by working on their time management skills. It's essentially a method to make sure you get things done in order of priority or skill level.

This book is a motivational guide covering many strategies and concepts to help readers learn how to manage their time better, boost productivity, and get more things done by achieving their most important goal or completing the highest priority task first.

Some strategies Eat That Frog covers are priority settings, self-discipline, and optimizing your environment to create the right physical and mental space to get things done and complete your daily tasks, all whilst having a healthy work-life balance through time management.

Overall, Eat That Frog is all about the concept of completing the biggest, or highest priority task first to therefore boost motivation and productivity for the rest of the day. We have an entire guide to help you plan your week better and implement this method.

4. Atomic Habits

Better Habit Tracking

• Author: James Clear
• Reviews: Atomic Habits - Goodreads

Atomic Habits by James Clear was first published in 2018. The book teaches the science behind habits, and how to create healthy sustainable habits and break the bad ones. If you want to begin tracking habits you can check out our best habit tracking apps here.

The main premise of the books is to teach readers to create small and easy-to-complete habits to build up to creating the whole or larger habit. It also covers different strategies and real-life examples. So when you read the book you can test different methods and see what works for you.

Some of the key concepts Atomic Habits covers are The Four Laws of Behaviour Change and the Two Minute Rule for setting small achievable goals to feel motivated towards creating a new healthy habit or breaking a bad one.

Overall, Atomic Habits is an in-depth book with achievable methods to create healthier and sustainable habits to achieve your goals and lead a better lifestyle.

5. Make Time

How to Find Time To Achieve Goals

• Authors: Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky
• Reviews: Make Time - Goodreads

Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky was first published in 2018 and is all about making time for the things you want to achieve, and the things that make you happy. Productivity tools such as daily planners and time-blocking methods help with this.

Make Time helps readers improve their daily routines to achieve better focus and productivity on the things they want to do and achieve, rather than wasting time and not moving forward to achieve goals.

The authors of the book share their own stories and a four-step framework to help readers make better more informed choices on how they spend their time to fit in both work and the fun fulfilling elements of life. These concepts include highlighting important tasks and removing distractions to get things done.

Make Time also covers the importance of prioritising your mental and physical health because when you do, you'll be in a better positive to work harder and enjoy life at the same time. You can learn more about this in our Mindful Productivity Guide.

6. Four Thousand Weeks

Killing Toxic Productivity

• Author: Oliver Burkeman
• Reviews: Four Thousand Weeks - Goodreads

Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman was first published in 2022, it's a thought-provoking book challenging the way we spend time and toxic productivity.

This book is about making the most of the time you have with what you have rather than dwelling on your limiting beliefs that you cannot do things. It also talks about how doing tons of things at once creates more stress and a less meaningful lifestyle.

So, this book teaches readers to embrace what they have and where they are to make the most of their time, to stop trying to do tons of things with no meaning, and to do the things that will bring positive outcomes and fulfillment instead.

Four Thousand Weeks uses insights from psychologists, spiritual teachers, and philosophers to help readers create a better relationship with their time. Great for anyone who feels like their stuck in a rut, and want to begin enjoying life again.

7. How to be a Productivity Ninja

Creating Productivity Systems

• Author: Graham Allcott
• Reviews: How to be a Productivity Ninja - Goodreads

How to be a Productivity Ninja by Graham Allcott was first published in 2014. This book is all about being more mindful of your approach to productivity and creating a unique system that works for you.

It teaches you how to worry less, achieve more, and enjoy the things you do. The aim is to become someone great at managing their time, and tasks all whilst creating a well-balanced life with work and personal achievements.

How to be a Productivity Ninja follows a framework to create your routine to be more productive and less stressed, some of the key concepts include capturing and organizing tasks and practicing mindfulness along with energy management. You can use apps such as Things 3 and 2Do for this.

Overall, this book is a mindfulness-based productivity book to help readers reduce being overwhelmed by tasks to create a more fulfilling life with reachable achievements.

Which Productivity Book Should I Read?

Not sure which productivity book to read? Maybe this list of best for might help.

Best Productivity Book For Better Task Management

Our recommendations would be Getting Things Done and Eat That Frog as the best for boosting task management.

Best Productivity Book for Re-Thinking Productivity

Our recommendation would be Four Thousand Weeks which focuses on re-picturing how you do work.

Best Productivity Book for Smarter Habits

Both Make Time and Atomic Habits are the best productivity books for developing better habits and boosting productivity.