The Books I Recommend If You're Trying to Manage Your Time Better

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Efficient time management takes, well, time to perfect. There are a variety of hacks out there to help you schedule, focus, and complete your work, but it’s still hard to actually do all of that without the right guidance and mindset. If you’re struggling with time management, it might be worth spending some time digging deep on the topic and reading what experts have to say. Here are some of the best books I recommend to help you improve your time management skills.

For a whole-day overhaul

The 5AM Club: Own Your Morning. Elevate Your Life by Robin Sharma

If your goal is to wake up every day and kick things off with maximum productivity and overall put-together-ness, try Robin Sharma’s best-selling manifesto on embracing mornings (something I've been endeavoring to do myself for a few months). Sharma believes success starts early in the morning, so if you can harness the power of your morning routine and get up early to greet the day, you can be more focused, productive, and happy—and I've certainly found that to be true for myself, though it absolutely is rough to get used to waking up earlier. It doesn’t take much, either: You just need one hour every morning for this, meaning this goes hand-in-hand with the concept of a "Power Hour," which also comes from a book you should read. Reviewers call it a “game changer” and “extremely important.”

To maximize the least amount of time 

 The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More With Less by Richard Koch

You may have heard the old adage that 80% of our success comes from 20% of our work—or the Pareto Principle, which I've written about if you need a reminder—but what do you do with that information and how do you apply it to your life? Koch’s book is all about how you can identify the 20% of your effort that truly counts for productivity, then focus in on it. This is great for people who have way too much going on. Reviewers say it can “add hours to your days” and increase your happiness.

To lean in on focusing

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

I recommend Newport’s deep work practice pretty often around here, and for good reason: Learning the skill of focusing hard on your important tasks is key to handling your responsibilities well and getting everything done. Deep work is all about getting more efficient by eliminating distractions, so you’ll end up doing more in less time. It's integral to getting into a flow state, and you need to master it if you want to succeed with other productivity approaches, like the Pomodoro technique. Newport is all about leaning in on the truly demanding tasks, not taking shortcuts to avoid them, so this is perfect for anyone who truly cares about the quality, not just the quantity, of their output.

If you don’t know where to start

Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy

If you want to get a sense of the sheer amount of productivity hacks out there—and which one is best for your specific needs—try this book of 21 tips, which is in its third edition. It’s part of a series by Tracy, so you could pick up a version for students or supplemental cards to keep on hand as reminders, but the original book is a hit for a reason. Its most famous tip is, of course, that you should "eat the frog," or tackle your biggest, most demanding task right away every day, but there are a handful of other solid ideas in there that can suit anyone's needs if that doesn't work for you. (Eating the frog isn't my preferred time management method, but that's why it's great there are so many options.) Reviewers call the steps “practical” and praise Tracy for being a consistently helpful read for years.

To embrace an old classi

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

You’ve heard of this book before. Maybe you heard of the version geared toward teens or saw someone else using the supplemental workbook. It’s been around more than 30 years, and it’s a classic in the productivity world. Covey recommends being proactive, beginning tasks with the end in mind, prioritizing, thinking “win/win,” seeking to understand before being understood, synergizing, and taking time to recharge—and if that sounds vague, it’s only because he then goes into much greater detail in the book itself, which reviewers say should be part of your permanent library.

To gain perspective

168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam

If it feels like you just don’t have enough time in a day to get everything done, you could just be dealing with an issue of perspective. Instead of thinking about the 24 hours in your day, try thinking about the 168 in a week—and then figuring out where the important stuff fits in there, so you’re sure to get it done. Vanderkam advocates for identifying what genuinely matters—and what doesn’t—then scheduling around it in a way that recognizes you really do have time for it. The only issue? You won’t be able to use being “too busy” as an excuse not to do the things you want to do anymore. I like this technique a lot and have used it to reframe my thinking around my busy weeks to great effect.

For goal-setting

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman

I've recommended one of Burkeman’s principles—the 3-3-3 method—before, but his full book, a New York Times bestseller, goes into much more detail on what he believes are the secrets to maximizing the productivity of your life. Hint: You’re going to think long-term—even longer-term than Vanderkam suggests—as the first thing you have to do is realize that not only is your life finite, but on average, you only have 4,000 weeks in it. That doesn’t seem like a lot when you think about it, right? The goal is to figure out how to use them to the best of your ability, which reviewers say the book helps with by reconciling readers with the fact that you won’t get everything done, so you have to decide what is most important to get done.