Top Productivity books recommended by experts

At MentorCruise, we are all about making the most out of the experience of others. As part of that, we've connected and asked dozens of experts and professionals about their favourite Productivity books – and here are the answers.

Table of Contents

Fundamentals of Productivity

Understanding the concepts of Productivity starts with understanding the fundamentals. On your way to mastery, it's crucial for you to understand how certain concepts were derived, and why things work like they do. Starting with these resources is the best way to do so.

Smarter Faster Better

Smarter Faster Better is a story-filled exploration of the science of productivity, one that can help us learn to succeed with less stress and struggle—and become smarter, faster, and better at everything we do.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day

This latest book by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky is not your normal bag of productivity tips and tricks to help you get more done in the office. It’s about “making time” for things that truly matter to you — like being fully present around your children, or writing that book you’ve always wanted to. It’s about distilling focus across all your activities so that you can live a fuller life.

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Free to Focus

"Free to Focus" by Michael Hyatt is a productivity book that helps readers identify and eliminate distractions in order to focus on meaningful work. It offers practical advice and tools for achieving greater efficiency and effectiveness in both work and life.

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Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience

What is Flow about? Flow (1990) explores how we can experience enjoyment in our lives by controlling our attention and strengthening our resolve. This is achieved by being immersed in an activity or subject that makes us neither anxious (if it's too hard), nor bored (if it's too easy).

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Getting Things Done

Getting Things Done (GTD) is a personal productivity system developed by David Allen and published in a book of the same name. GTD is described as a time management system. Allen states "there is an inverse relationship between things on your mind and those things getting done".

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High output management

A topic covered in High Output Management is for managers to choose Key Performance Indicators to help their team achieve results. Managers are responsible for ensuring their teams have KPIs linked to the company OKRs. Managers can also create both team and individual KPIs to measure what gets done.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Additional Productivity Reading

These books are not required for you to learn Productivity, but they are highly recommended for you to deepen your knowledge.

The 4-Hour Workweek

The 4-Hour Work Week is all about how to change the way readers look at how they live and work and why they should challenge old assumptions. The author writes from a unique vantage point. He created a life and a career he chose out of consistently questioning the traditional assumptions about life and work.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

The Checklist Manifesto

What is The Checklist Manifesto about? Drawing from his experience as a general surgeon, Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto (2009) reveals startling evidence on how using a simple checklist can significantly reduce human error in complex professions such as aviation, engineering and medicine.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Limitless: Upgrade Your Brain, Learn Anything Faster, and Unlock Your Exceptional Life

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Eat that frog

Eating that frog means tackling your most challenging task—and it's also the one that can have the greatest positive impact on your life. Productivity and time management coach Brian Tracy shows you how to organize each day so you can zero in on these critical tasks and accomplish them efficiently and effectively.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

The 80/20 Principle

The Pareto principle states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes. In other words, a small percentage of causes have an outsized effect. This concept is important to understand because it can help you identify which initiatives to prioritize so you can make the most impact.

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

Zen to Done: The Ultimate Simple Productivity System

Zen To Done is a simple system to get you more organized and productive, and keep your life saner and less stressed, with a set of habits. ZTD teaches you: * The key habits needed to be productive, organized, and simplified... and no more than that. * How to implement these key habits... tips on forming a habit. * How to organize these habits into a simple system that will keep everything in y…

Recommended by the experts and mentors at MentorCruise

This list is curated by MentorCruise and can include Amazon affiliate links. Have any other suggestions? Add here.

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