3 Inspiring Books To Help Increase Productivity And Achieve Goals
In this blog post, I list 3 inspiring books to help you increase productivity and achieve goals. If you’re like me, you might tend to procrastinate and plan more often than you take action. I’ve been working on this myself for a while and came across three books within the past couple of years that have helped me to operate in different ways to increase my productivity toward achieving my goals.
First, if you are looking for a step-by-step guide to setting goals, visit this article: “Goal Setting Methods that Work.”
Now, the 3 inspiring books that I recommend in this post can help you to be more productive, take action, and achieve your goals faster and more efficiently. They can complement your existing goal-setting practices and work individually. In any case, I have found the information presented in these books to be valuable to help increase productivity and achieve goals. I am sharing them because they have helped me to be more consistently productive, stop procrastinating, achieve my goals quicker, and avoid overwhelm – and I want to share them with you.
What are the three books to help you increase productivity and achieve your goals?
They are:
Keep reading below for a brief synopsis of each of the books and how when applied, they can help increase your productivity and achieve your goals faster.
The 12-Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington
The 12-Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington introduces the idea of goal-setting for 12 weeks instead of 12 months. The concept as stated in the book is to “do more in 12 weeks than you normally would in one year.” Thus, accomplishing your goals faster. The 12-week year forces one to re-envision the way we view a year – basically down to a short, but very productive 12 weeks.
Reading and applying The 12-Week Year has changed the way I plan my goals. As I write this post, I’ve implemented three 12-week years. It has been a learning curve yet by implementing it, I have gotten closer to my goals than just focusing on annualized goal-setting. The authors actually encourage their readers to do away with annual goal setting and planning, which they call annualized thinking. With annualized thinking, we tend to lack a sense of urgency for most of the year until crunch time at year-end – which is generally during the last quarter of the year. During a 12-week year, that year-end urgency, focus, and energy will occur more often, allowing for intentional actions and implementation strategies that lead to creating better results.
“The 12-week year provides the tools and focus for individuals and organizations to be highly successful. It creates a sense of clarity regarding what is important, and a sense of urgency each day to do what is necessary. Furthermore, it addresses harvesting today’s opportunities and also planting the essential seeds necessary to ensure continued success”
Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington, The 12-Week year
Main Concepts from the Book The 12-Week Year:
- Every 12 weeks is equal to one year = do more in 12 weeks than you normally would in one year. Thus, accomplishing your goals faster.
- Get results by focusing on the few most important tasks and daily execution tactics (actions).
- Reach your goals and your current results in a shorter period
- It is great for businesses, teams, and individuals.
Helpful Tools, Tips & Resources from the Book The 12-Week Year:
- How to create a long-term vision to stay motivated
- Learn how to create your 12-week goals, tactics, and implementation strategies
- Strategic weekly planning resources to make the most of your time and performance
- Access to other resources, workshops, and more available on the website: www.12weekyear.com
Atomic Habits by James Clear
The book Atomic Habits, by James Clear provides sound advice on increasing productivity by taking a hard look at your daily habits and making positive changes. By maintaining a regular routine of small (and easy) positive habits, they will become a source of incredible power and growth.
Habits and routines matter in the day-to-day because they are significant in what is causing results – whether they are positive or negative. If you seek to obtain positive results or aspire to achieve your goals, it could ultimately be impossible if you are not attending to some sort of daily system or habits – specifically ones that promote your growth. If you feel your habits are causing you more negative potential than positive, the author offers insight and advice on how to overcome it.
There are also exercises and templates to help you discover your current habits and how they may or may not be helping you and also how to level it up with your habits to achieve the most long-term success.
If you are interested in learning how to step up your daily habits, pick up the book.
Main Concepts from the Book Atomic Habits:
- Learn to “build good habits and break bad ones“
- Small habits and incremental improvements make a big difference
- The effects of small habits compound over time
Helpful Tools, Tips, and Resources from the Book Atomic Habits:
- Gain access to a habit tracker template
- Learn how to habit stack and why it is useful
- Learn about the habit loop and 4 laws of behavior change to help you create good habits and break bad ones.
- More tools, templates, articles, and resources are available on the author’s website: www.jamesclear.com
“Habits are like the atoms of our lives. Each one is a fundamental unit that contributes to your overall improvement. At first, these tiny routines seem insignificant, but soon they build upon each other and fuel bigger wins that multiply to a degree that far outweighs the cost of their initial investment. They are both small and mighty. This is the meaning of the phrase atomic habits – a regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do, but also the source of incredible power; a component of the system of compound growth.”
James Clear, Atomic Habits
The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss
The 4-Hour Work Week, by Timothy Ferriss, is a book about lifestyle design – changing the way you operate to achieve the lifestyle you want. The book is fueled with motivation and resources that will give you no choice but to act immediately to pursue your goals and dreams.
“Lifestyle design is not creating an excess of idle time, rather putting your free time to positive use = doing what you want rather than what you feel obligated to do.”
Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Work Week
This book is especially motivating if you want to make a change or take a leap such as quitting a job, traveling, or beginning your own business. Tim Ferriss gives you concrete advice, tools, and resources to inspire you to make it work.
Read it more than once (if you feel the need) because there is a wealth of information and resources that will continue to inspire.
“The object is to create freedom of time and place and use both however you want”
Timothy Ferriss, The 4-Hour Work Week
Main Concepts from the Book The 4-Hour Work Week:
- Lifestyle design: design your lifestyle that allows for more free time to do the things you want to do.
- Learn how to ‘free your time’ to pursue your goals and dreams.
- Learn the rules of the New Rich (NR)
Helpful Tools, Tips, and Resources from the Book The 4-Hour Work Week:
- Gives a ‘recipe’ to create your dream lifestyle.
- Activities and exercises at the end of each chapter.
- Learn strategies for prioritizing your time and achieving optimum productivity.
- Determine your 6-month and 12-month dreams, how you will get there, and how much it will cost to pursue them.
- Comfort challenges – to overcome being uncomfortable
- Learn how to ‘free your time’
- Access to additional resources and the blog on the website: www.fourhourworkweek.com
“Being selective – doing less – is the path of the productive. Focus on the important few and ignore the rest.”
Timothy Ferriss, the 4-Hour Work Week
In Summary:
3 Inspiring Books To Help Increase Productivity And Achieve Goals
If you find yourself spending more time planning, procrastinating, thinking, and not taking action, or if you feel you are moving at a snail’s pace and want to be more efficient and increase your productivity, then read these books NOW and apply them to your life.
- The 12-Week Year, by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington – teaches the concept of goal-setting for 12 weeks instead of 12 months
- Atomic Habits, by James Clear – teaches the power of having good habits as well as how bad habits can be destructive.
- The 4-Hour Work Week, by Timothy Ferriss – lots of resources and inspiration to live a freer life, and make money, while doing the things you want to do.
Visit these other articles from Bloom Brilliance:
Five Self-Help Books for Personal Development
Goal Setting Methods that Work
Create a Personal Timeline To Reach Your Goals
Taking Consistent, Daily, Action to Boost Efficiency
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