Best productivity books to read in 2023

Reading is an excellent way to use our free time productively. This may seem counterintuitive initially, as sitting down to read is probably not your first choice when considering increasing your productivity.

However, reading is one of the simplest ways to learn tips, tricks, and tools to implement daily. You need to find a good book on productivity with reliable content, which can be difficult due to the multitude of options.

At Rambox, we work to help you be more productive, both in your personal and professional life. For that reason, we have created a list, under our criteria and experience, of the best five productivity books in 2023.

Why you should read productivity books

Before recommending book titles, we want you to know the advantages of spending time on this kind of reading.

First of all, reading daily has multiple advantages, among them:

• Improved vocabulary.
• Improved spelling.
• It boosts the imagination.
• It is a powerful remedy against stress.
• It strengthens commitment and willpower.

According to the European Statistical Office, Europeans spend less than 10 minutes daily reading. According to Pew Research, 26% of Americans in the United States admit to not having read a single book in the last year. From these data, the adult population spends little time reading and should be encouraged to do so.

Reading at least one book a year will improve your spelling and vocabulary, reduce your stress levels and boost your willpower. If, in addition, the book you choose to read is focused on productivity, it will also help you to be more effective in your work and daily life. These kinds of books are usually simple and easy to read, so finishing them will be easy if you do not have a good reading habit.

Reading books on productivity is an excellent investment of time. They offer you tips, tricks, and tools that you can immediately implement in your daily life.

Top productivity books: find what you need

These five titles we recommend below are an excellent selection if you are looking for productivity tips and tricks to solve various problems and needs. Be sure to read our descriptions to find the one that’s right for you.

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

Deep Work is a book that focuses on eliminating the modern world’s clutter, noise, and distractions. Removing these aspects makes it possible to focus on deep and productive work.

Deep work consists of professional activities performed in total concentration for extended periods. Working in this state has the following advantages:

• You will acquire the ability to learn complicated things and complex subjects more quickly.
• You will be able to produce high-quality results with the knowledge you possess.

This will bring you new value, strengthen your skills and cognitive abilities and allow you to produce at your best.

Getting to this state of concentration and maintaining it over time can be especially difficult in the world of technology, so if you need tips and advice on simplifying and eliminating distractions in your work, this book is for you.

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen

This book is based on the Getting Things Done (GTD) method, which assures that the more information you retain in your memory, the lower your productivity and concentration. It is one of the best reads on time management and how to avoid procrastination.

The GTD method is widely used today due to its effectiveness and easy implementation. It has five simple steps:

1. Capture: before organizing your work, you must take it out of your memory and put it in an external tool that the author calls “inbox”.
2. Process: once you have captured all the elements, you must process them. This step is based on converting the captured information into concrete tasks.
3. Organize: having processed the information, you must now sort it and move your tasks according to their project, urgency, or importance.
4. Review: tasks may change their priority, so it is essential to review the functions and clearly understand the importance and urgency of each job.
5. Do: this is the step where you will do the most work. After you have cleared your mind and organized all the tasks, the only thing left to do is to start working on them.

Implementing this method in your daily life will help you reduce the cognitive load the mental effort. You will stop multitasking; you will focus on something concrete and have a clear idea of the pending work.

This is the perfect book for those who need help overcoming feelings of confusion, anxiety, or overwhelm at work.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey

This book has sold, since its publication in 1989, more than 25 million copies worldwide. It is a self-improvement book because the author is convinced that the way we see the world is based on our perceptions.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People focuses on what he describes as “character ethics.” This ethic is achieved by forming and following a series of seven habits:

• Be proactive: the ability to examine your character, decide how you view yourself and your situations, and monitor your effectiveness.
• Start with the end in mind: you must begin everything you do with a clear destination and purpose. That way, you will ensure that the steps you take go in the right direction.
• Put first things first: be disciplined to prioritize your day-to-day actions based on what is most important, not most urgent.
• Think win-win: commit to creating situations and relationships that are mutually beneficial and satisfying to each party.
• Seek first to understand, then to be understood: before you can offer advice or solutions, you must seek to deeply understand the other person and their perspective through empathetic listening.
• Synergize: when you understand and value the differences in another person’s perspective, you can create synergy, which allows you to discover new possibilities through openness and creativity.
• Sharpen the saw: to be effective, you must spend time renewing yourself physically, spiritually, mentally, and socially. Continuous renewal will allow you to increase your ability to practice each habit synergistically.

This book is a good productivity read if you are more interested in long-term behavior modification than quick tricks.

How to be a Productivity Ninja: Worry Less, Achieve More and Love What You Do by Graham Allcott

How to be a Productivity Ninja is a book that transforms time management techniques and explains how to work smarter by adapting to the realities of today’s workplace.

With more and more people working in demanding, fast-paced roles today, traditional productivity advice, such as “get up 30 minutes earlier every day” is outdated.

This book focuses on the fact that productivity is a learned skill. For this reason, learning to work focused, perfecting workflows, and time management tricks can help you be more productive, work your set hours and enjoy your free time with less stress.

Ninjas are not known for being unconventional, so the tips in this book are different too. This book is suitable for people who tend to procrastinate and multitask. 

How to Stop Procrastinating: A Simple Guide to Mastering Difficult Tasks and Breaking the Procrastination Habit by S.J. Scott

This is one of the best books on improving productivity in procrastinating people. How to Stop Procrastinating is a simple guide to mastering complex tasks in a straightforward, systematic framework that will create an action-oriented habit in all parts of your life.

Procrastination can lead to many problems, such as poor grades, poor performance at work, poor diet, or health problems. For these reasons, the author considers it essential to eliminate these tendencies with the “anti-procrastination habit” through a series of practical tips.

This book aims at those who procrastinate, let some tasks slip away, or leave all their work to the last minute.

How can Rambox help you be more productive?

Rambox is a workspace simplifier with many features that will help increase your productivity. Here are some of them:

– Customizable workspaces: The more organized your workspace and tools are, the faster you can find what you need, thus increasing your productivity. In the case of Rambox, the app allows you to organize different workspaces. Customizable workspaces will enable you to group applications by category and display them in a way that suits your needs.

– Notification management: Rambox gives you complete control over your notifications. You can tailor the notifications of all your applications until they are pixel-perfect. Notifications can easily distract us, so it is essential to classify notifications and adapt them according to the needs of the working day.

– Quick Search: Rambox Quick Search is designed to maximize your productivity and efficiency. You’ll be able to save time by jumping from one app to another fast. Reply to someone in Slack, read an email or finish editing your document at ninja speed.

– Focus Mode: you can choose whether to turn off notifications indefinitely or set a manual time so that nothing disturbs you while you finish your task.

 

Now that you know how Rambox functionalities and features can help you improve your productivity, download Rambox, configure it to your liking, and enjoy all its advantages as soon as possible.

Any questions about the features of Rambox? Do not hesitate to contact us!