What books on personal productivity are you reading?

I drive a lot. Consequently, I try to improve my mind by listing to audio books… My car is my university. It’s also my daughter’s canteen and dog’s bed but that’s a bit off topic.

There are some books which have really resonated over the years, and some which have been so appalling, I’ve nearly driven into a lamp post.

Firstly, does anyone have a personal favourite, which they keep coming back to?

And secondly, have you tied it into your implementation of Omnifocus.

Obviously I am not including anything by David Allen

Currently I am listening to Covey (the other one’s) 4 Disciplines of Execution. I’m broadly sympathetic to it’s message but not entirely sure yet.

Rather unconventionally, I have just finished The Nerdist Way by Chris Hardwick, which was hysterical- by far the funniest book on productivity I’ve found, and properly rude- bonus points. And swearing (more bonus points, I’m a soldier).

I’ve also quite enjoyed Zen to Done, but realised that it doesn’t account for the maelstrom of stuff that flies towards me each week. “Sorry, Colonel, but I am only committing myself to three tasks this morning” is a phrase which will never pass my lips.

Anyone?

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The 7 Habits book is like David Allen’s GTD books. I’ve found that I had to put it away for a year before re-reading it. I would often pick up different things that i didn’t discover on the previous reading. I’d put it away for another year and re-read it again.

Zen-To-Done was my pathway to GTD. I tried David Allen’s way first and just fell off the bandwagon. Then I tried ZTD and was able to successfully adopt many of the GTD practices over time. I think that ZTD is more of a beginner’s introduction to GTD. But many experienced GTD practitioners can definitely pick up a lot of tips from the ZTD and incorporate it into their existing system.

Although it’s not an audiobook, I did find a couple of books that were helpful.

Michael Linenberger’s “Master Your Workday Now” is a nice workflow that tries to fill in areas where GTD doesn’t really explain that well.

http://www.amazon.com/Master-Your-Workday-Now-Strategi-ebook/dp/B004FN1LSS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411538340&sr=8-1&keywords=master+your+workday+now

I also like J.D. Meier’s “Getting Results the Agile Way” as another productivity workflow

http://gettingresults.com/wiki/Main_Page

For OmniFocus, Asian Efficiency’s OmniFocus 2 Premium Posts is definitely worth its price in gold. It has helped me advance quickly in OF2 rather than trying to experiment and spend hours searching for OF2 blog posts.

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I also love listening to audio books, Since I prefer fiction, I usually listen to the classics. There are some great non-fiction books available in audio version too, you just have to search more.

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The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg.

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Focal Point by Brian Tracy *** EXCELLENT choice for driving I’d say

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“The Power of Habit” is a good one

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Snicker all ya want. I picked up a copy of “Getting Things done for Teens” for my daughter. It’s actually pretty good! Written by a teacher who practices GTD and breaks it down and makes it easier to digest.

The Bullet Journal by Ryder Caroll has sharpened up my personal workflow when I wanted to use OmniFocus as my digital storage and a BuJo as my daily driver.

Master Your Workday Now by Michael Linenberger - A GTD alternative that fills in holes that I can’t fill up with David Allen’s GTD.

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

Other books on my “To Read” List are:

Essentialism by Greg McKeown
Work Simply by Carson Tate

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I’m reading The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod, which is all about improving personal productivity.