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Sally Suggests: Books to Help Increase Your Productivity

Posted On: 03/28/2024 / Payroll Services
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Increase Your Company's Productivity With These Sally-Suggested Books!

If you’ve spent any time in the business world, you’ve probably been exposed to books on productivity. Making yourself more productive is always a good goal, but there’s so much literature out there that it’s difficult to separate the necessary reads from those that will waste your time. Fortunately, there is a core group of books that can help you make a change in how you work and manage your time.

Books to help increase productivity

The books below can all help to make you more productive, but they do so through divergent methods. Some are task-oriented, while others focus on theory. Some of the books are all about changing how you look at work, while others are about how you look at the way you think.



The Four Hour Work Week

One of the real classics of productivity, The Four Hour Work Week, is full of great tips that can really help a small business owner examine how and why they are using their time at work. It’s all about learning how to be efficient and when to hand off tasks, which can be amazingly useful for those who find themselves trying to do everything all at once.

While there have been plenty of books that build on the concepts of this one, The Four Hour Work Week is still incredibly relevant. While most readers are never going to be able to contract their work week in this manner, learning how to be flexible and productive at the same time is a great lesson for anyone to learn.

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

How you think plays a huge role in how successful you can be, so this book argues. Mindset by Carol S. Dweck is an amazingly popular book that takes a look at how successful people not only act, but how they think. The link between having a growth mindset and being productive is explored in depth in a way that makes sense in plain English. It’s not the most technical book out there, but it does go a very long way towards helping make a complex topic make sense.

Mindset may not necessarily be full of productivity tips, but it is full of information that you can use to become more productive. No matter what you go to this book for, you’ll walk away with information that you can use. Productivity is about more than figuring out how to do tasks more efficiently – it’s about learning how to train your mind.

Getting Results the Agile Way

If you work for a major corporation, you’re probably already at least nominally familiar with the Agile system. Developed by J.D. Meier during his years at Microsoft, it’s a fantastic system for figuring out how to get more out of your work. This book helps to outline and explain the system, which is far more effective than a presentation full of corporate buzzwords. Once you actually sit down and read it, you’ll understand why the system has become so popular.

Agile helps to reinforce the old adage of working smarter rather than harder. It’s full of tips on how not just to work, but to do the right kind of work. This is a fantastic book for anyone who wants to get ahead while still developing any kind of work-life balance.

The Productivity Project

The Productivity Project is a relatively new release, but it’s a winner. The book doesn’t just focus on how to make you more productive at work – it’s about how you can become more productive in all aspects of your life. While it certainly uses a lot of the same information that’s presented in other books, the delivery is a major selling point. This is a relatively easy read and one that will allow you to get a great deal of meaning out of what you’ve found within.

The Productivity Project is a recommended read for those who have already gone through a number of productivity books. It’s a new spin on some tried and true formulas, which you might need when you find yourself unable to progress.

The Power of Habit

Habit is a very powerful thing. You’re probably already aware of how your bad habits impact your life, but are you aware of how you can build up good habits to become more productive? This book really takes a look at how habits are formed and how they can make you more productive. It’s a good look at a concept that’s both simple and highly useful in daily life. If you’re willing to make big changes in order to become more successful, this is where you want to make your start.

The book breaks down forming habits in a way that is both easy and educational. Once you understand the methods, you’ll find it far simpler to start building the habits that will take you to the next stage of your life.

Getting Things Done

Getting Things Done is another old favorite in the world of productivity. It’s been out for nearly two decades now, but the information within is just as relevant now as it was at the turn of the millennium.

The new edition of the book goes into not just how the system works, but why. It’s very theory-heavy, which is great for those who want to really understand what makes productive people tick. It’s not quite as concise as the original edition, but it does provide so much depth that you’ll really grasp the ideas of getting things done in a new way.

Smarter Better Faster

One of the things that many workers – and managers – don’t understand is the difference between being busy and being productive. Smarter Better Faster helps to define the difference between the two. The book also focuses heavily on technology, particularly on how the improper use of productivity applications has made the world a little less productive and a little more crowded.

The book goes into depth about a number of management and HR issues as well. Helping to add a boost to the productivity of managers by focusing on the how and why definitely provides a bit of necessary management focus to the book.




These books on productivity can help change the way you look at work. Each of them has a slightly different track to success. If you’re looking for a way to increase the productivity of your business by putting these practices to work, make sure to contact PayTech today. We offer a variety of tips, newsletters, and HR solutions specifically designed to help our customers grow during their business journeys.