Purposeful Productivity: A Helpful Book Trio
A book flight + top takeaways for those who wish to experience productivity in a healthy and meaningful way!
“I long for a sense of accomplishment without also feeling like I’ve run myself ragged to achieve it.”
Checking things off the list can feel incredibly motivating and energizing for many of us. I know I’m not the only one who adds things to the list at the end of the day just to experience the satisfaction of checking them off!
And while our to-do’s (or Inspired Actions, as I label them) can keep us on the path to our goals and fulfilling our responsibilities, they can also begin to overtake us rather than support us. Task completion is part of productivity, but it’s certainly not everything.
That’s where I’d like to provide some ideas today. A significant aspect of my coaching work focuses on helping people be purposefully productive; in other words, achieving big dreams and bold goals - and even simply the day-to-day requirements of work and life - but not in a frenzied, frantic, exhausting way. I want you to experience meaningful success and to go to bed at night feeling like you’ve been intentional with your time, honored your priorities, and moved the needle forward on your highest aspirations.
Below, I’m highlighting three books that can also support you in this endeavor. I’ll share a brief overview of each, as well as my top takeaway and a quote worth considering. At the end of the article, you’ll also find a few honorable mentions, too.
Is ‘Become more purposefully productive’ on your to-do list? Let’s begin so you can check it off!
** Quick reminder that book club meets this week! If you’re not a member, you can join at any time!
The One Thing by Gary Keller with Jay Papasan
I first read The One Thing when it came out back in 2012 and it immediately resonated with me. I held book clubs with leaders and professional groups around it, attended a One Thing seminar, conducted an interview with the presenter of said seminar shortly thereafter, and have reread the book multiple times in the years since then. I love its simplicity, focus, and immediate application.
Overview:
Rather than trying to complete a hundred different tasks in a hundred different directions, Keller and Papasan encourage readers to define our top-priority goal - our one thing - and turn the bulk of our attention and energy there. The book offers a focusing question to help make these decisions day after day:
“What’s the one thing I can do such that by doing it everything else will be easier or unnecessary?”
This book serves as a great resource for clearing away the excess noise, and includes a number of practical tools and solutions to support its thesis.
Takeaway:
One of my favorite tips in this book is actually the thing that many of my clients and discussion groups deemed the most unrealistic but agreed that, even in an adapted form (more on that in a moment), can truly make such a huge difference. The authors suggest blocking four hours per day to your one thing. They then offer several examples of this in action, such as the prolific author Stephen King, whose process involves writing in the morning and putting other tasks, responses, phone calls, and the like on pause until the afternoon. (Typing this is making me want to reread Stephen King’s writing memoir, On Writing, which I also remember loving!)
Now, four hours of uninterrupted focus time every day may not be realistic for all of us. But the point, as I see it, is routinely dedicating some focused time to what you’ve identified as your top-priority goal. It’s amazing what an hour a day, or even a few times a week, can do to move a goal forward! I like to partner this with another concept I also picked up from this book: “Be a maker in the morning and a manager in the afternoon.”
Keep In Mind:
“Big goals can seem unattainable at first… Sometimes things are easier than we imagine, and truthfully sometimes they’re a lot harder. That’s when it’s important to realize that on the journey to achieving big, you get bigger.” - Gary Keller & Jay Papasan
Tranquility By Tuesday by Laura Vanderkam
I read so much on the topic of time management and productivity that, every once in a while, I begin to think surely there isn’t anything new for me to learn. (Spoiler alert: There is always something new for me to learn!) And since I have also read all of Laura Vanderkam’s nonfiction works, when she released Tranquility by Tuesday in 2022 I wondered if it would simply be a repeat of information I’ve heard before. I was happily wrong on all accounts! This book ended up in my top ten nonfiction list of that year and I have sung its praises ever since.
Overview:
Two things set Vanderkam’s work apart from other time management writing for me: First, she is incredibly practical. This book shares nine rules, clearly stated and completely understandable even just by their titles (‘Plan on Fridays’ and ‘Three Times A Week Is A Habit,’ for instance), and immediately implementable.
Second, she clearly does her research, but she also writes from her perspective as a business owner, mom of five, and person with numerous outside hobbies. Productivity and time management books often seem to come from people who don’t need to worry about rearranging schedules to care for sick kiddos or who dedicate all waking hours to work and would perhaps scoff at my need to incorporate cross stitch into my day or at Vanderkam’s regular choir practices. I don’t know her, but she feels very relatable, and so her writing does, too.
Takeaway:
As previously mentioned, Tranquility by Tuesday shares nine rules, and I think my favorite is #9: Effortful Before Effortless. The emphasis here connects directly to being intentional with your time rather than gliding on autopilot. For example, if you want to read more but find yourself defaulting to something easier but that ultimately feels less fruitful, challenge yourself to read first - even just for five minutes. Make the effort to read three pages of that classic novel or new thriller, then flip on the TV or scroll on your phone. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, and those little pockets of effort add up over time. You might find that after five minutes you don’t want to stop reading - or if you do want to stop, you might do so with less guilt or self-frustration because you’ve done something intentional first.
Keep In Mind:
“So yes, admire a sleeping baby. Go somewhere beautiful, or sit by a big window in bad weather, and just take the world in. Have your morning cup of coffee outside and don’t look at your phone until you’ve reached the bottom of your mug. I wouldn’t call this doing ‘nothing.’ It is finding time for wonder - time that in our distracted world is often in short supply.” - Laura Vanderkam
Slow Productivity by Cal Newport
I discovered Cal Newport upon hearing him speak at a coaching conference in 2016, where I also received - and very quickly devoured - his new release at that time, Deep Work. I’ve been a fan ever since, particularly appreciating the way he sort of ‘bucks the trends’ in favor of a rich, focused, and prioritized life (he is a NY Times bestselling author with little presence on social media, for instance). Slow Productivity just came out last year and even without prior knowledge of his work, I think I would have bought the book just for that gorgeous cover!
Overview:
The title and subtitle clearly state the focus of this book, which is all about accomplishing goals and achieving success without being strapped to a continuous treadmill of production, notifications, responses, interruptions, and the like. The three tenets of slow productivity include 1) doing fewer things, 2) working at a natural pace, and 3) obsessing over quality. The target audience here primarily includes people who have a fair amount of autonomy in their work, yet while some of the specific suggestions might not be feasible for, say, an emergency room physician, many of the mindset and more ‘whole life’ (ie, in and out of the workplace) aspects are certainly adaptable.
Takeaway:
This is my fourth book by Newport, and I think my overall favorite thing about his work is the calm, deep, excellence-focused approach that really shines through in his writing style. I’ve found, too, that it’s often a brief side comment that sticks out in my mind even more than a full chapter topic. In Slow Productivity, I appreciated the numerous specific strategies offered for restructuring our workdays, such as minimizing ‘productivity termites’ (those little, less important tasks that can eat away at our energy all day long), to preparing well for seasons of intensity and of rest/calm, to scheduling ‘office hours’ to address non-urgent emails/requests all at once rather than here and there (and picking up the phone rather than a getting lost in string of back-and-forth emails). His examples from very recognizable names always provide an added level of intrigue, too!
Keep In Mind:
“Slow productivity doesn’t ask that you extinguish ambition. Humans derive great satisfaction from being good at what they do and producing useful things. This philosophy can be understood as providing a more sustainable path toward these achievements… Slow productivity supports legacy-building accomplishments but allows them to unfold at a more human speed.” - Cal Newport
Honorable Mentions
A few other books on the topic of purposeful productivity may speak to you as well:
The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi - A light-hearted yet helpful approach to ‘being a genius about things that matter and lazy about things that don’t.’ (This was a book club pick earlier this year and you can read more here.)
Stolen Focus by Johann Hari - All about our diminishing ability to pay attention, Hari’s experiment living without his phone for three months, and what he learned talking to various people about the power of intentional focus.
Feel-Good Productivity by Ali Abdaal - A nice introduction looking into productivity and achieving significant goals (the author completed medical school, for instance) leveraging energy and joy rather than toil and frustration.
What books would you recommend on the topic of productivity? If you’ve read any of the books I’ve mentioned here, what was your takeaway? What practices help you feel purposefully productive?
If you like this ‘book flight’ style of article, here’s one on Purposeful Communication, too!
********
Christi Hegstad, PhD, PCC, and self-proclaimed book nerd, is a certified coach who helps achievers work with meaning, live with purpose, and reach bold + difference-making goals. Feel free to share your questions, comments, or topic/book suggestions below or via email to readingandpurpose (at) gmail (dot) com.
Please note books mentioned may include affiliate links; if you click through to purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Reading And Purpose is a reader-supported publication. Thank you for being here!