Why I’m Reading 101 Productivity Books

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(Picture this, mutiply it by 6, and that would be me)

What I’m up to:

I know I’m getting WAY ahead of myself here by announcing this now, but I thought you might be interested in following along over the next year or so as I research and prepare for what’s going to be my “greatest work” to date.

So I’m reading 101 books on Productivity,

Goals, and Time Management.

As the months go by, I’m going to test and try as many of these ideas as I can, and ultimately summarize and condense the best practices into the most practical and easy time management system ever made.

Why is this necessary? Well, most folks don’t want to read 101 books. Or screen through the great ones and the mediocre ones. Or painstakingly test them out for effectiveness. (Though most of those on this list look great).

And most books have ideas and lists of things to do. Great. So which things do you do, and in what order, and when? There’s rarely any structure to it, and that keeps even the most avid readers most people from applying what they need to at the right time.

I mean, think about it:

How many times have you read that you need to have long-term goals in order to know what to work toward? We all have read that and most people now gloss over that since it’s “nothing new,” even though they are not doing it yet themselves.

I have made long-term goals several times. Usually, I make them, forget about them for 2 years while focusing on the day-to-day, and then repeat the process.

This is what I envision my productivity training program to be like…(Picture this):

• You receive an email with a link to download a brief, action-oriented lesson—this week it’s on setting long-term goals.

• You read the lesson, which not only tells why goals are important but defines the exact process for creating long-term goals, how to use them to guide you in making short-term goals, where to store them, when to review them, etc.

• You fill out a worksheet with the best questions and ideas gleaned from 13 books on goals, which helps you to clear on what you really want in all areas of your life, and quantifying them into achievable tasks or events.

• You now have your long-term goals, and store them in the appropriate section of your “productivity binder,” as directed in the lesson.

• At the beginning of the next month, you are emailed the latest version of your Monthly Planning Checklist, which includes, among other things you have learned up to this point, a task to check off called “Review Long-Term Goals, Add to or make changes, select which long-term goals (only a few at a time) you will work toward this month.”

• You do this, check the item as done, and plan your month accordingly, following the simple, one-page checklist through the creative planning process until done.

• You smile because you know that next month there will be a new checklist with a few new items on it, based on the things you have learned in the most recent weekly lessons. In this way, you are not only learning how to be more effective and get more of the things you want in a fraction of the time, but you don’t have to remember anything. It’s all listed in the program as either a task or a resource to reference when needed.

101 Books Distilled into One Easy-To-Follow Program

Seriously, all you’ll have to do is open each week’s email, and do what it says. And that’s it. Not too much to do, not too many things to read, remember, or work on at once. Just setting powerful habits, one at a time.

80% of time management is setting habits, and doing it this way will remove the discipline, confusion, and help you be accountable. I say “you,” but I’m really making this for myself.

It’s an obsession! But fortunately, we live in a world where one can turn their obsession into their livelihood, which is why I’m going to turn what I learn into a product.

So, if you are subscribed to my newsletter, you’ll get updates from time to time on my progress and when the final course is created. If you haven’t subscribed yet, shame on you. Take 5 seconds to repent and do it now.

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In the meantime, here are the books I’ll be reading and you can follow along on my progress:

(Ones I’ve read so far have been italicized)

Your Mission / Vision / Strengths

Goal Mapping: How to Turn Your Dreams into Realities
The 4-Hour Workweek
The Path : Creating Your Mission Statement for Work & Life
How to Develop a Personal Mission Statement
How to Discover Your Personal Life Mission
How to Discover Your Personal Mission : The Search for Meaning
Personal Mission Statement : Defining Your Life’s Purpose
The Personal Vision Workbook
Visioneering : God’s Blueprint for Developing and Maintaining Personal Vision
How to Develop and Use a Personal Mission Statement
The Principles and Power of Vision : Keys To Achieving Personal and Corporate Destiny
Developing a Successful Personal & Business Vision : Shaping Your Future, Today
Premeditated Success in Life : The Power of Personal Vision
Vision, Values, and Results : … A Roadmap to Business and Personal Success
Guiding Growth : How Vision Keeps Companies on Course
Shaping the Future : A Dynamic Process for Creating and Achievingyour Company’s Strategic Vision
Full Steam Ahead! : Unleash the Power of Vision in Your Company and Your Life
The One Page Business Plan : Start with a Vision, Build a Company!
Strategic Planning for the Small Business : Situations, Weapons, Objectives and Tactics
101 Mission Statements from Top Companies
Playing For Keeps : How the World’s Most Aggressive and Admired Companies Use Core Values to Manage, Energize, and Organize Their People, and Promote, Advance, and Achieve Their Corporate Missions
Mission Critical : The 7 Strategic Traps That Derail Even the Smartest Companies
The Mission Statement Book : 301 Corporate Mission Statements from America’s Top Companies
One Hundred and One Great Mission Statements : How the World’s Leading Companies Run Their…
search “strategic plan”

Goals

Goals! Brian Tracy
Goals Zig Ziglar
The Magic Lamp: Goal Setting for People Who Hate Setting Goals
Goal Setting Forms : Tools to Help You Get Ready, Get Set, & Go for Your Goals!
Make Success Measurable! A Mindbook-Workbook for Setting Goals and Taking Action
Goal Setting 101 : How to Set and Achieve a Goal!
Goal Setting: How to Create an Action Plan and Achieve Your Goals
Achieving Objectives Made Easy! Practical goal setting tools & proven time management techniques
What Are Your Goals: Powerful Questions to Discover What You Want Out of Life
Goal Analysis: How to Clarify Your Goals So You Can Actually Achieve Them
Goal-Free Living: How to Have the Life You Want NOW!
Motivation and Goal Setting: How to Set and Achieve Goals and Inspire Others (Motivation and Goal Setting)

Strategic Planning

The ABCs of Strategic Life Planning
The Power of Less
Relevance
Strengthsfinder 2.0
Less

Productivity

David Seah’s Printable CEO and productivity articles
Steve Pavlina’s Blog
Personal Development for Smart People
Unleash the Warrior Within: Develop the Focus, Discipline, Confidence, and Courage You Need to Achieve Unlimited Goals
The Ultimate Goals Program: How To Get Everything You Want Faster Than You Thought Possible
Eat That Frog!
Time Power: A Proven System for Getting More Done in Less Time Than You Ever Thought Possible
The Type Z Guide
7 Habits of Highly Effective People
The Instant Productivity Toolkit
The Productivity Handbook: New ways of leveraging your time, information, and communications
The 25 Best Time Management Tools & Techniques: How to Get Mor Done Without Driving Yourself Crazy
Productivity Power: Two Hundred Fifty Ideas for Being More Productive
Time Management: Increase Your Personal Productivity And Effectiveness
Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Work and Life
Secrets of Super-Productivity: How to Achieve Amazing Things inYour Work Life
The Kaizen Blitz: Accelerating Breakthroughs in Productivity and Performance
Work Less, Do More: The 14-Day Productivity Makeover
Defeating the 8 Demons of Distraction: Proven Strategies to Increase Productivity and Decrease Stress
The Successful Physician: A Productivity Handbook for Practitioners
Great Big Book of Personal Productivity
Go Be Productive

Time Management

Power of An Hour: Business and Life Mastery in One Hour A Week
Leave the Office Earlier: The Productivity Pro Shows You How to Do More in Less Time…and Feel Great About It
Getting Things Done
Managing Your Time
The Myth of Multitasking
Idiot’s Guide to Time Management
First Things First
The Time Trap: The Classic Book on Time Management
CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap! Strategies for Handling Your Fast-Paced Life
No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs
Lifehacker: Upgrade Your Life: The Lifehacker Guide to Working Smarter, Faster, Better
Lifehacker: 88 Tech Tricks to Turbocharge Your Day
Time Management on Crack
Internet Time Management on Crack
Time Management for Creative People
Time Management From The Inside Out :The Foolproof System for Taking Control of Your Schedule and Your Life
Making Work Work CD: New Strategies for Surviving and Thriving at the Office

Getting Organized

KISS Guide to Organizing Your Life (Keep It Simple Series)
Getting Organized: Improving Focus, Organization and Productivity
Great Big Book of Personal Productivity
Organizing from the Inside Out, second edition : The Foolproof System For Organizing Your Home, Your Office and Your Life
When Organizing Isn’t Enough: SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life
Organizing Your Work Space: A Guide To Personal Productivity
Organize Your Office! Simple Routines for Managing Your
The Organized Executive: A Program for Productivity New Ways to Manage Time, Paper, People, and the Digital Office
Getting Organized

Processing Info / Phone/ Email / Tasks

Total Workday Control Using Microsoft Outlook
The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your Email Before It Manages You
Getting Things Done
Send: Why People Email So Badly and How to Do It Better
E-Mail: A Write It Well Guide How to Write and Manage E-Mail in the Workplace
Never Check E-Mail In the Morning: And Other Unexpected Strategies for Making Your Work Life Work Julie Morgenstern

Indicators & Tracking

Be Your Own Consultant
Emyth Mastery Program
The Business Coach
Business Mastery Program
Free Reports
How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of “Intangibles”
Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning
Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart
Beyond the Balanced Scorecard: Improving Business Intelligence with Analytics
Key Performance Indicators: Developing, Implementing,and Using Winning KPIs
Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business
Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results
The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action
Winning Score: How to Design and Implement Organizational Scorecards
Keeping Score: Using the Right Metrics to Drive World Class Performance

Systems

The Emyth Revisited
Toyota, and Lean Thinking
General System Theory: Foundations, Development, Applications
Systems Development: A Project Management Approach
The Manager’s Pocket Guide to Strategic and Business Planning
The Systems Thinking Approach to Strategic Planning and Management
The Complete Guide to Systems Thinking & Learning
The Top 10 Everyday Tools for Daily Problem Solving-Strategic Thinking Handbook #1
The Top 10 Everyday Tools for Strategic Thinking-Strategic Thinking Handbook #2
Instant Systems (Instant Success)
Beyond Booked Solid: Your Business, Your Life, Your Way Its All Inside
Don’t Drive be Driven: Easily build a business to serve your life, so you can be free to live your life
Unchaining the Chain of Command (Crisp Management Library)
Awakening the Entrepreneur Within: How Ordinary People Can Create Extraordinary Companies
Idea Mapping: How to Access Your Hidden Brain Power, Learn Faster, Remember More, and Achieve Success in Business

P.S. I would love to hear your thoughts and comments below on:

• If this course in progress sounds like it will be helpful
• Any ideas or suggestions for me while I’m creating it
• Your thoughts on these books listed
• Any books or resources I should add to the list
• Additional tips of your own I may want to include