4 books that will keep you on top of your business

Everyone struggles with distraction and low productivity, at least at first. But many people have been there and found ways to create amazing change…then shared it. There are some great books out there that give you practical systems for doing this. I’m going to give you the titles and the writers of these books. And I’m going to recommend that if you’ve been having trouble with any of the things I just mentioned, go out and get these books, at least start with one of them:

4 Hour Workweek – Timothy Ferriss

Now, let me give you some background. No matter who you are, half of that book won’t apply to you. The same half that applies to me may not apply to you. And vice versa. The half that applies to Kathleen might not apply to Beverly, but the half that applies to Beverly might not apply to Kathleen. It is an amazing book. Completely understanding. But it’s more information than anyone needs. Is incredible. The only way I could have done a better job with him would have been to write 6 different books, and that would have been inefficient. So, read it, take out what you need and leave everything else behind. Don’t let it change the entire course of your life – choose what works for you.

The next books I recommend are called

Work less, do more – Jan Yager

The Power of Total Commitment – Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

Never check email in the morning – Julie Morgenstern

Now Julie’s book, Never Check E-Mail in the Morning, gives you lots of advice on how to be more effective. It’s less about managing time, but more about being effective. The concept of not checking email in the morning is not that it takes you 20 minutes to reply to email and you may get lost and spend 3 hours on email, that is not the reason. Although, that’s a good reason not to check email in the morning.

The reason you don’t want to check email first thing in the morning is because email is reactive. When you reply to emails, you are reacting to other people’s questions and problems. It puts you in a reactive phase. Kind of like if you were defending yourself in a street fight and someone attacked you from behind a dark alley corner, you would be fighting defensively the whole time. If you have fought for 20 minutes defensively and then you have to go attack another opponent, it would be difficult. Because you would be in this defensive mindset. That’s what happens when you check email in the morning. You get very defensive. Everything you do is reactive. And then 30 minutes later, when it’s time to be proactive and create a new product, your mind is in the wrong mode for creation.

So the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is create that product. Write that sales letter. Write those 7 emails. Do what needs to be done that is proactive, and then you can do your reactive things at the end of the day when they don’t matter. That’s just one of 50 different ideas in that book. It is full. That’s never checking email in the morning.

Power of Full Engagement is about managing your whole life, so you’re more productive throughout the day. I highly recommend that book.

Work less, do more… I haven’t finished all the work Work less, do more, as I have the power of full commitment and a 4 hour work week. However, if you are going to read the other 3 books, read this one too. It’s been really impressive so far.

Remember, you’re not going to get everything out of all these books, you’re going to take what works for you. And, if you buy these 4 books, or check them out from the library, you read 1 a week for 4 weeks. And you learn to focus on the things that are important, instead of wasting time on the things that aren’t. You are going to be 5 to 10 times more productive than you are now. I highly recommend that you do this.