3 short personal development books to read before getting back to work
It’s summer, some of you may still be on vacation, others are on the point of coming back to work and even if you do not go it is usually a slightly quieter time when we like to take a little height on our daily activities.
During summer, I’m not a detective novel or headlock books kind of guy but I like to charge my Kindle with ebooks easy to read that address personal development topics.
So I selected for you three short but amazing books that should:
- Help you to step back
- Inspire your professional and personal life
- Allow you to recharge batteries and be positive
- No headlock and only practical advices.
None of these books is linear and each time you can jump directly to the section that interests you.
Feel free to share other references in the comments.
The Simplicity Survival Handbook: 32 Ways To Do Less And Accomplish More
By Bill Jensen
I talked about short books and this one is 320 pages long. But it’s not something that you will read like a novel, you can read only one chapter, it is even recommended by the author!
The thrust idea of the book? We all have 1440 minutes per day and — while we are asked to do more — this book makes the apology of the “least”. Or more specifically how to do less ( from which is not important) and being more productive in the same time.
For each topic, a “less-o-meter” shows the effectiveness of the measure and its difficulty to implement.
Examples of actions outlined in the book:
- Reduce your emails emails by 80%
- Write shorter and more efficient emails
- Make shorter and more efficient presentations
- …
It’s clear, pragmatic, always illustrated with examples and studies.
I read this book 4 years ago and I still use every day some lessons learnt from it.
The One Thing: The truth behind surprisingly easy extraordinary results
By Gary Keller
If I had to summarize this book in one word it would be focus. In this book Gary Keller literally explodes the myth of multitasking and how the best way to succeed is to focus on one goal at a time.
It can be cut into as many sub-objectives as necessary but we should not let ourselves be distracted by anything else.
The power of less
By Leo Babauta
In this book, Leo Babauta makes a praise on the “Less is More”. Identify the essential and delete everything else: clothes, activities, commitments, tasks,…
Eliminate permanently the unnecessary will mechanically relieve a lot of time and space to achieve the goals you set for yourself.
It is likely that you can get rid of 20% of your items without it affecting your life.
More than a book, it’s a real philosophy of life that proposes Leo Babauta. His book is practical, full of good sense and actually provokes reflection on our choices and our lifestyle.
