Intrenion

Books as Frameworks: Personal Productivity

Table of Contents

100 Things Productive People Do (Nigel Cumberland)

  1. Understand your need to be productive
  2. Know what needs to be done
  3. Work in short bursts
  4. Stay healthy to stay productive
  5. Say ‘no’
  6. Prioritize
  7. Know when to switch off
  8. Eliminate the trivial
  9. Know if you’re a morning or evening person
  10. Share the load
  11. Become tech savvy
  12. Do what you love
  13. It’s ok to be imperfect
  14. Don’t procrastinate
  15. Save your draft and sleep on it
  16. Keep your workspace tidy
  17. Learn from setbacks
  18. Use each day well
  19. Manage your emails
  20. Start with the hardest task
  21. To burn or not to burn the midnight oil
  22. Keep meetings effective
  23. Work to your strengths
  24. The power of repetition and ritual
  25. Keep a productivity journal
  26. Finish what you start
  27. To multi-task or not to multi-task?
  28. Take a break from your phone
  29. Break down large tasks
  30. Embrace ergonomics
  31. Stop over-promising
  32. Follow the two-pizza rule
  33. Set SMART goals
  34. Ensure goals are Pure and Clear
  35. Never avoid the shitty work
  36. Work with the 80-20 rule
  37. Learn to focus
  38. Listen well
  39. Make time for yourself
  40. Practice, practice, practice
  41. Plan for things going wrong
  42. Seek regular feedback
  43. Stop people-pleasing
  44. Early to rise
  45. Assumptions can be dangerous
  46. Ditch manual processes
  47. Reduce time spent in meetings
  48. Don’t burn yourself out
  49. Eliminate mental overload
  50. Be productive with your free time
  51. Repeat your successes
  52. Step out of your comfort zone
  53. Get out of your own way
  54. Create the ideal physical environment
  55. Identify your leaks
  56. Master hybrid working
  57. Seek a mentor
  58. Trust others
  59. Master your memory
  60. Align your work with the team
  61. Stand up when working
  62. Know why you’re doing what you’re doing
  63. No more overtime
  64. Plant seeds
  65. If in doubt, communicate
  66. Celebrate your successes
  67. Master deep working
  68. Change what needs changing
  69. Accept what you cannot change
  70. Be productive after meetings
  71. Stretch your goals
  72. Make learning a priority
  73. Keep your laptop organized
  74. Ensure others are productive
  75. Avoid excessive screen time
  76. Group tasks together
  77. Hire an assistant
  78. Picture what you want
  79. Find your motivation
  80. Track your progress
  81. Maintain a ‘not to-do’ list
  82. Avoid workaholism
  83. Know your own capacity
  84. Always do the right things right
  85. Make friends with AI
  86. Make work fun and enjoyable
  87. Use online tools and apps
  88. Make time
  89. Don’t let others steal your time
  90. Work on your own sometimes
  91. Don’t cheat
  92. Record unexpected ideas
  93. Choose friends wisely
  94. Take care working in groups
  95. Talk more face to face
  96. Invest in you
  97. Be open about your goals
  98. Be honest with yourself
  99. Become a subject matter expert
  100. Review your progress

Secrets of Resilient People (John Lees)

  1. Check Your Resilience Levels
  2. Fail Forwards, Not Backwards
  3. Look at What’s Working, Not What Isn’t
  4. Focus on Facts
  5. Reframe Your Experience
  6. Get Out of Victim Mode
  7. Learn from Past Bounce-Backs
  8. Blame Yourself Only When You Can Learn Something
  9. Don’t Listen to 2 a.m. Voices
  10. Stop Worrying
  11. Rethink the Way You Set Goals
  12. Get Better at Decision-Making
  13. Use Problem Solving More Effectively
  14. Fix the Things You Can and Accept the Things You Can’t
  15. Understand Your Learning Curve
  16. Learn from Others
  17. Recognize How Far Other People Impact on Your Resilience
  18. Believe in Yourself Just a Little More
  19. Deal with Imposter Syndrome
  20. Fake It, but Just a Little
  21. Talk About How You Feel, Not Just What You Think
  22. Modify Your Behaviours Under Pressure
  23. Engage with Conflict Where You Need To
  24. Manage Difficult Relationships Better
  25. Learn to Ask for Help
  26. Get Honest Feedback
  27. See Yourself as Others See You and Shape Your Reputation
  28. Get Better at Organizational Politics
  29. Learn to Say ‘No’ Better
  30. Pause
  31. Seek Out Calm Space
  32. Think Differently About the Ups and Downs
  33. Get Over Yourself
  34. Practise Gratitude
  35. Cut Yourself Some Slack
  36. Look After Yourself Better
  37. Look at Stress Differently
  38. Find the Right Support
  39. Help Somebody Else
  40. Decode People More Effectively
  41. Go with the Grain
  42. Watch Out for Catastrophic Thinking
  43. Focus Your Time on the Things That Matter
  44. Remember Your Values
  45. Get Your Life in Balance
  46. Tackle Change Head-On
  47. Learn Optimism
  48. Toughen Up
  49. Grab the Steering Wheel
  50. Bounce Back and Bounce Right

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen R. Covey)

Private Victory

  1. Be Proactive: Principles of Personal Vision
  2. Begin with the End in Mind: Principles of Personal Leadership
  3. Put First Things First: Principles of Personal Management

Public Victory

  1. Think Win/Win: Principles of Interpersonal Leadership
  2. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood: Principles of Empathic Communication
  3. Synergize: Principles of Creative Cooperation
  4. Part Four: Renewal
  5. Sharpen the Saw: Principles of Balanced Self-Renewal

The 80/20 Principle (Richard Koch)

Koch’s 10 Commandments of Investment

  1. Make your investment philosophy reflect your personality.
  2. Be proactive and unbalanced.
  3. Invest mainly in the stock market.
  4. Invest for the long term.
  5. Invest most when the market is low.
  6. If you can’t beat the market, track it.
  7. Build your investments on your expertise.
  8. Consider the merits of emerging markets.
  9. Cull your loss-makers.
  10. Run your gains.

Seven Shortcuts to a Happy Life

  1. Maximize your control.
  2. Set attainable goals.
  3. Be flexible.
  4. Have a close relationship with your partner.
  5. Have a few happy friends.
  6. Have a few close professional alliances.
  7. Evolve your ideal lifestyle.

Ten Golden Rules for Career Success

  1. Specialize in a tiny niche; develop a core skill.
  2. Choose a niche you enjoy, where you can excel and stand a chance of becoming an acknowledged leader.
  3. Realize that knowledge is power.
  4. Identify your market and core customers and serve them best.
  5. Identify where 20 percent of effort gives 80 percent of returns.
  6. Learn from the best.
  7. Become self-employed early in your career.
  8. Employ as many net value creators as possible.
  9. Use outside contractors for everything but your core skill.
  10. Exploit capital leverage.

The First 2 Hours (Donna McGeorge)

Why the First 2 Hours?

  1. Discover what affects your capacity (and your day)
  2. Lay the foundation for productivity
  3. Design your best day

How to Make the Most of Your First 2 Hours

  1. First 2 hours - Proactive
  2. Second 2 hours - Reactive
  3. Third 2 hours - Active
  4. Fourth 2 hours - Preactive