(Part 2) Best products from r/productivity

Sure. First, let's start out with how I personally define productivity, so that you know where I'm coming from:

1. Get your work (your commitments - job, school, etc.) done first
   
2. Work on your personal projects
   
3. Enjoy guilt-free free time
   
   So that's the basic 3 steps to living a balanced live, productivity-wise: stay on top of what you're on the hook for, make progress on your personal plans, and then goof off stress-free because you're on the ball. Second, we'll divide the books into three sections:
   
   
4. Mental stuff
   
5. Practical-action stuff
   
6. Health stuff
   
   Starting out with practical applied psychology (i.e. the "mental" stuff), in order:
   
   

• Mindset: (Carol Dweck) Introduces the concept that we have one of two mindsets about any given situation: fixed (can't be changed) or growth (can be changed). i.e. "I can't cook" or "I'm great at guitar". You are the gatekeeper to action in your own life. To quote Wayne Gretzsky, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take". Followed up by a Henry Ford quote: "Whether you think you can, or think you can't - you're right." Having a growth mindset means many things, including that setbacks are okay but that you can keep going, that you can change things, that you can improve, that you can get good at things, etc. If you tell yourself no, then you'll never take the first step, and thus you'll never get anything done in whatever specific situation you find yourself in.
  
• Attitude is Everything: (Jeff Keller) A book written in conversational-style English about how much attitude affects literally everything you do in life. A quick read & really enlightens the concepts from the Mindset book, in practice.
  
• Feeling Good: (David Burns) Introduces the concept that thoughts create emotions. Thus, you feel how you think about things. This is hugely important in the world of productivity because we are driven by motivation; the way you feel about things dictates what goals you set & what actions you take. You ever not do something because "I didn't feel like it"? Well, there you go!
  
• Ten Days to Self-Esteem: (David Burns) Companion book to "Feeling Good". It's a 1.5-week workbook that walks you through identifying & auditing what your inner voice is saying. Your inner voice is how you think & we tend to believe everything we think, regardless of whether it's true or not. We have a lot of negative & fixed-mindset things that we say to ourselves throughout the day, which inhibit us from taking action or feeling good about things.
  
  So the takeaways here are: have a growth mindset, have a positive attitude, realize that thoughts create emotions, and audit your inner voice (aka your "thinking" voice) to support your productivity actions. This is really important stuff & I feel like the psychology of productivity is often overlooked, when in fact we're all emotional beings & are driven by various things such as motivation, willpower, determination, commitment, pride, and so on. Getting your mental game in check will enable you to do virtually anything you want to go after.
  
  Next up is the practical implementation (i.e. what do you actually have to DO?) of productivity:
  
  
• Getting Things Done: (David Allen) Also referred to as "GTD". Out of all of the books on this list, I consider this a must-read. This book basically teaches you how to convert wishes ("I want to do this" or "I need to do this" or "I should do this") into reality. Not in a BS way, but by using a concrete workflow, in the form of an off-brain database (as opposed to keeping it all in your head). The core concept is to capture 100% of all of your commitments, process them into concrete, executable "next-actions", and then put reminders of those individual next-actions on a list or on your calendar. This way, you never lose anything, you never forget anything, and you know exactly what to DO next. I can't express how useful this book has been in my life. It's an amazing system. Not easy to adopt, but super easy to maintain once you get going!
  
• Unleash the Warrior Within: (Richard Mack Machowicz) The core takeaway from this book is that if you want to get things done, you need to setup targets, knock them down, and repeat that process. Like if you went out to an archery range: you would setup some bullseye targets, then use your bow & arrow to knock them down, and then go out & setup the targets again. That's how progress is made in life, and more especially, if you want to do anything more than just show up for work & live a reactive life, you have to learn how to setup your own targets, then knock them down, then setup more targets, so that you're making progress over time. Really simple but really brilliant concept!
  
• Grit: (Angela Duckworth) Presents a very simple, yet very powerful concept: the way to be successful is to simply stick with stuff until you've achieved your goal, or if it's something like a lifetime of learning say the piano, simply sticking with it. Failure happens when you quit. Success doesn't mean a smooth road, because you will have lots of setbacks along the way, but sticking with it, even when it's hard or boring or your screw up, is how you achieve success. Before you dive into the book, first, watch this TED Talk by the author. Second, read this inspirational quote by Michael Jordon.
  
• The Talent Code: (Daniel Coyle) The structure behind how talent works & how to develop it. Really amazing for learning how to develop talents you're interested in.
  
• Atomic Habits: (James Clear) The structure behind how habits work & how to develop them, and how to make them work for you.
  
  part 1/3

Understand the reason why you procrastinate. It is not about self control. This article breaks open the one of the biggest underlying reasons why people procrastinate:

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/25/smarter-living/why-you-procrastinate-it-has-nothing-to-do-with-self-control.html

People procrastinate as a way of regulating their mood. Something about their condition or about the task they are procrastinating is causing them discomfort that they might not even be able to articulate, and procrastinating is a way of dealing with that discomfort in the moment.

One possible way to deal with this (not this specific thing you're procrastinating on, but the big picture) is that you may need counseling or to do other things to help your health to overcome depression or whatever hidden discomfort is causing you to procrastinate. I myself found that when I did not sleep well, I was chronically tired and depressed, but I didn't recognize it, because I masked it with caffeine. Caffeine doesn't give you the missing motivation back. It just keeps you wide awake and not wanting to do the things you need motivation to do. In a lot of cases, insufficient sleep is a major contributor to depression and anxiety.

I fixed my sleep problem to a large extent, using a weighted blanket, sensory deprivation (ear plugs and eye mask when I sleep), black-out curtains, blue-blocker glasses in the evenings, "dark room mode" of Flux (a screen dimming app for MacOS), and red LED light bulbs to light my room at night so I would actually get sleepy. (Now I just need to fix the schedule of my sleep; it's a work in progress.) That really helped.

Exercise also helps address depression, way more than I understood. See the book titled "Spark: the revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain".

When I reduced my depressive symptoms and improved my sleep, I felt a lot less prone to procrastinating.

Another great book on how to improve yourself and overcome things like procrastination is "Atomic Habits". This is a fantastic book. It explains that self transformation and improvement is not about revolutionary changes, but about establishing habits that get you a little bit of improvement but keeps you on a consistent trajectory of improvement. There's a lot of great stuff in there about procrastination.

If you can't seem to read books all the way through (a problem I had), try listening to the audio book while commuting. This has made a huge difference in my life. I actually finish books that I start now that I use audio books.

EDIT—

Of the various things that motivate people, fear only goes so far. After a while, concern over possibly ruining your life won't motivate you. I know this first hand, because I've procrastinated to the point of harming myself, and knowing that harm would come didn't motivate me to act. There is a much more potent set of motivators, and this won't be easy, but you need to find these and figure out how to view your work through these.

The most potent motivators are purpose, passion, and joy. In the grand scheme of your life, you need to find your purpose, develop a passion, and cultivate joy. There's an old parable about three men laying bricks who are asked what they are doing. The first one says "I'm laying bricks". The second says "I'm building a church". The third says "I'm building the house of God." Of these three, who do you think will do his best work and persist when the going gets tough?—The one who sees a grand, transcendant purpose in every brick he lays.

If you can't find a purpose in the task you are doing, step back. Some folks do boring work that is not rewarding in and of itself, but their "why" is their family. That is their purpose, and to provide for their family, they keep on keeping on. If you don't have a family, make a promise to your future self, and make bettering yourself your purpose. And if that won't do, seriously search for other work to do that you can get a sense of purpose from. I've heard of people who weren't responsible, but who got a dog or some other pet that then gave them a purpose, because that pet gave them joy, and they wanted a good life for this pet they loved so much. These are the stories where someone rescues a dog, but really, the dog rescued them just as much as they rescued it. Love makes all the difference here.

Think of something you take delight in, something that brings you joy, and if what you are doing can be thought of in terms of serving and pursuing this thing that brings you joy, the motivation from your delight may be able to help you overcome that heavy unspoken weight of apathy that causes you to procrastinate.

Here's a quick primer of Agile Results:

The Daily Ritual

1. Note all the things on your mind for today.   What’s really on your mind for today.  Write it down.  Even if it seems silly, put it down on paper.  Go ahead, even make yourself laugh, as you wonder why that was on your mind.     You can go over your list multiple times, so first just get it on paper, then you can play around with it.   Maybe all you need to do is list little two-word phrases that remind you of what you want to accomplish, or things you need to do, or things you need to check on.  It’s OK for this to be a mix of activities and outcomes because in the next step, you’ll bubble Three Wins to the top.  This instantly makes your list get a whole lot smarter.   In fact, no matter how you do your To-Do lists today, you can instantly make it better by bubbling up your Three Wins to the top.  It’s how magic happens.
   
   
2. Note your Three Wins for the Day.   Go ahead and write your Three Wins for the Day down.  Connect them to things you enjoy.  Maybe you like to learn.  Maybe you like to do a good job.  Maybe you like to do a GREAT job.  Connect your outcome to the values that inspire you.   For example, I like making customer impact, so rather than “Call back a customer”, my win is “Win a Raving Fan.”   You can imagine I’ll show up a whole lot differently when I have may mind focused on winning a fan.  And, I’ll enjoy the process a whole lot more, too.   So even mundane activities can be reframed or rephrased into more compelling outcomes.  Get creative.  Inspire yourself to a whole new level.
    
   

• On Mondays, identify your Three Wins for the Week and Three Wins for the Day.
  
• On Tuesday, identify your Three Wins for the Day.
  
• On Wednesday, identify your Three Wins for the Day. As a bonus, you might do a quick check against how you are doing against your wins for the week, and adjust accordingly.
  
• On Friday, identify your Three Wins for the Day. As a bonus, and we didn’t cover this, but on Friday’s I like to do what I call Friday Reflection. Simply identify three things going well and three things to improve. It can be the best 20 minutes you spend all week because you can carry forward your lessons learned into the next week. You will rapidly improve your performance. It works for teams, too.
  
  The Friday Reflection
  
  

1. Evaluate what I accomplished, or didn’t, and why.
   

• Check myself against my three outcomes for the week.
  
• Identify 3 things that went well
  
• Identify 3 things that need improvement, or that I need to start doing or stop doing.
  
• Evaluate energy levels, habits (good/bad), recurring patterns.
  
• Carry lessons forward to my next Monday Vision.
  

>Part of the family obligations are cultural.

I thought as much, which is why I suggested telling them you needed their support, rather than their opinions, which I don't think is unreasonable and may be able to alleviate some of the pressure they put on you, because they might not realise how much they're actually hurting you. I think learning what the difference is between weakness and vulnerability is also important because you may hopefully be able to show your family that of course, there are times when everything is very difficult, but you are managing those times and taking actions to improve them.

I would also ask for help and advice, because that usually mollifies anyone and they will be more compassionate and kind towards you, and their expectations may feel lessened. Ask them about times when they struggled, or experienced issues, and what did they do to get out of these issues? Humans bond over common humanity. And we all fail and make mistakes, and connect through sharing these experiences. But I believe the more of a voice you have, the more respect you'll earn from them and the less they'll interfere.

​

>I'm too scared to take that plunge and change the person I've been for so long.

That's a perfectly valid concern to have. It took me about two years of regular work on myself before I was able to stop fearing what would happen if I stopped being the mess that I was. For me, it happened because I ended up in a workplace where people are incredibly kind, supportive and understanding, and I finally realised all that I could be instead of what I was.

​

>I've just not been able to accept that those changes are necessary yet

It sounds like you know that these thoughts and behaviours are hindering you, but it also sounds as though there might be a little pride speaking and saying "I can get over this and do this myself" maybe? Again, a perfectly valid reaction, but maybe you can start from a less drastic place than me.

​

The following are resources that I've consumed at some point in my life and have found to be very beneficial. I would of course highly recommend going to a therapist, but if this feels too much like a failure on your part to do so at the moment or it's too big a step or you are worried about looking weak, these books might help you work through some of your issues without being so committed.

​

Kristin Neff has been doing a lot of research on self-compassion, and I would recommend her book to for anyone to read. If therapy is too big a step at the moment, but you'd be willing to get your feet wet, have a read of her book and see if anything resonates with you. The commitment is very small, and you might get some benefits from it. She's an academic and discusses her methodology and research as well as actionable solutions.

​

She also has an audiobook of self-compassion meditations, which is available on Audible (if you don't have a subscription, the first book is free as part of their trial). Some of them are also available for free on her website, alongside a host of other exercises. I have found meditation to be very useful to slow down my anxiety. If I'm better at focusing on the present moment, I spend less energy worrying about the future.

​

Next I would recommend Mind Over Mood, a CBT workbook that you can complete at your own pace and in your own time. It goes through the same things that a therapist would cover, minus the therapist.

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Finally, I read some extracts from Dare To Be Average during my therapy sessions, and have found it incredibly valuable to reframe my thoughts about how if I weren't the mess that I was I would surely be worse (spoiler alert, you won't be).

​

I hope these will help you if you decide they're not too much of a commitment, or you find themselves in the terrible place I was in twice before and can't get out of there by yourself anymore.

Hi there fellow overthinker,

I have a book recommendation for you. Mental Traps: The Overthinkers Guide to a Happier Life by André Kukla. It's book about unhealthy and unproductive thinking patterns that are common amongst overthinkers. It can be a bit dry at times, given that it is written by a professor who works in both the philosophy and psychology departments at his university. That being said, the book is written in plain enough English and provides actionable advice on how to stop faulty thinking patterns such as those you're experiencing. I fell on this book a little over a decade ago and it was a game changer.

I strongly recommend that you read the entire book (it's not that long) but you'll want to particularly focus on the chapters about the traps of "Formulation" and "Regulation". Those two traps are about the attitudes we adopt towards things that don't really affect us, how we make decisions about events that are just as well left to chance, or how we purposelessly keep a detailed description of what is happening in our lives. I think those two chapters will help you the most because you're essentially overthinking the whole spectrum of your decisions (from tiny to major life decisions) and concerning yourself with the "butterfly effect" of anything that happens to you (whether by your own hand / design or pure chance).

Kukla will cover the "mental traps" part better than I ever could but here is my own personal advice. Coming from someone who has thought and read a lot about being productive and on how to lead the best possible life: what you should focus on is to know yourself as well as possible (so do exercises and seek experiences to get to know yourself really well) and then align your life goals and objectives with your personal values. On a daily basis, your mind should ideally simply be focused on what's in front of you (i.e. being "present" or "mindful") in order to keep mental traps at bay and ensure that you're maintaining the habits that will lead you towards a life that is aligned with your values. If you do this, along the way, you'll achieve important objectives and major goals you dream about. Major life decisions (Which college should I go to? Should I get married to this person? Should I have kids?) should indeed be given lots of time and thoroughly examined but once you make a decision - during your own personal "strategic thinking time" sessions - you shouldn't second guess yourself. Smaller questions & decisions , such as "what effect will be had if I leave the house 1-2 minutes late?" are not worth thinking about in terms of how they will affect your overall life; random events and forces entirely out of your control will have as much, if not more, effect on your life trajectory than those small decisions.

Be present (to both enjoy life and get things done efficiently) and make decisions that allow you to act in a manner that exemplifies your personal values (in order to strive towards your own potential). Have a "bias for action" rather than a bias for constant planning and second guessing.

Meditations is a great book. That's one of the only books I'll almost always have on me. I've been focused on coding books lately, but otherwise I'll often pick that book up if I have a few minutes to read.

Regarding habit building and practicing, there were a few books I've skimmed over the years regarding that topic, but a lot of them feel like they're saying the same thing. Many habit forming books are a bit more like a self-help book, which is totally fine of the book gives you ideas and insight that you apply in order to acquire the results you want in life.

I'm a bit more interested in science and philosophy for 'managing myself' style books, so I have two recommendations.

Buddha's Brain - This book talks about meditation and mindfulness from a neuroscientific perspective. It shares ideas and practices based on facts and does a fantastic job of connecting a lot of 'woo woo' meditation gospel to measurable changes in the brain. You'll learn about ways you can train your brain while learning about what's going on under the hood, that way it isn't just about finding your center (which is a bit too abstract for me).

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - This is possibly one of the greatest philosophy books ever written (in my incredibly limited opinion). It's a story about a guy traveling on a motorcycle across the country with his son. During the trip, you get to follow along with the guy's deep trains of thoughts as he mentally works through an enormous body of thought surrounding ideas like values and quality.

The first book is more practical. You'll get step-by-step methods for meditating and nurturing the growth of your brain, and those ideas can also be applied to forming habits. Forming habits can also be thought of as training your brain to handle routine tasks with as little resistance as possible. If you're trying to exercise more often, resistance might pop up in the form of "I'm tired" or "This is uncomfortable" or "I can skip today and start up again tomorrow". Ideas like that take practice to notice and disregard in order to move forward with something you know you should do but may not fully want to at that moment. Overcoming those internal objections is quite possibly one of the hardest steps in the process of forming habits because your mind will come up with all sorts of escape routes to get away from something that makes you feel uncomfortable (like exercising for the first time in a while). Discipline is the act of staying with the habit by catching yourself when you start looking for these escape routes.

The second book is still plenty practical if you give the content the time and patience it deserves. There were a lot of points in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance where I had to put it down for a few days and think through what I just read. It's a deep book, but it has the potential to give you an idea that could fundamentally change the way you approach skill development and application.

Enjoy!

I'm familiar with this problem too. There are a few things I have learned (and am still trying to better apply). My apologies if any of this is already familiar to you:

• Use your time in more productive ways by figuring out which times of the day you do best with different types of tasks. A lot of productivity experts encourage this. Most people are at their best with brain-work (creativity, problem-solving, etc.) in the first few hours of the day. If that's true for you, make your checklist the evening before so you can get right to it. Most people also are the least effective in the early afternoon, right after lunch, and tend to have that zoning out effect or even nod off. This is a good time to do simple tasks, like making calls, responding to emails, or filling out paperwork. Scheduling meetings around this time can be helpful too as engaging with others can keep your mind active, unless the meeting requires heavy group problem-solving or brainstorming. People who work long days like yours tend to get a second wind in the late afternoon/early evening, so that's the time to get back at those brain-work tasks, though you might choose ones that are slightly less demanding if you're not feeling super focused. This is also the time to review what you've done that day and determine what you need to do the next day. (*I'll come back to this in my last point.)
  
  
• When you start to feel like you're zoning out and can't refocus, take a break. Go for a walk for five minutes, drink or eat something cold (that will help energize you), do some stretches, etc. Avoid looking at a screen during these breaks. Your mind needs to do something different. If you're like me and need external input for your mental health, listen to an audiobook or podcast during your break so you're still not looking at a screen. Have a few selected ahead of time and ready to go before your day starts so you don't spend five minutes choosing a podcast episode. (Yes, I've done this too many times.) Getting sunlight is VERY helpful and one of the best ways to re-energize. If it's pouring rain or truly too cold to go out, try a blue light bulb or SADD light to simulate sunlight.
  
  
• I agree with others about taking regular breaks, and Pomodoro can be really helpful. It hasn't worked for me, however, as it takes me about twenty minutes to get into a groove with my work. If that's the case for you, try the rule of 52 and 17, in which you focus intently on work for 52 minutes, then take a break for 17 minutes. Alternatively, some people do better with sprints of 90–120 minutes with a 20–30 minute break. It's likely you'll get more done overall taking more regular breaks because you won't zone out as much or have to do as much revising of your work due to being burnt out when you did it.
  
  
• Plan your downtime activities ahead. Even if it's just chilling with Netflix, giving it a structure like your day can make it feel more rewarding. You get to tell yourself "I checked off season 2, episode 3," so you don't have to shift so far out of your work mindset that your mind resists. Also, doing something simple with your hands during your downtime can help you relax. Knit, crochet, doodle, color (huzzah for adult coloring books!), etc., even while watching TV.
  
  -*This isn't going to happen in the immediate future, as it will take its own work to implement and you don't have time during your current project. But setting up effective planning and checklists can make a huge difference. First, spend some time observing your energy levels and most effective times of the day. Chris Bailey lays out a great method for this and offers a spreadsheet for it in The Productivity Project, but you can also come up with your own ways to track it. Second, use those observations in your reviewing/planning process. There are a lot of different ways to plan your time, but I like to do this: on Sunday, I sketch out a general plan for the week, alotting only six items per day (though I do more if I get everything done) based on my master project/task list. Each morning I check in with myself to see how I'm feeling (I have a chronic illness) each and adjust my plan accordingly. Then I reevaluate the next day's plan at the end of the day based on what I've accomplished. That last step involves reviewing how things went, reassessing urgency if necessary, scheduling new tasks that have arisen, etc. I also stay attentive to the types of tasks when I'm doing my planning. Because of my illness, I associate very minute function levels with each task, but I think most people could just assign energy and focus requirements to each task and plan the tasks based on their focus cycles. Setting up some kind of planning process will help you focus on quality of work the next time you're in the midst of a long-term, demanding project.

Top comment is correct, you really just have to do it. Also, read the "The War of Art" by Daniel Pressfield. It's a pretty short read but masterfully written. It's 1 of 3 books (the next is called Turning Pro) about overcoming creative blocks and really focusing on your passion and overcoming the resistance to be great. Please just trust me on this one.

https://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Through-Creative-Battles/dp/1936891026/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Buy one of these.

Philips Wake-Up Light Alarm Clock with Colored Sunrise Simulation and Sunset Fading Night Light, with 3 Months Free Headspace Subscription, White (HF3520) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0093162RM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_iep1Bb1KEMFS8


You are welcome.

This will make it much easier to become a morning person.

Also, in addition to alarms set on this, i have alarms set on my iPhone AND my ipad which charges in my EDC bag at the foot of the bed. When my iPad goes off, I’m forced to get out of bed to silence it.

You could also just keep your phone on the other side of the room, which would prevent you staying on it too long (or at all) at night before bed, and forcing you to get out of bed to grab it when it goes off.

Good luck!

Pretty sure it’s this

Bought one! Pretty cheap, too: this is the one I use.

It's by Philips. I think this is the one I have.