Do you often feel like there isn’t enough time in the day? Do you feel like you don’t have control of your time?
Many people feel as though there is never enough time—not enough time for work, not enough time for family, not enough time for ourselves. This sentiment is understandable: Modern life is busy, and with so many things vying for our time and attention, it’s hard to be on top of everything. But if your time management is on point, being on top of everything that’s important is not that difficult.
In this article, we’ve rounded up a list of the best time management resources, including books, blogs, and podcasts. Let’s get productive!
The Struggle of Time Management
“Not having enough time” is most often just an excuse for not being able to manage your time effectively. The truth is that you do have enough time to attend to all the important things. Therefore, time management starts with getting clear on what’s important.
If you want to learn how to manage your time more effectively, we’ve got you covered with the best time management resources to follow.
Best Time Management Blogs
If you want to learn how to manage your time more effectively, blogs are a great place to start. Here’s our roundup of the best time management blogs to bookmark right now.
When it comes to time management, Craig Jarrow, the author of Time Management Ninja, believes in simplicity: “If your time management system requires a flowchart, it is probably too complicated for everyday use.” On his blog, he teaches readers to own their time by adopting proper habits, handy tools, and most importantly, the right mindset.
Time Hackz is a blog dedicated to time management, productivity, and healthy habits. In addition to helpful blog articles, they also provide reviews of the best time management tools, courses, books, and other resources. Whether you’re a college student, a stay-at-home mom, or a business executive, you’re sure to find a time management solution that works for you.
Toggl is a time tracking tool designed by and for teams that work from anywhere. The Toggl Blog covers individual and team productivity, time and project management strategies for businesses, and tips for remote work and team management.
Kelly Nolan is an attorney-turned-time-management strategist and a mom of two. During her working years as an attorney, Kelly developed her own time/task management system that she now teaches exclusively to busy, professional women. On her blog, she shares time management tips and tidbits of wisdom on all things modern women are concerned about.
Getting a Grip is run by Robyn Pearce, one of the world’s leading time management experts. In the past, Robyn struggled with time management, which was a major obstacle to her professional success. Through much trial and error, she was able to transform her greatest weakness into her greatest strength and a business. She blogs about time management and improving productivity in the workplace. She also shares downloadable productivity tools.
Launched in 2011, Asian Efficiency is a popular blog about time management and productivity. Its mission is to provide you with simple and actionable tips for making the most of your time both at work and in life. It covers every possible time management topic you could think of from time tracking to effective delegation. There’s also a lot of content about optimizing your learning.
Dave calls himself an investigative designer; He designs productivity tools for various uses such as time management, goal tracking, and habit tracking, and shares them on his blog. You can download Dave’s calendars, forms, and spreadsheets for personal use free of charge. He also runs productivity experiments and shares reports and insights with his audience.
Best Time Management Books
If you don’t have time for anything, then you probably don’t have time to read a book either. So, here are our Shortform guides to the best time management books.
In First Things First, Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, presents a time management approach that focuses on priorities, or “first things.” This approach teaches you to use your time effectively instead of just efficiently—in other words, focusing on what you spend your time on, rather than just how much time you spend per task. You’ll learn how to identify your priorities, schedule your time at the daily and weekly levels, and collaborate with others to ensure the best possible results for everyone.
The Getting Things Done (GTD) program is designed to help you do the things you have to do with less time, energy, and effort so you can do more of the things you want to do. It takes every task and reminder out of your head and into an external system of lists and files so that you can focus all your mental energy on the task at hand. You’ll identify the next action step for every item on your to-do list so that when you have time available you don’t have to think—just do. By gaining command of your day-to-day obligations, you’ll create more time and energy to work toward your long-term goals.
While many business books tell you how to manage other people, this 1966 classic by management expert Peter F. Drucker explains how to manage yourself to be effective. Drucker says anyone can learn five practices for effectiveness: managing your time, focusing on just a few key tasks, making a unique contribution, maximizing your strengths, and making sound decisions. He explains how to implement these practices, which have remained relevant for over 50 years, even as technology and organizations have evolved.
Like most people, you’re probably easily distracted by wandering thoughts or social media updates while trying to be productive. In Deep Work, Cal Newport teaches you how to develop your focus and resist distractions so that you can rise to the top of your field and drive toward your most important goals. He contends that focus is like a mental muscle: Through deliberate training, you can strengthen your focus and expand your mental capacity. Newport explains why the ability to do deep work (work that requires intense concentration) is so important in our modern economy, and he shows how to make deep work a part of your life.
We feel constantly pressed for time. We feel we have to do it all. But because we’re going in so many directions, we make little progress in any of them. Yet most of these activities are trivial. As Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism puts it, we’re majoring in minor activities. The way out of this trap is to practice essentialism: “do less but better.” McKeown explains how you can distinguish the vital few from the trivial, then eliminate the nonessentials and make your optimum contribution in your life and work.
Writer and journalist Oliver Burkeman claims that humans make themselves miserable by mistakenly believing they should be able to get through all their tasks, to-dos, and chores in the time they’ve allotted them. The reality is that no matter what time management solutions they implement, humans will never have perfect control over how they spend their time. Instead, people must accept that they’ll never get as much done as they’d like and work within the parameters of a finite life. In Four Thousand Weeks, Burkeman suggests a few ways to do this that not only relieve us of the guilt of not getting everything done but also let us lead happier, more fulfilled lives.
Many people want to retire as millionaires so that they have the time and money to travel, buy luxury cars and homes, or visit with their friends and families. However, you don’t need to be a millionaire to do all these things. You don’t even need to retire.
In The 4-Hour Workweek, entrepreneur, consultant, and life coach Tim Ferriss explains how anyone can live the retired millionaire lifestyle by building their own business, automating it, and then collecting the income while they go off to live their dreams
In today’s tech-dependent, app-centered, notification-ruled world, it’s easier than ever to get distracted from what’s really important—your values, your relationships, and your work. In Indistractable, Nir Eyal develops a four-part model for gaining the modern-day superpower of “indistractability.” You’ll learn how your distractions start internally, why your schedule should be based on your values instead of tasks, how to diminish the power of external triggers in your life, and how to commit to yourself—so you can start driving your life instead of letting its distractions drive you.
Best Time Management Podcasts
The beauty of podcasts is that you can entertain yourself on the go or while you are doing activities that don’t require much brainpower. And you can get things done while learning something useful.
Here are Shortform’s picks of the best time management podcasts to follow in 2022.
The host of the every-weekday-morning podcast Before Breakfast, Laura Vanderkam is an author of several books on productivity and time management. She has spoken about time management in numerous tv shows and hundreds of radio segments, and her TED talk “How to Gain Control of Your Free Time” garnered over 8 million views. In each bite-sized episode of Before Breakfast, Laura shares a time management tip or answers a listener’s question.
The host of It’s About Time, Anna Dearmon Kornick, believes that “busy is not a badge of honor.” Anna talks about how to minimize the overwhelm by getting your priorities in order so you can spend your time on what matters most. In addition to deep-dive how-to episodes, Anna sits down with other successful go-getters to find out how they find time for everything.
The Productivity Show is a weekly podcast by Asian Efficiency. Their philosophy is that productivity should not come at the cost of health, family, and things that matter. Discover how to manage your time more efficiently, and most importantly, more meaningfully.
Hurry Slowly is a podcast about pacing yourself and taking things easy. According to host Jocelyn K. Glei, you don’t need to cram your day with endless tasks to be productive. In fact, that will quickly burn you out. Slowing down is the key to sustained productivity.
In A Productive Conversation, productivity strategist Mike Vardy brings you engaging, fun, and lighthearted discussions about productivity and personal development. He sits down with entrepreneurs, authors, coaches, and speakers to discuss their secrets to success and stress-free productivity both at work and at home.
Getting Things Done is a podcast about the GTD method, a 5-step personal work-life management system created by productivity consultant David Allen, who also authored the book by the same name. You’ll hear interviews about people’s experiences with GTD as well as practical tips for making the most of your time using the GTD method.
If you feel sluggish and unmotivated in the morning, The 5 AM Miracle is the podcast for you. Host Jeff Sanders, a keynote speaker, productivity coach, and the author of The 5 AM Miracle, shares his insights about how to slay your day before breakfast. Core topics include morning routines, healthy habits, and personal productivity.
In Make Time, Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky argue that we live in an information landscape designed to steal our time and attention. In order to escape from all of our modern distractions, you must be proactive to take back your time. The authors offer tips, tricks, and hacks to reclaim control of your day-to-day life and make time for the things that matter most.
Final Words
Time management is one of the most important life skills you can develop. Managing your time wisely is not just about deciding when to attend to what. It’s also—and perhaps more importantly—deciding what to attend to and what to discard.
If you’re serious about making the most of your time, we’ve got you covered with the best time management resources, including blogs, books, and podcasts listed above!
Did we miss your favorite time management blog, book, or podcast? Let us know in the comments!
