Top 10 books on Time Management summarised to make it easy for you!

A great way to save time is to check out our top 10 books on time management. We are dedicated and devoted readers of books to help you create more time.

If you have ever thought, "I should find some books on time management, BUT I don't have the time!" then this is for you.

We give you a brief summary of what we believe are top ten books that help your improve your use of time (coming soon we will have a more comprehensive review of each book). Yes, our selection is subjective based on our own experience plus the feedback from our visitors and our time creation coaching and workshop participants.

Of course we would love to have your feedback too. If you believe there is a book that should be in the top 10, please send us an email with your suggestions.

So here goes. The Time Management Central top 10 books to help give you more time:

The Seven habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
This is one of our favourite books on time management because it is about creating an on purpose life. This is not a quick fix -- it is a way of life. Adopting the Seven Habits, though challenging, will enrich your life and give you a sense of satisfaction, control and calmness. The key message on time management is spend time on proactive important tasks rather than being reactive.

The 80-20 Principle by Richard Koch
The 80-20 principle was discovered by Pareto a couple of hundred years ago and it still applies -- in fact it is more relevant than ever. The 80-20 rule is that 80% of your results will come from 20% of your effort. In managing your time this means about 80% of your achievements will come from 20% of your actions or 20% of your time. To implement the 80-20 principle STOP. STOP doing what you are doing now and ask, "is this task in the 20% that gives 80% of the results?" If not DO NOT do it. Eliminate the 80% of "waste" and do the 20%.

Mind Gym - Give me time
We think This is one of the best books on time management because you can use as much or as little as you like AND all of the ideas and tips can help you save time. The book is well organised into sections and it starts with a great short chapter title "I don't have time to read this book!" The best idea we got from this book was about how our personal style impacts on our time. The key concepts covered are:
Your Relationship with Time, Do the right things, Take Command and Other People and Your Time.

Getting things Done -- The Art of Stress Free Productivity by David Allen
This book and system has massive following. The subtle effectiveness of GTD lies in its common sense notion that a complete and current inventory of all your commitments , organized and reviewed in a systematic way allows you focus on what needs to be done at any given time. The step-by-step method includes, Capturing anything and everything that has your attention: Defining actionable things into outcomes and concrete next steps; Organizing reminders and information in categories; Keeping current with frequent reviews of the six horizons (purpose, vision, goals, areas of focus, projects, and actions)

Time Power by Brian Tracy
Brian Tracy is another "guru" who has written many programs and books on time management. Starting with his book Maximum Achievement and his audio program The Psychology of Achievement, Brian has been providing valuable on how best to use our time.

Time Power covers topics such as Mastering Time through Goals, Establishing proper priorities, overcoming the six biggest time wasters and overcoming procrastination. You will have heard these ideas before, and Time Power puts them together like an instruction manual. It's easy to find what you want and easy to refer back. The approach is based on having a lot of self-discpline (all people who spend time well have self-discipline, but Tracy places very high importance on this ability).

The 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
We love this book on time management because it is very different. This is not about typical time management principles. This book is about how to totally (or partially) restructure your life so you only need to work 4 hours a week. You get ideas from how to convince your boss you can work from home to having regular "sabbaticals".

Execution. The Discipline of Getting Things Done by Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan
Bossidy and Charan explain how it is how you Execute in business that is the difference between success and failure. They use three examples from XEROX, Lucent and EDS to make their point. The key take away concept from this book is about getting things done through others. The two stand out factors for us were Accountability and Follow-Through.

Managing Management Time -- The One Minute Manager Meets The Monkey by Ken Blanchard and William Oncken.
This is a great story about how most managers and supervisors operate and why they don't have enough time. Indirectly this is a book on time management because the outcome from using their suggestions about managing tasks and responsibilities means you will find you have lots more time! And the story behind "who's got the monkey" is entertaining too!

Time Management from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern
This book is a great practical hands-on book for improving your time-management. It starts by checking on you motivation for wanting to do stuff. The two great ideas we like in this book are the WADE formula and the concept of time mapping. We use both of these as part of our coaching toolkit. W = write it down. A = add it up (how long will it take). D = decide (to do or no to do). E = execute.

AND JUST FOR FUN
Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy
To round out our 10 books on time management we have included a short fun book. Brian Tracy gives us short simple and practical stories and ideas for improving productivity and time management (like how to eat that frog). It is a great time management tool you can refer to at anytime and get some practical suggestions, without having to read through a long book. One of our favourite tips is "before you eat the frog, set the table" -- in other words get clear about want you really want BEFORE you start taking action.

We hope that these short summaries on our top ten books on time management have been useful for you. Come back soon and we will more in depth summaries of each of these books.

More books on time management. Action - Nothing Happens Until Something Moves, Robert Ringer
How to Succeed IN Business Without Working so damn hard - Robert Kriegel
Death by Meeting -- Patrick Lencioni

All books reviewed at Time Management Central are available from Amazon.

A BONUS Just for you :-)

As a thank-you for visiting Time Management Central, you can get our e-booklet, The Six Delusions of a Workaholic, for free.

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