The Best Books and Podcasts About Productivity, Wellness, and Workplace Habits (2021)

Brought to you by: ActivTrak Productivity Lab

This has been a prolific year for productivity content. We at ActivTrak encourage you to expand your reading (and listening) lists to include material on productivity, wellness, and workplace habits. To get started, we compiled a list of hits from the year so far. 

Whether you have 3 minutes or 3 hours, hopefully you can find something on this list that challenges the way you think about personal, team, and organizational workplace dynamics.

For the podcast listener:

• Beyond the To-Do List featuring Dave Crenshaw, author of The Myth of Multitasking 
• Central to this discussion between the host Erik Fisher and author Dave Crenshaw is that while multitasking is often thought of as a critical skill for efficiency, it can actually damage productivity. 
• Rethinking our Relationship with Work (Back to Work, Better)
• The return to the office, or the transition to a more permanent remote or hybrid model, is an opportunity to reflect and reset ambitions. Defining or redefining how and why we work can yield more enjoyment and engagement and help avoid burnout. 
• Too Much Focus is Draining: Here’s a Better Strategy
• Over focusing, like multitasking, burns through cognitive energy. Learn six tips to find the right balance, help find your flow and better manage your cognitive resources. 

For the article skimmer:

• Productivity is About Your Systems, Not Your People HBR
• “[Traditional productivity improvement tactics] fail to account for the simple fact that most people don’t work in isolation.”
• Help Your Employees Find Purpose, or Watch Them Leave McKinsey
• “People who live their purpose at work are more productive than people who don’t.”
• Will the Pandemic Productivity Boom Last? The New York Times
• “While some of the pandemic-driven efficiencies could take years to be fully realized, we think these four forces will lead to a sustained productivity revival in the medium run.”

For the book devourer:

• Effortless: Make it Easier to Do What Matters Most by Greg McKeown
• Important, meaningful, essential work doesn’t need to be daunting or draining. This book includes tips for how to face challenging projects, preserve your energy, and prevent burnout. Learn how to create a system to turn tasks into a series of effortless actions. 
• Work Rules! Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead by Laszlo Bock
• While written in 2015, this book remains relevant today and illustrates how to balance structure and creativity in a high-performance organization. Former SVP of People Operations at Google and co-founder and CEO of Humu, Laszlo Bock shares transformative insights and celebrates the power of data to predict and shape the future of work. 

At ActivTrak, we care about making the workplace better. We’re in the business of enabling organizations to create more supportive, fulfilling, and engaging places to work, all while achieving business success. Because when the workplace works, so do people.

As we round out the third quarter of the year, continue to be a student of your own productivity. Reflect on what makes you more or less productive. Consider what focus means, how you cultivate it, and what you need in order to reach and maintain it. Through this, we can not only be more productive and get more done during our workdays, but we can be also healthier and happier throughout our entire day.

_____________________________________________________________________

Other helpful resources:

• Get up to speed on what productivity means in today’s modern workplace – From Data to Decisions: Workplace Productivity 101.
• Address burnout before it takes its toll on your organization. Download The Manager’s Guide to Burnout.
• Start a free account of ActivTrak today to help your hybrid teams work wiser!

_____________________________________________________________________ 

About ActivTrak and The Productivity Lab 

ActivTrak helps companies unlock productivity potential. Our award-winning workforce productivity and analytics software provides expert insights that empower people, optimize processes, and maximize technology. With data sourced from more than 9,000 customers and 250,000 users, ActivTrak’s Productivity Lab is a global center for ground-breaking workforce productivity research and expertise that helps companies embrace and embody the future of work.