Best Time Management Books: 30 Picks Recommended by CEOs

Greg McKeown argues for getting only the right things done instead of squeezing more into less time: decide what is essential, drop the rest and stop letting the agendas of others fill the calendar. Casey Neistat has read it and bought a copy for a friend.

Seneca’s essay holds that people waste much of their time on meaningless pursuits, and that a life is long enough when its hours are given with care to what matters, starting with the present. Ryan Holiday calls its essays excellent.

Laura Vanderkam sets out seven principles from people who feel most at ease with their time, with tools for busy days and time makeovers, such as an executive who guards meeting-free stretches on his calendar. Cal Newport praised its evidence that busyness is overrated.

Laura Vanderkam studies detailed time logs from 1,001 days in the lives of women with six-figure salaries, finding that they slept more and worked fewer hours than they assumed, and describes tactics such as split work shifts. Cal Newport calls it excellent.

Laura Vanderkam’s fable follows Riley Jenkins, a consultant so busy answering client emails at all hours that her work suffers, who is sent to a weekend leadership retreat run by a businesswoman named Juliet. Chris Guillebeau calls Vanderkam his go-to time management expert.

Brian Tracy’s central image is eating the frog: doing the hardest and most valuable task first thing each morning, because there is never time for everything, plus 21 ways to stop procrastinating. Adam Johnston rates it first among time management books he has read.

Brian Moran replaces the annual planning cycle with a 12-week year, arguing that the shorter horizon raises urgency and narrows attention to the most important work, for individuals and organizations alike. Vincent Pugliese has it on his list.

Neil Fiore’s program goes after the causes of procrastination, helping busy people start tasks sooner and finish faster, and builds guilt-free play into the plan so leisure is scheduled rather than stolen. Liisa Kyle recommends it to her coaching clients.

Damon Zahariades names eight reasons daily to-do lists go unfinished, reviews ten popular list systems and their flaws, and explains how a list and a calendar should work together. Gennady Batrakov rates it above every other book on lists he has read.

Laura Vanderkam counts the 168 hours in a week and interviews successful people who schedule the important things first, focus on what only they can do and let lesser tasks absorb any shortfall. Seth Godin endorses its hour-by-hour view of a life.

Mainly a manifesto for lifestyle design, Tim Ferriss’s book is full of tactics for reclaiming time: cutting workload with the 80/20 rule, handing tasks to virtual assistants, checking email less and taking mini-retirements. Tim Draper praised its time management and focus on what matters.

Stephen R. Covey’s book is mainly about character and personal effectiveness, and its time management core is a grid of four quadrants that sorts tasks by urgency and importance. Alan Pierce returns to it when his schedule or commitments get rushed or chaotic.

Cal Newport’s book is mainly about concentration, and for time management it argues for organizing the daily routine around long stretches of distraction-free work. Gabriel Weinberg keeps returning to it for its time management models.

Nir Eyal’s book is mainly about resisting distraction, and it recasts time management as pain management, with a four-step model for doing what people planned to do. Arianna Huffington ranks it first among guides to winning back attention and focus.

David Allen’s GTD system is mainly about workflow: every commitment is captured, then sorted into next actions, projects, a someday list and the calendar, so planning rests on a trusted record. Lewis Smith says it changed his whole attitude to managing himself.

Peter Drucker puts managing time first among five practices any executive can learn, followed by deciding what to contribute, using strengths, setting priorities and making effective decisions. Tim Ferriss judges it more valuable than nearly all books sold as time management.

Writing for people under crushing workloads, Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz contend that clock-based planning fails and that energy is the resource to manage, through rituals that balance effort with renewal. Chris Goward found it a good reminder to manage energy rather than time.

Gary Keller and Jay Papasan write mainly about focusing on a single priority, and their practical section relies on time blocking: four hours a day on the one thing plus scheduled time to reflect, plan and relax. Gennady Batrakov says it changed his view of results.

Sam Carpenter’s systems method is mainly about running a business, framed by his own hours: he says improving each subsystem cut his 80 to 100 hour weeks to one hour a week. Sa El says such systems let owners spend less time at work.

Michael Hyatt’s productivity system targets professionals working up to 70 hours a week, filtering commitments and guarding focus so time is left for rest, exercise and family. Dave Ramsey says it pushes people toward better use of their hours.

The 99U collection is mainly about routine, focus and creative work, with twenty contributors on structuring a day amid constant demands. Andrew Elliott calls it a time management book that gives basic guidance, especially for creative fields.

Jocelyn K. Glei’s book is mainly about email, which by her figures takes 28 percent of the workweek, and it offers a daily email routine and limits on requests that waste time. Seth Godin says it can change how people spend hours every day.

Steven G. Rogelberg draws on research and surveys of more than 5,000 employees to show that meetings, which consume vast amounts of time for modest returns, can be run far better. Adam Grant calls him the leading expert on fixing meetings.

Rebecca Hinds treats meetings as products to be designed, with seven design principles and examples from Google, Salesforce and Pixar for calling meetings only when nothing else will do. Adam Grant recommends it for cutting pointless gatherings.

Zig Ziglar’s guide is mainly about setting and reaching goals, framed as a business plan for life, with techniques for finding spare time and breaking large goals into pieces small enough to schedule.

Graham Allcott holds that classic time management breaks down under overflowing inboxes, growing to-do lists and pointless meetings, and replaces it with the calm, ruthless habits of his Productivity Ninja. Deepak Hariharan says it changed how he plans his work.

Robin Sharma makes his case that rising at 5 a.m. wins back time for oneself as a story in which a billionaire mentor teaches an entrepreneur and an artist his morning routine, including a formula that splits the first hour into exercise, reflection and learning.

Richard Koch writes for managers buried in overflowing inboxes and unfinished to-do lists, arguing that concentrating on the few issues that matter brings exceptional results in fewer hours; the book is mainly about management seen through the 80/20 lens.

Chris Ducker’s guide is mainly about building a team of virtual assistants, and its time lesson is to stop doing every job oneself by deciding which tasks to hand off. John Lee Dumas sees it as a guide to building a business without working to exhaustion.

Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir study the psychology of having too little time or money, showing how scarcity narrows focus and taxes mental bandwidth, which helps explain why busy executives mismanage time.