Smarter Faster Better

Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, builds his account of productivity around eight concepts, among them motivation, goal setting, focus and decision making. He draws on psychology, neuroscience and behavioral economics and on the experiences of Broadway songwriters, pilots, FBI agents and generals. Examples include a Google study finding that how a team interacts matters more than who is on it, a Marine Corps general who rebuilt boot camp around a bias toward action, a poker player who trained herself to picture contradictory futures, and the filmmakers behind Disney's Frozen. Duhigg argues that productivity is not always a matter of working harder and that it relies on managing how people think, set goals, build teams and make decisions.

Anatomonics founder Mike Benkovich called it one of the best productivity books he has read, despite what he saw as a click-baity title. Life and Limb Gel founder Chelsea Frank included it among books that shaped her perspective.