January Book Reviews

The Best Things I’ve Read So Far

The road to 60 books read in 2024 is off to a strong start. 60 would be a personal best for me, topping my previous best of 53. In the month of January I read 9 books. Here’s the highlights and lowlights.

Best Books From January

Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman was a dang breath of fresh air to read. Just like Burkeman, I’m a self-proclaimed productivity junky. If it’s not the most efficient and effective way to get something done, I’m not interested. So I’ve consumed books like David Allen’s Getting Things Done and subscribed to their productivity systems.

In fact, David’s Allen’s GTD Workflow is printed and posted on the board at my desk. I love it.

But, productivity can have a diminishing return. The quality of my life lived can diminish is what I mean, more specifically. I can’t lighten up. I have a hard time unwinding and letting loose. It could be 9 PM and I’ll be sitting in my living room doing hip mobility exercises because it’s the next most efficient use of my time.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with that. Unless it’s met with a mentality that can’t be light. That’s where this book was extremely helpful. This book helped me look in the mirror and ask myself where productivity isn’t serving me…