The One Productivity Book You Have To Read in 2024
In response to the fifty-two weeks with your diary The Diarist writing prompt: tell us about that one non- fiction book for 2024?
Reflections on 28th Jan 2024
It’s the fifth week of 2024!
Sometimes it is hard to believe how time files and we make no progress…
I look at my resolutions daily and try to do justice to them.
Lately, my thoughts have been consumed by a singular question: What is the one “non-fiction” book that I would wholeheartedly recommend to you?
When it comes to book advice, I have been following a fifty-fifty approach.
I take advice, I also trust my guts.
Believe it or not I found one of the best books following pure curiosity.
So be a good cynic. It helps.
Casting my mind back to 2001, I find myself as a second-year B.A. English student.
As I am coming out of the local shop, I can see one of my friends coming with a guy whom I haven’t met.
I could sense something amiss because my friend’s friend was strangely looking at me.
As we exchange introductions, he discovers my background in English literature and poses a poignant question,
“Can you recommend me a book? I’m going through a difficult time and need some inspiration.”
Although the Internet was booming in India’s metropolitan cities it was a rarity in our town.
Remember it was 2001 and the Internet worked on archaic dial-up connections.
So people naturally turn to guys like me whom they think are intelligent.
I took a moment to ponder his preferences. Eventually, I suggested Chicken Soup for the Soul.
A book that lifted my spirits during challenging times.
A month later, I learned that he found the book lacking, and my confidence in recommending books wavers.
Little did I know then that Chicken Soup for the Soul had so many editions and he picked the wrong one.
Now, as I contemplate the prospect of reading only one book this year, I reflect on my habits with reading.
I am the kind of person who reads four to five books at a time!
This ritual, starting with enthusiasm and ending in a chaotic juggle of multiple books mid-year, seems to repeat itself annually.
I always think of a book as my best friend, who is early waiting to share something at a key phase of my life!
Hence my relationship with my books is marked by a mix of dedication and neglect, akin to a fickle friend.
They sit on the shelf, some patiently waiting for over a decade, eager to impart their wisdom.
Yet, I often feign busy-ness, postponing the shared moments of enlightenment.
I think when a time comes the right book will enter into our hands and we can never let it go.
It has been well-acknowledged that we all are possessed with a strong need to learn and grow.
Without which we will fall into “boredom, fear and anger”, which will reduce our life into misery.
In a world of hectic schedules, it is hard to find time to read everything we wish to read.
So we have to let go of some of our favourite books, and pick the ones that solve our immediate problems.
The books that truly captivate us are those that offer solutions to our immediate challenges.
Presently I am pressed for time. So I recommend a super book you should read this year.
A book I also recommend for 2024
Someday is Today by Matthew Dicks!
It will be controversial to call it ‘pure non-fiction’.
Because Mathew Dicks is an amazing storyteller. Hence teaches every concept with stories and events from his personal life.
That makes the book a page-turner.
If you have an audible membership this book is available for FREE!
The books that truly captivate us are those that offer solutions to our immediate challenges.
Having embraced productivity since my transition into entrepreneurship, this book has imparted invaluable insights about time.
Dicks advocates treating time as a precious and irreversible commodity, urging readers to set a 100-year goal.
His wisdom prompts us to reflect on our current problems from the perspective of our final day, emphasizing that a decade can slip away in the blink of an eye.
For those who claim, “I don’t have time,” I implore you to read this transformative piece.
It might just be the nudge you need. Thank you.
Have you read Chicken Soup for the Soul?
What self-help books do you like?
Thank you for reading.
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