Whether you’re trying to get more organised, stick to a routine, or just be more mindful, these books are perfect bedtime reading.
1. Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results by James Clear
If big changes give you a big case of avoidance or procrastination, this is the book for you. By focusing on tiny changes – so small, there’s just no way to justify not implementing them because you don’t have the time or the energy – Atomic Habits makes a solid case for course correcting, one micro-habit at a time.
A taster: “Here’s how the maths works out: if you can get 1 percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done. Conversely, if you get 1 percent worse each day for one year, you’ll decline nearly down to zero. What starts as a small win or a minor setback accumulates into something much more.”
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2. Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts by Oliver Burkeman
Oliver Burkemen calls for calm in the midst of the hysterical hustle culture urging us to do more in less time. He’s got a great sense of humour, and his advice is sensible: embrace the art of doing less by being more selective and intentional in what we choose to do. The outcome? Improving the quality of our productivity.
A taster: “A vast proportion of conventional productivity advice consists of techniques for maintaining the illusion that you might, one day, find a way to fit everything in.”
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3. Make Your Bed: Small Things That Can Change Your Life… And Maybe the World by William H McRaven
In this book, McRaven offers 10 life-changing principles he learned during his 37 years as a Navy SEAL. The underlying rationale for the advice in the title? It’s the idea that if we don’t have the discipline to make our own beds in the morning, we won’t have the self-discipline to tackle the big tasks in life, the ones that can change our lives for the better, and possibly the world, too. So, if you don’t already, best you start making your bed.
A taster: “Making my bed correctly was not going to be an opportunity for praise. It was expected of me. It was my first task of the day, and doing it right was important. It demonstrated my discipline. It showed my attention to detail, and at the end of the day it would be a reminder that I had done something well, something to be proud of, no matter how small the task.
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4. Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits by Gretchen Rubin
You may remember Gretchen Ruben from The Happiness Project, where she took readers along with her on a year-long journey to test out common (and not-so-common) advice on how to be happy. Here, she takes a fresh approach to habit-forming by investigating the 21 strategies that will help you to change your life, whether you want to quit sugar, sleep more, use your phone less or complete a project.
A taster: “The fact is, no one-size-fits-all solution exists. It’s easy to dream that if we copy the habits of productive, creative people, we’ll win similar success. But we each must cultivate the habits that work for us.”
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5. One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer
This is another book that promotes the idea that great change is made through small steps. Why? Small steps go around the brain’s built-in resistance to change. This book presents this through the lens of kaizen: a Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement in all facets of life.
A taster: “Contrary to popular opinion, change – whether personal or in business – does not have to be agonisingly painful. Nor must it happen as a result of scare tactics employed to shock ourselves into meaningful action.”
Words: Robyn McLarty
Image: Pexels
