The Best Books To Help Startup Founders With Time Management

Please note that this page contains affiliate links. While we only recommend products that we believe in, we may benefit financially from any purchases you make.

 

As a startup founder, one of the most important commodities you have is time.

However, managing this time effectively can be difficult, especially when juggling meetings, pitches and reporting.

Luckily, the art of time management is a skill that can be mastered, especially with the right tools. Here, we take a look at the best books to help with time management, making sure founders are making the most of every minute.

 

What Tools Exist To Help With Time Management?

 

It’s not just books that help with time management, there are tons of apps and tools out there to help founders keep up with their never ending list of tasks, some of these include:

Asana: Asana is a project management tool that helps teams see their own to-do lists, and those of their colleagues, more easily. This not only helps them see who has the most resource, but also helps with managing their own tasks one day at a time.

Trello: For those that prefer more visual to-do lists, Trello allows teams to create visual projects on a board, allowing them to collaborate more easily.

Slack: One of the biggest time-sucks for founders is keeping up with emails. Slack helps curb this by providing easy messaging between employees. By using slack, founders can spend less time clearing their inboxes and more time on important tasks.

Calendly: Calendly opens a person’s calendar to all their employees, allowing them to more easily book in meetings. No more back and forth around availability, now employees can book in time – and founders can block out time – more easily.

Apps aside, if you’re looking for literary inspiration for timekeeping, here are some of the best books to help:

 

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

 

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People | Book by Stephen R. Covey, Sean  Covey, Jim Collins | Official Publisher Page | Simon & Schuster

 

This book has helped CEOs for generations work out how to make the best of their time.

The book talks about how to live with fairness, integrity, honesty and dignity, and how these habits can help founders spend their time and energy more effectively.

Buy the book here.

 

 

Make Time

 

Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day by Jake Knapp | Goodreads

 

Make Time gives readers real strategies for taking control of their day.

With over 80 tactics to choose from, including where to allocate time, how to cut out elements that suck this out and ways to reduce distractions – this book is all about priorities and making the most of every minute.

Buy the book here.

 

Indistractable

 

Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life: Eyal,  Nir: 9781948836531: Amazon.com: Books

 

In a world of constant notifications and endless online distractions, Indistractable talks about how to design your time to achieve what you really want.

The book helps founders work out what things might be taking up too much time, allowing them to cut out distractions and use their time more productively.

Buy the book here.

 

Eat That Frog!

 

Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in  Less Time [Paperback]: TRACY BRIAN: 9781523095131: Amazon.com: Books

The premise of this book is based on a saying that if the first thing you do each day is eat a live frog, then you’ll know your toughest task is over. The book builds on this by encouraging founders to tackle their biggest, most challenging task (the “frog”) first thing to make sure the important things are done first.

This approach is perfect for founders who find it hard to work through their to-do lists, helping them organise their day in the right way.

Buy the book here.

 

Deep Work

 

Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World [Paperback]  Newport, Cal : Newport, Cal: Amazon.in: Books

 

In a world full of distractions, Deep Work teaches founders how to focus and achieve what they need to do in less time.

The book explores what it means to focus, and how the power of boredom can help lead to better and ‘deeper’ work.

Buy the book here.

 

Getting Things Done

 

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity: Amazon.co.uk:  Allen, David: 9780349408941: Books

 

David Allen’s Getting Things Done method is all about freeing the mind and building new mental skills to help with multitasking.

The book helps readers curb procrastination and focus on approaching their work in a stress-free and productive way.

Buy the book here.