Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a time management coach, author, keynote speaker, host of the top 1% ranked time management podcast It’s About Time, and founder of the It’s About Time Academy (a community of people who want to make time for what matters most). I help busy professionals and business owners struggling with overwhelm manage their time with my signature HEART Method. I’ve been devouring time management books for over a decade now—so I hope you enjoy these time management reads as much as I did!


I wrote...

Time Management Essentials: The Tools You Need to Maximize Your Attention, Energy, and Productivity

By Anna Dearmon Kornick,

Book cover of Time Management Essentials: The Tools You Need to Maximize Your Attention, Energy, and Productivity

What is my book about?

Time Management Essentials: The Tools You Need to Maximize Your Attention, Energy, and Productivity is a comprehensive, up-to-the-minute approach to…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

The books I picked & why

Book cover of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

Anna Dearmon Kornick Why did I love this book?

I absolutely love this book. It’s the OG time management book that started it all for me. My cousin recommended this to me years ago, and it has stayed on my favorites list year after year.

This book opened my eyes to a truth that’s hard to swallow: That, yes, I do have more time than I realize. And I don’t mean like, “You have the same hours in a week as Taylor Swift - go get ‘em, girl!’ because she totally has a team helping her.

No, this book showed me that it’s more about being intentional about what I do have. It brought awareness to how I’m spending my time and how I’m wasting my time, and it helped me see where every minute is going. I can confirm that IT WORKS!

By Laura Vanderkam,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked 168 Hours as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

It's an unquestioned truth of modern life: we are starved for time. We tell ourselves we'd like to read more, get to the gym regularly, try new hobbies, and accomplish all kinds of goals. But then we give up because there just aren't enough hours to do it all. Or if we don't make excuses, we make sacrifices- taking time out from other things in order to fit it all in.

There has to be a better way...and Laura Vanderkam has found one. After interviewing dozens of successful, happy people, she realized that they allocate their time differently than most…


Book cover of The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results

Anna Dearmon Kornick Why did I love this book?

This book was amazing for helping me when I felt stuck and wanted to make a change in my life. This book is all about the power of focus (and not just about avoiding distractions when you’re working). It gave me a focus for my life, and it gave me the tools, examples, and inspiration to break that big-picture focus into smaller pieces… so everything suddenly felt doable.

I loved using the book’s Focusing Question to identify the ONE thing that would make everything in my life easier.

By Gary Keller, Jay Papasan,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked The ONE Thing as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

YOU WANT LESS. You want fewer distractions and less on your plate. The daily barrage of e-mails, texts, tweets, messages, and meetings distract you and stress you out. The simultaneous demands of work and family are taking a toll. And what's the cost? Second-rate work, missed deadlines, smaller paychecks, fewer promotions-and lots of stress. AND YOU WANT MORE. You want more productivity from your work. More income for a better lifestyle. You want more satisfaction from life, and more time for yourself, your family, and your friends. NOW YOU CAN HAVE BOTH-LESS AND MORE. In The ONE Thing, you'll learn…


Book cover of The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy

Anna Dearmon Kornick Why did I love this book?

This was such a fun and super interesting read for me! The number one thing I learned from this book is that I couldn’t just use a “time management hack” that worked for someone else and expect it to work for me.

I learned that time management isn’t one-size-fits-all―it’s meant to be reworked for your life. Reading this book gave me such a lightbulb moment for how I understand time management!

By Chris Bailey,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Productivity Project as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A fresh, personal, and entertaining exploration of a topic that concerns all of us: how to be more productive at work and in every facet of our lives.
 
Chris Bailey turned down lucrative job offers to pursue a lifelong dream—to spend a year performing a deep dive experiment into the pursuit of productivity, a subject he had been enamored with since he was a teenager. After obtaining his business degree, he created a blog to chronicle a year-long series of productivity experiments he conducted on himself, where he also continued his research and interviews with some of the world’s foremost…


Book cover of Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits--to Sleep More, Quit Sugar, Procrastinate Less, and Generally Build a Happier Life

Anna Dearmon Kornick Why did I love this book?

I LOVE that this book is connected to your personality - because I truly believe that different time management books work for different people! This book really helped me believe that one-size-fits-all time management solutions rarely work, and that knowing yourself is the key to success. If you’re curious, I’m a Questioner that leans Rebel!

By Gretchen Rubin,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Better Than Before as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Happiness Project and “a force for real change” (Brené Brown) examines how changing our habits can change our lives.
 
“If anyone can help us stop procrastinating, start exercising, or get organized, it’s Gretchen Rubin. The happiness guru takes a sledgehammer to old-fashioned notions about change.”—Parade
 
Most of us have a habit we’d like to change, and there’s no shortage of expert advice. But as we all know from tough experience, no magic, one-size-fits-all solution exists. It takes work to make a habit, but once that habit is set, we can harness…


Book cover of When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing

Anna Dearmon Kornick Why did I love this book?

This book changed the way I think about time. It helped me incorporate biological chronotypes into my time management methods. After reading it, I realized that when you go with your flow, you get so much more done.

I love that this book is a great mix of science, stats, and introspective questions. One of my favorite things included are the action items throughout, and the concept of a nappuccino!

By Daniel H. Pink,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked When as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Timing is everything. But we don't know much about timing itself. Timing, it's often assumed, is an art; in When, Pink shows that timing is in fact a science.

Drawing on a rich trove of research from psychology, biology and economics, Pink reveals how best to live, work and succeed. How can we use the hidden patterns of the day to build the ideal schedule? Why do certain breaks dramatically improve student test scores? How can we turn a stumbling beginning into a fresh start? When should you have your first coffee of the day? Why is singing in time…


Explore my book 😀

Time Management Essentials: The Tools You Need to Maximize Your Attention, Energy, and Productivity

By Anna Dearmon Kornick,

Book cover of Time Management Essentials: The Tools You Need to Maximize Your Attention, Energy, and Productivity

What is my book about?

Time Management Essentials: The Tools You Need to Maximize Your Attention, Energy, and Productivity is a comprehensive, up-to-the-minute approach to time management to help you stop feeling overwhelmed―and spend more time on the things that matter most.

Good time management skills have always been an important factor in professional success, but between ever-evolving collaboration apps and the more recent pandemic-related workplace shifts, the tools and even the principles behind them have changed.

In Time Management Essentials, I offer comprehensive, up-to-date information you need to manage your time with a values-based approach. I wrote this book to help folks stop feeling overwhelmed so they can spend time on what matters most.

Think of this book like a step-by-step roadmap to taking charge of your time.

Book cover of 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think
Book cover of The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results
Book cover of The Productivity Project: Accomplishing More by Managing Your Time, Attention, and Energy

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,064

readers submitted
so far, will you?

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in time management, productivity, and success in life?

Time Management 35 books
Productivity 19 books
Success In Life 263 books