Getting Things Done by David Allen

This is a book on the process of how to get things done. It talks about several steps to master the process and reviewing the process.

1. Capturing all the information that we want to collect.

2. Clarifying what this item means and what to do about it – is it actionable?

3. Organise the items - what is the next action, like delete, do not, delegate etc.

4. Reflect – how it should be dealt with and what the next action is.

5. Engage – perform those actions.

6. Review regularly.

The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan

One of the first books I have read on achieving your goals as well. And it’s still one of my favourites.

This is the book where I have first learnt about the Pareto principle, which talks about 80% of your results are delivered by 20% of your work.

You just need to know how to prioritise your results to that 20 % of your tasks, and this is by focusing on one thing. You also need the discipline to create good habits that will lead you to that one thing and to avoid multitasking.

Procrastinate on Purpose by Rory Vaden

This is one of the most entertaining books I have read. I have always thought that procrastinating is a bad thing and this notion is quite common among doctors. But this is not the case for everything and I have learnt this from personal experience. Sometimes delaying to do a task might change the priority of that task, or this task might not be needed at all.

And in that case, you have spent a lot of time performing this task. It also talks a lot about delegating, and we as doctors are not very good at this. This is one of the most important lessons that I have learnt and continue to learn. I often find myself in a position where I should have delegated a certain task earlier, not tried to do it myself.

Atomic Habits by James Clear

I love this book, it’s my favourite with regards to teaching you how to form habits. It was amazing to hear the power of small habits and that improving your habit by 1% every day will lead to 3.5x improvement over a year.

So if you add 1 min per week to your exercise, it will lead to significant increase to your exercise time. And this is also valid if you start from no exercise at all. Also developing good habits is to add it to a habit that you are already doing. For me this is to my morning routine. This book is excellent, I am I planning to read it again later on in the year.

Girl, Stop Apologising by Rachel Hollis

A fascinating book to read about societal influences on boys and girl which leads to less success for girls vs boys. And sometimes these influences make women less likely to achieve.

This may be because we always feel guilty of something. Women often neglect what they want and prioritise someone else’s desires over their own. This book also provides tips how women can achieve more success.

Break The Wheel by Jay Acunzo

Best practice guidelines are a huge part of the doctor’s life. This book talks a lot about best practices, and that sometimes best practices are not for us.

This made me think about best practices for my patients, and for example that treating a blood pressure to be back in the best practice guidelines may be best for one patient, but not for another. We need to think about what these best practices mean to our patients or us and act accordingly. Context is everything.