listnirvana

[listnirvana]

Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

"Rest is such a valuable book. If work is our national religion, Pang is the philosopher reintegrating our bifurcated selves."

---Arianna Huffington, New York Times Book Review Overwork is the new normal. Rest is something to do when the important things are done-but they are never done. Looking at different forms of rest, from sleep to vacation, Silicon Valley futurist and business consultant Alex Soojung-Kim Pang dispels the myth that the harder we work the better the outcome. He combines rigorous scientific research with a rich array of examples of writers, painters, and thinkers---from Darwin to Stephen King---to challenge our tendency to see work and relaxation as antithetical. "Deliberate rest," as Pang calls it, is the true key to productivity, and will give us more energy, sharper ideas, and a better life. Rest offers a roadmap to rediscovering the importance of rest in our lives, and a convincing argument that we need to relax more if we actually want to get more done.

[listnirvana]

The Happiness Project (Revised Edition): Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

Gretchen Rubin

“This book made me happy in the first five pages.” —AJ Jacobs, author of The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible

Award-winning author Gretchen Rubin is back with a bang, with The Happiness Project. The author of the bestselling 40 Ways to Look at Winston Churchill *has produced a work that is “a cross between the Dalai Lama’s *The Art of Happiness and Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love.” (Sonya Lyubomirsky, author of The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want) In the vein of* Julie and Julia, The Happiness Project* describes one person’s year-long attempt to discover what leads to true contentment. Drawing at once on cutting-edge science, classical philosophy, and real-world applicability, Rubin has written an engaging, eminently relatable chronicle of transformation.

[listnirvana]

Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself

Dr. Kristin Neff

Kristin Neff, Ph.D., says that it’s time to “stop beating yourself up and leave insecurity behind.” Self-Compassion: Stop Beating Yourself Up and Leave Insecurity Behind offers expert advice on how to limit self-criticism and offset its negative effects, enabling you to achieve your highest potential and a more contented, fulfilled life.

More and more, psychologists are turning away from an emphasis on self-esteem and moving toward self-compassion in the treatment of their patients—and Dr. Neff’s extraordinary book offers exercises and action plans for dealing with every emotionally debilitating struggle, be it parenting, weight loss, or any of the numerous trials of everyday living.  

[listnirvana]

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

Charles Duhigg

OVER 60 WEEKS ON THE *NEW YORK TIMES *BESTSELLER LIST

With a new Afterword by the author   In The Power of Habit, *Pulitzer Prize–winning business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. Distilling vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives that take us from the boardrooms of Procter & Gamble to sidelines of the NFL to the front lines of the civil rights movement, Duhigg presents a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential. At its core, *The Power of Habit contains an exhilarating argument: The key to exercising regularly, losing weight, being more productive, and achieving success is understanding how habits work. As Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.

NEW YORK TIMES *BESTSELLER • NPR *BESTSELLER • *WASHINGTON POST *BESTSELLER • *LOS ANGELES TIMES *BESTSELLER • *USA TODAY *BESTSELLER • *PUBLISHERS WEEKLY *BESTSELLER   NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The Wall Street Journal • Financial Times   “Sharp, provocative, and useful.”—Jim Collins   “Few [books] become essential manuals for business and living. The Power of Habit *is an exception. Charles Duhigg not only explains how habits are formed but how to kick bad ones and hang on to the good.”—*Financial Times   “A flat-out great read.”—David Allen, bestselling author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity   “You’ll never look at yourself, your organization, or your world quite the same way.”—Daniel H. Pink, bestselling author of Drive *and A Whole New Mind*** **  “Entertaining . . . enjoyable . . . fascinating . . . a serious look at the science of habit formation and change.”**—*The New York Times Book Review

“Cue: see cover. Routine: read book. Reward: fully comprehend the art of manipulation.”—Bloomberg Businessweek   “Absolutely fascinating.”**—*Wired

“A fresh examination of how routine behaviors take hold and whether they are susceptible to change . . . The stories that Duhigg has knitted together are all fascinating in their own right, but take on an added dimension when wedded to his examination of habits.”— Associated Press   “There’s been a lot of research over the past several years about how our habits shape us, and this work is beautifully described in the new book The Power of Habit.”—David Brooks, The New York Times   “A first-rate book—based on an impressive mass of research, written in a lively style and providing just the right balance of intellectual seriousness with practical advice on how to break our bad habits.”—The Economist   “I have been spinning like a top since reading The Power of Habit, New York Times journalist Charles Duhigg’s fascinating best-seller about how people, businesses and organizations develop the positive routines that make them productive—and happy.”**—*The Washington Post

[listnirvana]

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard

Chip Heath

Why is it so hard to make lasting changes in our companies, in our communities, and in our own lives?

The primary obstacle is a conflict that’s built into our brains, say Chip and Dan Heath, authors of the critically acclaimed bestseller Made to Stick. Psychologists have discovered that our minds are ruled by two different systems—the rational mind and the emotional mind—that compete for control. The rational mind wants a great beach body; the emotional mind wants that Oreo cookie. The rational mind wants to change something at work; the emotional mind loves the comfort of the existing routine. This tension can doom a change effort—but if it is overcome, change can come quickly.

In Switch, the Heaths show how everyday people—employees and managers, parents and nurses—have united both minds and, as a result, achieved dramatic results:  ●      The lowly medical interns who managed to defeat an entrenched, decades-old medical practice that was endangering patients. ●      The home-organizing guru who developed a simple technique for overcoming the dread of housekeeping. ●      The manager who transformed a lackadaisical customer-support team into service zealots by removing a standard tool of customer service              In a compelling, story-driven narrative, the Heaths bring together decades of counterintuitive research in psychology, sociology, and other fields to shed new light on how we can effect transformative change. Switch shows that successful changes follow a pattern, a pattern you can use to make the changes that matter to you, whether your interest is in changing the world or changing your waistline.

[listnirvana]

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

David Allen

****"The Bible of business and personal productivity" —*Lifehack***

"A completely revised and updated edition of the blockbuster bestseller from 'the personal productivity guru'"**—***Fast Company***

Since it was first published almost fifteen years ago, David Allen’s *Getting Things Done *has become one of the most influential business books of its era, and the ultimate book on personal organization. “GTD” is now shorthand for an entire way of approaching professional and personal tasks, and has spawned an entire culture of websites, organizational tools, seminars, and offshoots.   Allen has rewritten the book from start to finish, tweaking his classic text with important perspectives on the new workplace, and adding material that will make the book fresh and relevant for years to come. This new edition of *Getting Things Done *will be welcomed not only by its hundreds of thousands of existing fans but also by a whole new generation eager to adopt its proven principles.

[listnirvana]

Overwhelmed: How to Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time

Brigid Schulte

Schulte s a detective in a murder mystery Who killed America s leisure time and how do we get it back Lev Grossman Time When award winning journalist Brigid Schulte a harried mother of two realized she was living a life of all work and no play she decided to find out why she felt so overwhelmed This book is the story of what she discovered and of how her search for answers became a journey toward a life of less stress and more leisure Schulte s findings are illuminating puzzling and at times maddening Being overwhelmed is even affecting the size of our brains But she also encounters signs of real progress evidence that what the ancient Greeks called the good life is attainable after all Schulte talks to companies who are inventing a new kind of workplace travels to countries where policies support office cultures that don t equate shorter hours with laziness and where people actually get more done meets couples who have figured out how to share responsibilities Enlivened by personal anecdotes humor and hope Overwhelmed is a book about modern life a revelation of the misguided beliefs and real stresses that have made leisure feel like a thing of the past and of how we can find time for it in the present Can working parents in America or anywhere ever find true leisure time According to the Leisure Studies Department at the University of Iowa true leisure is that place in which we realize our humanity If that s true argues Brigid Schulte then we re doing dangerously little realizing of our humanity In Overwhelmed Schulte a staff writer for The Washington Post asks Are our brains our partners our culture and our bosses making it impossible for us to experience anything but contaminated time Schulte first asked this question in a 2010 feature for The Washington Post Magazine How did researchers compile this statistic that said we were rolling in leisure over four hours a day Did any of us feel that we a

[listnirvana]

The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right

Atul Gawande

In his latest bestseller, Atul Gawande shows what the simple idea of the checklist reveals about the complexity of our lives and how we can deal with it.

The modern world has given us stupendous know-how. Yet avoidable failures continue to plague us in health care, government, the law, the financial industry—in almost every realm of organized activity. And the reason is simple: the volume and complexity of knowledge today has exceeded our ability as individuals to properly deliver it to people—consistently, correctly, safely. We train longer, specialize more, use ever-advancing technologies, and still we fail. Atul Gawande makes a compelling argument that we can do better, using the simplest of methods: the checklist. In riveting stories, he reveals what checklists can do, what they can’t, and how they could bring about striking improvements in a variety of fields, from medicine and disaster recovery to professions and businesses of all kinds. And the insights are making a difference. Already, a simple surgical checklist from the World Health Organization designed by following the ideas described here has been adopted in more than twenty countries as a standard for care and has been heralded as “the biggest clinical invention in thirty years” (The Independent).