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Cal Newport's Top Book Recommendations

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Want to know what books Cal Newport recommends? We've researched interviews, social media posts, podcasts, and articles to build a comprehensive list of Cal Newport's favorite book recommendations of all time. At Shortform, we know books. Our book guides are the best in the world. Learn why.

Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life book cover1

Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life

Nir Eyal

4.1
You sit down at your desk to work on an important project, but a notification on your phone interrupts your morning. Later, as you're about to get back to work, a colleague taps you on the shoulder to chat. At home, screens get in the way of quality time with your family. Another day goes by, and once again, your most important personal and professional goals are put on hold.

What would be possibl
Stillness Is the Key book cover2

Stillness Is the Key

Ryan Holiday

4.5
In The Obstacle Is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy, bestselling author Ryan Holiday made ancient wisdom wildly popular with a new generation of leaders in sports, politics, and technology. In his new book, Stillness Is the Key, Holiday draws on timeless Stoic and Buddhist philosophy to show why slowing down is the secret weapon for those charging ahead.

All great leaders, thinkers, artists, athletes,
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones book cover3

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones

James Clear

4.6
No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is
The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment: Achieve More Success with Less Stress: Foreword by Cal Newport, Author of So Good They Can't Ignore You book cover4

The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment: Achieve More Success with Less Stress: Foreword by Cal Newport, Author of So Good They Can't Ignore You

Elizabeth Grace Saunders

4.1
Time management skills that work! Reboot your entire life in three simple steps""You don't just need to manage your time, you need to invest it. This book offers key insights on what it means to live life well by getting things done and enjoying the ride."" -- Marshall Goldsmith, New York Times bestselling author of MOJO and What Got You Here Won't Get You There

""If you lack grit--which most of us
5

The Front Nine: How to Start the Year You Want Anytime You Want

Mike Vardy

3.2
The Front Nine is a guide by one of the web's leading productivity experts, former Lifehack.org Editor-in-Chief, Mike Vardy, to help you get ready, get set, and go forward with your new year, anytime you want. Taking elements from the game of golf and applying them to productivity and goal-setting, The Front Nine aims to put you in a position to make a fresh start on a project, a goal, or even a d
6

The Four-Dimensional Human: Ways of Being in the Digital World

Laurence Scott

3.6
A constellation of everyday digital phenomena is rewiring our inner lives, argues Laurence Scott. We are increasingly coaxed from the third-dimensional containment of our pre-digital selves into a wonderful and eerie fourth dimension, a world of ceaseless communication, instant information and global connection.

Our portals to this new world have been wedged open, and the silhouette of a figure is
Free to Focus: A Total Productivity System to Achieve More by Doing Less book cover7

Free to Focus: A Total Productivity System to Achieve More by Doing Less

Michael Hyatt

4.5
Everyone gets 168 hours a week, but it never feels like enough, does it? Work gobbles up the lion's share--many professionals are working as much as 70 hours a week--leaving less and less for rest, exercise, family, and friends. You know, all those things that make life great.

Most people think productivity is about finding or saving time. But it's not. It's about making our time work for us. Just
Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done book cover8

Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done

Laura Vanderkam and Penguin Audi

4.2
No Hard Feelings: Emotions at Work (and How They Help Us Succeed) book cover9

No Hard Feelings: Emotions at Work (and How They Help Us Succeed)

Liz Fosslien, Mollie West Duffy

4.3
A visual exploration of how to embrace emotion at work and become more authentic and fulfilled while staying professional.

When it comes to emotions at work, there's rarely a happy medium. In some offices, your boss might send snaps of her weekend getaway in Vegas, or your coworker might send twenty texts about how Susan ate his clearly labeled lunch...again. Other offices are buttoned-up emotional
Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career book cover10

Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career

Scott H. Young

4.3
Now a Wall Street Journal bestseller.

Learn a new talent, stay relevant, reinvent yourself, and adapt to whatever the workplace throws your way. Ultralearning offers nine principles to master hard skills quickly. This is the essential guide to future-proof your career and maximize your competitive advantage through self-education.

In these tumultuous times of economic and technological change, stayi
Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business book cover11

Company of One: Why Staying Small Is the Next Big Thing for Business

Paul Jarvis

4.2
What if the real key to a richer and more fulfilling career was not to create and scale a new start-up, but rather, to be able to work for yourself, determine your own hours, and become a (highly profitable) and sustainable company of one? Suppose the better—and smarter—solution is simply to remain small? This book explains how to do just that.

Company of One is a refreshingly new approach centered