Shortform Books

Negative Effects of Procrastination: Beyond Time Management

Do you tend to procrastinate on important projects, delaying them until the last minute? What are the dangers of chronic procrastination? In the short term, procrastination wastes your time and gives you anxiety. In the long term, however, it has more overarching and deleterious effects, hurting your mental health and causing you to miss out on opportunities to progress in life. Keep reading to learn about the negative effects of procrastination.

Ibram X. Kendi: Racist Ideas Can Be Subtle

What is subtle racism? How can racism be disguised with antiracist rhetoric? When we think about racist ideas, we tend to think about openly hateful, hostile, or discriminatory rhetoric. But racist thinking can take subtler forms and even disguise itself as nonracist. Here’s how you can spot racist logic, according to Ibram X. Kendi.

Overview of Derren Brown’s Book Happy

Looking for an overview of Derren Brown’s book Happy? What is the author’s key advice about understanding and obtaining happiness? Derren Brown suggests that the answers to happiness can be found in the teachings of the ancient Greek philosophers, like the Stoics and Epicureans. In his book Happy, Derren Brown says that by adopting this kind of philosophy, we can lead thoughtful, balanced, and more well-rounded lives. Read on for an overview of Derren Brown’s book Happy to learn the fundamental ideas of the book.

How to Maintain Friendships for Life: 3 Foolproof Methods

What is the key to maintaining friendships? Do you want your friends to stick around for a while? You might know how to start new friendships, but it’s even harder to keep them. In The Like Switch, Jack Schafer and Marvin Karlins provide methods for maintaining strong relationships by keeping new and old friends feeling valued and happy. Take a look at how to maintain friendships for the long term.

Fred Brooks’ Mythical Man-Month: Book Overview

Looking for an overview of Fred Brooks’ Mythical Man-Month book? What are the book’s key takeaways? In The Mythical Man-Month, Frederick P. Brooks offers a guide to managing large teams and completing complicated projects. The book covers strategies for streamlining your process so that you can keep your staff working together smoothly and finish your most daunting projects on time. Keep reading for a brief overview of Fred Brooks’ Mythical Man-Month book.

3 Poverty Interventions to Replace Short-Term Missions

Why don’t short-term missions help the poor? What poverty interventions work better than short-term missions? In When Helping Hurts, Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert encourage long-term development to help poor communities. To achieve this, they suggest a few poverty interventions to set communities on a successful path toward growth. Keep reading to learn more about these development strategies that are better than short-term missions.

Reinventing Organizations by Frederic Laloux: Book Overview

Which is it better to use—job titles or job roles? What will the role of the CEO be in the future? In Reinventing Organizations, Frederic Laloux identifies an emerging breed of company that operates from a new set of rules. Laloux claims that humanity is on the cusp of a new paradigm in how we organize ourselves and suggests ways that businesses can adapt to this transition that will elevate how we work and how we live. Keep reading for an overview of this intriguing book.

Procrastination: Book Overview (Lenora Yuen and Jane Burka)

What is Lenora Yuen and Jane Burka’s Procrastination about? What’s the key message to take away from the book? In their book Procrastination, psychologists Lenora Yuen and Jane Burka argue that we procrastinate to experience short-term relief from our fear of working on certain tasks. Fortunately, they claim that you can beat procrastination and learn to live a more fulfilling life if you accept reality’s constraints and learn healthier ways to manage your fears. Below is a brief overview of Procrastination: Why You Do It, What to Do About It Now by Lenora Yuen and Jane Burka.

5 Standards for Leadership Team Development

What is leadership team development? What does a leadership team do? A leadership team is a group of people who are responsible for establishing and pursuing company goals. In The Advantage, Patrick Lencioni suggests building this team under five standards that they should uphold. Let’s look at these five standards and how they contribute to your leadership team development.

William Lloyd Garrison’s Problematic Slavery Views

What role did William Lloyd Garrison play in the abolition of slavery? How did Garrison—though unknowingly and unintentionally—perpetuate racist ideas? Though an advocate of total and immediate abolition of slavery, William Lloyd Garrison harbored a problematic stance towards Black people. Like many of his time, Garrison believed that Black people need white people to save them from slavery, lacking the capacity to break free themselves. Here’s why Garrison’s views were racist, according to Ibram X. Kendi.