8 Best Books To Help You Stop Wasting Time

If you find yourself constantly busy but rarely productive, it might be time to rethink how you manage your time and focus. Below is a list of the 8 best books to help you stop wasting time, master productivity, and build powerful daily habits that drive success.

1. 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam

Laura Vanderkam’s 168 Hours challenges the excuse of “I don’t have time” by showing how to take full control of your weekly schedule. With 168 hours in a week, Vanderkam argues, most people have far more time than they realize—they're just not using it wisely. She helps readers track their time, identify high-value activities, and eliminate low-return tasks. Real-life examples from successful professionals and parents show how it’s possible to balance work, family, and personal goals.

2. Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt

Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt is a comprehensive guide to goal-setting and achievement based on both personal experience and research in goal psychology. The book offers a five-step plan to design and live a more focused, intentional life. He teaches how to create smarter goals using a proven system that includes tracking, habit formation, and daily execution. This book is ideal for professionals and entrepreneurs who want to stop drifting and start directing their lives with purpose.

3. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art is a bold, inspiring call to action for creatives, writers, entrepreneurs, and anyone who battles procrastination. The book introduces “Resistance” as the internal force that keeps us from doing our most meaningful work. Pressfield frames time-wasting as a form of self-sabotage and offers a battle plan for overcoming it. With its raw, motivational tone, the book is broken into short, punchy sections designed to jolt readers into action. The War of Art is not just about productivity—it's about purpose, discipline, and winning the inner war that keeps great ideas stuck in limbo.

4. The Now Habit by Neil Fiore

The Now Habit by Neil Fiore is a groundbreaking book that tackles procrastination at its psychological roots. Unlike typical time management guides, this book focuses on overcoming the emotional blocks that lead to avoidance. Fiore introduces the concept of “The Unschedule,” a powerful tool for planning leisure and guilt-free play first—helping to reduce stress and resistance toward work. By shifting focus from pressure to permission, readers can retrain their brains for productivity. It’s especially valuable for perfectionists and creatives who struggle with starting or completing tasks, offering practical exercises and mental reframes to stop wasting time and build momentum.

5. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now focuses on mindfulness and the importance of living in the present moment. While not a traditional time management book, it helps readers stop wasting time by learning to quiet mental noise and avoid distractions rooted in the past or future. Tolle teaches that awareness and presence are keys to mental clarity, reduced stress, and improved focus. When fully engaged in the present, individuals make better decisions and experience greater satisfaction in their tasks.

6. Getting Things Done by David Allen

David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) presents a comprehensive system for managing tasks, projects, and responsibilities with less stress and more clarity. The GTD method involves five key steps: capture, clarify, organize, reflect, and engage. By externalizing your mental to-do list into a trusted system, you free up cognitive resources and avoid the anxiety of forgetting something important. Allen’s approach promotes productivity through structured workflows and regular reviews, ensuring you stay aligned with your priorities. Ideal for professionals overwhelmed by complexity, Getting Things Done teaches how to maintain control, stay organized, and eliminate time-wasting inefficiencies.

7. Indistractable by Nir Eyal

Nir Eyal’s Indistractable addresses the root causes of distraction and presents a system for gaining back control of your time and attention. The book introduces the concepts of traction and distraction, teaching how internal triggers like boredom or anxiety often lead us to waste time. Eyal provides tools such as timeboxing, managing tech use, and setting boundaries to combat these distractions. He also includes guidance for parents, students, and professionals, making it widely applicable. By helping readers build awareness and change their behaviors, Indistractable is a modern, science-backed manual for mastering focus and eliminating time-wasting habits.

8. The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey

Chris Bailey’s The Productivity Project is based on a year-long experiment where he tested various productivity strategies and measured their real-world impact. From working 90-hour weeks to meditating for 35 hours in a week, Bailey experimented with every method he could find. His book distills those findings into practical insights about focus, energy, and time. He highlights the importance of intention over busyness and shares how managing your attention is more effective than just managing your time. Bailey’s engaging writing style, combined with science-backed strategies, makes this book a compelling read for anyone wanting to get more done without burning out.

Final Thoughts

To stop wasting time is to reclaim your life. The books listed above are not just tools—they are roadmaps to a more intentional, focused, and productive existence. Each book provides unique insights and strategies that, when applied diligently, can drastically reduce time-wasting habits and help you live with clarity and purpose.

Choose the one that resonates most with your current struggles and start implementing its strategies today. Remember, action beats intention, and the first step toward time mastery is making a conscious choice to change.