You might be wondering why I wrote a post about books for stoic living and beyond. I admit it’s a little strange, but I have a decent reason.

I’ll explain why I came up with this title shortly. But the important thing to get here is that books can change your life. In fact, a single book can change your life. The secret is finding the book that does change your life.

I’m not a practicing stoic, but I do use some of the things I’ve learned about stoicism. I’ve also included a few book recommendations for books that made a difference in my life. Hopefully, you’re going to find a book here that changes your life.

 

Stoic Book Recommendations

The reason this book list starts with a section about stoic books is that the idea came to me as I was reading an article about the best stoic books. I’m not trying to push stoicism on you. If you hate the idea, skip this section. But if you’re interested, here’s the place to start.

Stoicism has several definitions, but the idea I like is based on moderation, justice, courage, and wisdom. Those are the four ideas at the base of stoicism. It seems to me that we could all benefit from learning more in these four areas.

The article I read has recommendations for three stoic books. I’m not going to review the books here, but here are the titles.

• Letters From a Stoic – Seneca
• Discourses and Selected Writings – Epictetus
• Meditations – Marcus Aurelius

If you don’t know if you’re interested in becoming a stoic, these three books are going to give you a clear picture.

Books to Help You Get Stuff Done

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t wish they could get more done. And getting more done is almost always tied in one way or another to time and time management.

Here are some books to help you get more stuff done. And the next section includes books to help you manage your time. Pick a book from each list and get busy changing your life.

• Getting Things Done – David Allen
• Eat That Frog! – Brian Tracy
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen R Covey

I enjoyed all three of these books. But I got the most out of Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy. So, why do I include the other two books?

The reason I list the other two books is that I know people who got a lot out of them. A book that speaks to me isn’t always going to be the best book for you. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is probably the most famous book on this list. So, it must be helping a lot of people.

One thing I know is that you won’t regret reading any or all of these books. But I recommend starting with Eat That Frog!

I wonder sometimes if success stories like Nicholas Bredimus or Tony Robbins REALLY use techniques that are described in these kinds of books.

Books to Help You Manage Your Time

To control your life you must control your time. Yet time management is something most people struggle with. Here are three books that each take a different view of time management.

• Essentialism – Greg McKeon
• The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management – Hyrum W Smith
• Deep Work – Cal Newport

Essentialism is an interesting book about time management. The premise is you get more done by eliminating everything that’s not essential. When you get rid of everything else and focus on only what’s essential, you’re using your time in the best way.

The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management is the book that changed my life the most. If you truly want to master your time, it gives you a simple and powerful system.

Deep Work is as much about discipline and focus as time management. But when you develop strong discipline and focus, you have better control of your time.

Conclusion

Every book list is incomplete. The purpose of this list of book recommendations isn’t meant to be the “be all end all” list. I put it together for you to give you a solid place to start.

If you’re not interested in stoic thoughts, you can find good information in the other two sections. And if you don’t care about time management, you can still find a gem in one of the other sections.

Pick a book or two from the list and start learning something. Reading good books is one of the best ways to increase your intelligence.