Are you struggling to get ahead and stay ahead? Does your inbox fill up exponentially faster than your outbox? Perhaps you have a workflow issue and need to delegate more, or perhaps you have a time management problem. You can get time management advice from professional newsletters, business blogs, your boss, or your deskmate. But sometimes the best thing to do is to dive all the way into a book that can help you to address the problem more thoroughly.

3 Books to Improve Your Personal Effectiveness

1. Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy

Published in 2007, Brian Tracy’s motivational book continues to create buzz on the blogosphere. It is a quick, easy read that offers practical advice for increasing personal effectiveness through the use of such strategies as delegating tasks to others and evaluating your priorities. Efficiency expert Tracy offers 21 specific hints for how successful people manage their time and reduce procrastination. The book doesn’t go deep into business philosophy but instead offers practical time management action steps, such as planning your day so that you accomplish your least desirable tasks first, making your day easier as you go on.

2. 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam

Vanderkam’s book offers an innovative approach to time management. She sees that we all have the same amount of time in any given week, but she notes that successful people allocate their time differently to maximize that time. She advocates increasing personal effectiveness by prioritizing the most important tasks at home and work and scheduling those into one’s weekly schedule first. She recommends streamlining by eliminating unnecessary tasks to waste less time and become more effective time managers.

3. Today Matters by John Maxwell

Maxwell’s book has been around for a few years, but it offers advice that is just as relevant today. The underlying concept is that we spend too much time thinking about the past and the future, and we neglect to create productive habits today. Maxwell’s book may not appeal to everyone, as one of his sections is about spiritual health as part of the path to personal effectiveness. But it is hard to argue with the importance of attitude, communication, and prioritizing to make the day go smoother. Today Matters is a practical guide with step-by-step advice for becoming more disciplined in your time management and more fulfilled in your life.

What books have helped your time management?