The 20 Best Productivity and Personal Development Blogs
Posted January 11, 2010 in Productivity 59 Comments »
One of the things that many freelancers struggle with is that we find it hard to manage time. No matter how much we wish there were more hours in a day, the fact is that a day is only going to consist of 24 hours. If we can’t straighten our priorities, our productivity level and creativity isn’t going through shine through our work.
Having said good bye to 2009, it’s time to take control of our career and get things done, faster and more effectively. We’ve been creating lists of sites that we think will help freelancers learn more. We recently created a list of some of the top social media blogs and SEO related sites.
Today we are bringing you a list of some of the best productivity and personal development related blogs on the web.
20 Blogs You Should Read
Listed below are some of the best blogs in this particular field. Whether you are trying to get more out of a day for your business or personal life, we are sure these sites will help you achieve get more done. Just read and apply what they have to offer. We’ve also included a brief excerpt from each site to give you an idea what they are about.
Please note that the list below is not a ranking and the blogs mentioned are in no particular order.
- GTD Times: GTD Times is the official blog of David Allen and the David Allen Company. It’s the hub for ‘all things GTD’ where you can read the latest Getting Things Done and David Allen Company news, reviews and personal experience with tools and GTD-supportive technology, as well as GTD tips, tricks and strategies to help each of us lead happier, healthier, and more successful lives.
- Pick The Brain: PickTheBrain diverges from traditional “self-help” by taking a broader approach. Rather than sticking to a small set of topics, the site covers anything related to self improvement. Any information that people can use to live more prosperous, satisfying lives is a potential article.
- Unclutterer: Unclutterer is the website for home and office organization. It’s not just for the helplessly disorganized who would lose their heads if they weren’t attached, and pack rats looking to put their stashes on a diet, but also for obsessive compulsive neat freaks looking to squeeze even more order into their lives.
- PluginID: PluginID, named after the slogan ‘Plug into Your Identity’, is a site about helping you realise who you are, and perhaps more importantly, who you are not. The aim of this site is to awaken, inspire and motivate others into seeing that they can be who they want to be and live the life they want to live.
- Life Optimizer: Life Optimizer is about living your life to the fullest. The author believes many people (him included) live below their maximum potential. While they do achieve things in life, there are still many more they can achieve. The problem here is they do not optimize their life. There are aspects of their life which can be made better and more effective than they are now.
- The Positivity Blog: The Positivity Blog is focused on positivity and opening up new possibilities for happiness and awesomeness through motivating and practical articles on how to improve your life.
- Marc and Angel Hack Life: At “Marc and Angel Hack Life” the authors enjoy sharing practical thoughts on a broad range of topics pertaining to life, hacks, productivity, aspirations, health, work, tech and general self improvement.
- Get More From Life: The author started writing down ideas, thoughts and experiences in trying to answer questions. Today this website has over 600 articles and hundreds of comments from readers like you, hopefully moving us forward in finding the answers.
- Product Flourishing: Productive Flourishing is about the art of meaningful action. This blog is for people who are interested in being holistic, integrated people, can’t press pause on their life while they learn how to fix it and have to learn to fix their plane while it’s flying, are tired of productivity and personal development being about things instead of people.
- On Simplicity: On Simplicity is all about creating a happier, easier, more enjoyable life for yourself. What if you had fewer items on your to-do list, but they all got done? What if you had fewer time commitments, but enjoyed every single one of them? What if you had fewer possessions, but you truly valued all of them? That’s the power of simplicity: amplifying life’s pleasures by clearing out the clutter that gets in their way.
- Web Worker Daily: WebWorkerDaily was launched by GigaOM’s Om Malik in September 2006 and is written by a growing team of writers who cover the future of work in a post-broadband world. We offer practical tips and advice for anyone who uses the web for work, especially those who want to use the web to be more productive, more connected and more successful than they could otherwise.
- Illuminated Mind: The purpose of Illuminated Mind is to incite a ruthless resolve deep within to go with yourself; to empower and emancipate your most authentic self.
- Four Hour Work Week: Timothy Ferriss, the author of this blog has been nominated as one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People of 2007,” is an angel investor and author of the #1 New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and BusinessWeek bestseller, The 4-Hour Workweek, which has been sold into 35 languages.
- Steve Pavlina: Steve Pavlina is widely recognized as one of the most successful personal development bloggers on the Internet, attracting more than two million monthly readers to his website, StevePavlina.com.
- Litemind: Every event, feeling, problem or opportunity only exists through the filter of our minds. Putting simply, your mind is the world you live in. All results you get are directly related on how well you use it. But very few people actively pursuit ways to fully develop their potential through a more efficient use of their minds. This site will help you explore ways to use your mind efficiently.
- Zen Habits: Zen Habits is about finding simplicity in the daily chaos of our lives. It’s about clearing the clutter so we can focus on what’s important, create something amazing, find happiness. It also happens to be one of the Top 100 blogs in the world, is uncopyrighted.
- Lifehack: This site is dedicated to lifehacks. The phrase describes any hacks, tips and tricks that get things done quickly by automating, increase productivity and organizing. This site is built around this theme. This blog is endorsed by many major newspapers and publishers, and it is rated in the #100 most popular blog in the blogosphere.
- Dumb Little Man: A popular blog that covers productivity and all sort of lifehack. A must add for anyone looking to simplify their lives and take control. This site is all about finding simple ways to do things.
- Lifehacker: An award-winning daily blog that features tips, shortcuts, and downloads that help you get things done smarter and more efficiently. Lifehacker launched in January 2005, and now ranks as one of the top-linked blogs on the internet.
- Urban Monk: UrbanMonk aims to provide a free companion in your personal development journey inwards into yourself and outwards into the urban world – modern life, entwined with ancient spirituality.
Your Turn to Share
We know there are far more than twenty productivity and personal development blogs. The ones listed above are a few that we recommend. If you would like to share some and recommend our readers ones you think should have been on this list, please feel free to let us know through your comments.
By the way, how are you planning to get more done this year? Your tips as usual are valuable. We would love to hear your take on how you manage time between a demanding freelance career and personal life.
Image by chovy
About the author: Ritu is a freelance writer who has been involved in social media for several years. At the moment he is working on a variety of projects, but is always open to new ideas. Contact him at email(at)ritubpant(dot)com or follow @ritubpant on twitter.
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59 Comments
Glen Allsopp
January 11th, 2010 at 8:45 amThanks for the mention of PluginID, Ritu!
Mosotomoss
January 11th, 2010 at 10:26 amThanks. This is a great list to choose from.
Raechel
January 11th, 2010 at 11:13 amThanks for the list! These are some great sites for me to check out. If I could add one more, The Life Uncommon: http://www.thelifeuncommon.net/blog/ is a great resource for anyone pursuing an authentic path in life. It offers valuable information on following your dreams in life even if it isn’t what is expected of you. It is one of the websites I stumbled upon and came to love when I was in the midst of leaving my full-time job to pursue a freelance writing career.
Cyndi Papia
January 11th, 2010 at 11:26 amI’ve been an avid reader of Drew McLellan’s Marketing Minute. http://www.drewsmarketingminute.com/
Henrik Edberg
January 11th, 2010 at 12:04 pmNice list and thank you for mentioning my blog (the Positivity Blog)!
Amy
January 11th, 2010 at 12:40 pmGreat list, thanks! Found several new feeds for my reader. Really like Lifehack.
Marc and Angel Hack Life
January 11th, 2010 at 12:57 pmAwesome! Thanks!
;-)
Amber Weinberg
January 11th, 2010 at 1:00 pmThese are great links :)
Ritu
January 11th, 2010 at 1:04 pm@Glen, @Henrik and @Marc and Angel : You are welcome! Thanks for providing content that rock the productivity and personal development niche.
@Raechel and @Cyndi : Thanks for sharing the links.
@Mosotomoss, @Amy and @Amber : glad you guys found it useful :)
AC Gaughen
January 11th, 2010 at 1:10 pmI have to agree with Rachael, I’m a big fan of The Life Uncommon! (http://www.thelifeuncommon.net). Great list!
Simon Mackie
January 11th, 2010 at 1:18 pmthanks for the mention of WebWorkerDaily — we appreciate it.
Ritu
January 11th, 2010 at 1:55 pm@ AC Gaughen : Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to share the link. We appreciate it.
@Simon : You are welcome Simon, It’s a pleasure.
Jane......I LOVE WEB DESIGN....
January 11th, 2010 at 4:27 pmFabulous Collection.. Great Post :)
I really benefited from the list. Thanks for your sharing!
Crystal
January 11th, 2010 at 5:03 pmGreat list, thanks for collecting them! Looking through the many I haven’t seen yet now.
Phillip Flores
January 11th, 2010 at 5:04 pmNice list…more things to read…now I’ve got to read the blog that helps me organise my day and my stuff…so many blogs…so little time…Thanks for the list…really :)
Charlie Gilkey
January 11th, 2010 at 6:34 pmWow, thanks for the mention – I appreciate it!
And to think, I was just thinking about pitching a guest post here. :p
Michelle Dancer
January 11th, 2010 at 7:32 pmMore blogs to check every day….hopefully any new productivity tips will cancel that out…
Teejay
January 11th, 2010 at 10:32 pmI’ve been a great fan of the zenhabits blog just because of the minimalism theme of the blog posts.
I could probably read more of the other said blogs.
Jess
January 12th, 2010 at 12:27 am…one more: http://www.tomasz-opasinski.com
Marcel
January 12th, 2010 at 6:29 amgreat post, as I was browsing the list I expected to find Jim Rohn listed, for my surprise, it wasn’t.
Steve Martin
January 12th, 2010 at 8:06 amThis is pretty much what we expected. A good list for reference. Thanks a lot… :)
Claudia
January 12th, 2010 at 8:34 amSo many interesting blogs =)
I’ll have to quit working just to read them all, great!
Thank you =)
Katy
January 12th, 2010 at 10:30 amI still love 43 Folders (http://www.43folders.com/). I would also love it if you stop by my blog and let me know what you think!
Robby Slaughter
January 12th, 2010 at 5:05 pmIt’s shameless self promotion, but I’d like to recommend The Methodology Blog, which we run here at Slaughter Development.
The feed link is: http://www.slaughterdevelopment.com/feed/
Paul Johnson
January 12th, 2010 at 6:12 pmThanks for the great resource list!
I’ve been really impressed with the practical relationship advice and information on Keith Ferrazzi’s site: http://www.keithferrazzi.com/relationship-development-skills/
Internet Marketing 101
January 12th, 2010 at 7:36 pmI just tweeted your post! Very good (and timely!) information as we head into a new year. Everyone, not just those starting an online business, need this type of list to reference and pull from. An honest ‘Thank you’!!
Erin Falconer
January 12th, 2010 at 8:01 pmHi Ritu! this is Erin, the editor of PickTheBrain…thanks for the shout out and continued support from all,
best,
erin
Albert | UrbanMonk.Net
January 12th, 2010 at 11:37 pmThank you kindly for the link Ritu :D
Wellington Grey
January 13th, 2010 at 12:57 amI swear to God, freelance folder, one day you’ll add my blog to this list! ::shakes fist in the air::
Abey
January 13th, 2010 at 1:12 amNice List. I would add David Seah’s blog as well.
adoptionrecords.ws/
January 13th, 2010 at 1:54 amHi Ritu, I am very much enriched by the way you have supplied the blogs for the freelancers. They are just awesome.
Mike B
January 13th, 2010 at 4:37 amThanks for the list. Getting time-organised is pretty important if you want to make the most of your career, so these blogs will definitely help.
HeatherO
January 13th, 2010 at 8:17 pmNice list! I found a few new ones to check out! I’ve always had lists upon lists of to-do’s. One thing that works for me is jumping ahead in my calendar to Friday each week and writing “what I got done this week” – try it! :)
myBiz.lk
January 14th, 2010 at 2:47 pmThanks for sharing such a nice list of site :)
Sabrina Reich
January 22nd, 2010 at 4:10 pmThanks for the list, I like Alex Mandossian tipps – he is good productive tipps on his facebooksite and on his blog: http://www.alexmandossian.com
Personal development
February 5th, 2010 at 9:59 amPersonal development is one of those areas that allow us to increase our value. Personal development is help to develop our self. There is so many way to improve personality trade magazines, online forums, seminars, books, video and audio courses, public speaking events etc. these techniques help for personal development.
Randall LaBranche
February 9th, 2010 at 4:57 pmFantastic post…..I spent half the day in here….thanks!
Christine Simiriglia
February 16th, 2010 at 2:03 pmThis is a great list and it includes some of my favorites. I’d like to take a stab at shameless self-promotion and mention http://www.organize-more-stress-less. The site offers up-to-date solutions for life’s everyday, energy zapping, clutter enhancing, can’t find the cat because he’s buried under the laundry, types of problems. Thanks.
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