Productivity, creative thinking, and US politics. Learn from the experts this Fall with these topical new reads hitting bookshelves this Fall.
Our attention has never been as overwhelmed as it is today. Many of us recognize that our brains are unable to multitask but feel compelled to do so anyway, as we try to cram as much into every moment of our lives as we can.
Through his experiments and research, Chris Bailey came across many little-known insights into how we focus (a key element of productivity), including the surprising idea that focus isn’t so much a state of heightened awareness (as we’d assume), but a balance between two frames of mind: a focused mode (hyperfocus), which is the foundation for being highly productive, and a creative mode (scatterfocus), which enables us to connect ideas in novel ways.
Hyperfocus helps readers unlock both, so they can concentrate more deeply, think more clearly, and work and live more deliberately. Diving deep into the science and theories about how and why we bring our attention to bear on life’s big goals and everyday tasks, Chris Bailey takes his unique approach to productivity to the next level in Hyperfocus, and provides profound insights into how we can best manage our attention in a distressed world.
There is a widespread cultural tendency toward quick decisions and quick action. This pattern has resulted in many of our society’s greatest successes, but even more of its failures. Though the root cause is by no means malicious, we have begun to reward speed over quality, and the negative effects suffered in both our personal and professional lives are potentially catastrophic.
Bestselling author and Chief Envisioner at TELUS Transformation Office, Dan Pontefract offers the solution to this predicament with what he coins “Open Thinking,” and proposes a return to balance between the three components of productive thought: dreaming, deciding, and doing.
Based on organizational and societal data, academic research, historical studies, and a wide range of interviews, Open to Think is an appeal for a world of better thinking. Pontefract introduces tangible, actionable strategies to improve the way we think as organizations and individuals.
With authoritative reporting honed through eight presidencies from Nixon to Obama, author Bob Woodward reveals in unprecedented detail the harrowing life inside President Donald Trump’s White House and precisely how he makes decisions on major foreign and domestic policies. Woodward draws from hundreds of hours of interviews with firsthand sources, meeting notes, personal diaries, files and documents. The focus is on the explosive debates and the decision-making in the Oval Office, the Situation Room, Air Force One, and the White House residence.
Fear is the most intimate portrait of a sitting president ever published during the president’s first years in office.
