Black Belt Productivity

I was tagged by Stephen about the most influential books in my life. I don’t have quite as many as He does, but they are just as important to my life.

1. The Bible - I have been a Christian for most of my 35 years on this earth. First in the Roman Catholic Church and the last 10 years in the church of Christ. It is the model that I try to live my life by, and the model that I am trying to teach my children.
2. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien - The quintessential work of Fantasy from the master of the genre. Tolkien is by far my favorite author of all-time. This work is so important in my life that I have re-read it every year since 1990.
3. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley - AHHH, Utopia. It can be perfect except for the soma [drug] addictions. I read this in high school way back when, and I really enjoyed it a lot. It showed me that individuality is so important and that we should not strive to be like everyone else.
4. Getting Things Done by David Allen - Well, who would have figured that this would be here. GTD opened my eyes to self productivity, and the importance of it as well as giving me a framework to make myself more productive. GTD is one of the 2 books (along with the Bible) that I use most every day.
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - This is the book that opened my eye to racism in the world. I was living in the South at the time (after being born in the North), and I realized that there was hatred for a segment of people by another segment. I have read this novel a number of times through the years, and it has (and always will) stand the test of time.

Well, as I said, it is a much abbreviated list to Stephen’s list. With that I will tag, Allen and Mike.

- Michael