So, I have got some book recommendations for you today

and I am doing these in the middle of the summer

so for those of you who want to get ahead

before the school semester starts.

You'll have at least a month and a half.

Right, Martin? About two months, maybe?

So, I've got 10 books.

Why am I holding up two fingers?

That's not 10.

10 books that I think every student should read,

starting with my favorite book from last year

which is Deep Work by Cal Newport.

This book is at the top of my list

because it tackles the number one problem

that I get emails, tweets and comments about.

Which is, I can't focus.

I can't stop procrastinating.

I can't get into the flow of my work.

And this is something I struggle with

just as much as most students

and I think this book really helped to point out the fact

that when we get these cravings for novelty,

cravings to check our Snapchat or our Instagram,

or just distract ourselves from our work and we act on them.

We're actually ingraining a habit and we're weakening

that focus muscle in our heads.

And by contrast, by avoiding those distractions

and by sticking with our work

we actually become more able to focus.

And when that was explicitly stated to me,

I took it more seriously

and I found it really, really helpful in my work.

Book number two on my list

is a Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley.

Now this is the learning how to learn book.

In fact, there's a course over on Coursera.org

that you can take for free called Learning How to Learn

and it's created by the same person

and this book is basically the companion to it.

And even though the subtitle here is,

How to Excel at Math and Science this really is a book

about general learning skills.

Now, this book has a lot to offer

so I can't really summarize the whole thing here

but a couple of the key lessons I took away from the book.

Were number one, the process of memory formation

how bits become chunks.

Which, are essentially loosely grouped bundles

of information that are connected through meaning.

And it talks about how to efficiently form those chunks.

And it also talks about the focused mode of thinking

and the diffused mode of thinking.

Now, these are two complimentary forms of thinking.

Focused mode is what happens when you sit down

and you focus on a problem with intensity

and you're mainly using your prefrontal cortex

when you do this.

But the diffused mode of thinking is just as important

and it uses a lot more of your brain

and it's kind of what happens when you background process

a problem by taking a break or sleeping on it.

And a good example is, if you ever try to think of a word

and it's on the tip of your tongue

but you just can't get it and then you take a break,

or you go for a walk,

or you wake up from a nap later and it comes to you.

So, these two modes of thinking help you to solve problems

in a complimentary way and this books highlights

the importance of taking breaks so you can use

that diffused mode just as much as the focused mode.

Third book on my list is Getting from College to Career

by Lindsey Pollak and I think this is a great introduction

to a lot of the career skills that you're gonna need

to be able to get a job or the job that you want

after you graduate from college.

Now, I was gonna put So Good They Can't Ignore You

by Cal Newport at this spot in the list,

but I've already talked about that book in the past.

And while that talks about

that big overarching passion, hypothesis question.

You know, what do I do with my life?

This book really gets into the details

and into the trenches of how to get a job

and how to stand out amongst the competition.

Talks about interviewing, how to build a resume,

how to build your online web presence,

all the skills you need to learn

to be able to get that job that you want.

Fourth book on the list.

Some of you definitely guessed it would be on here.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.

Yes, I've talked about this book before

but I really think you should give it a read

if you haven't done so already.

And the reason for that is that habits form

so much of our behavior

and when you know how to intelligently build strong ones

and break the ones that you don't wanna have,

that are hurting you then you're gonna be so much more

successful and you're not gonna be wasting

as much of your limited willpower

on the things you wanna get done.

Book number five on my list is Spark,

the Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain

by Dr. John Ratey.

And I'm recommending this book for two different reasons.

Number one, it is a surprisingly detailed introduction

to how your brain works on a biological level

and I found that very interesting.

But also, for a certain subset of you out there

the scientific explanation of how exercise

affects the way that you learn

and can improve your overall brain health

can be a powerful motivator to get

into the habit of exercising more often.

And, I know from experience that as a student

or when you're just busy in general

it can be really tempting to put off exercising

in lieu of giving yourself more time

to get your work done.

But just like Cal Newport talks about in Deep Work,

the intensity of your focus times

the time you put in, equals your productivity.

And when you don't exercise,

you're robbing your brain's ability

to focus intensely and work efficiently at all.

Book five point five, Anime Club.

'Cause there could be no higher aspiration

for a student than to run their own anime club.

Very serious recommendation right there (laughs).

Alright, so the sixth book on my list

is The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey.

And this book is my favorite general introduction

to the concept of productivity.

Now, when most people think of productivity

they think of time management,

but in this book Chris is very careful to stress

that not all hours are created equal

and productivity is the product

of your time, attention, and energy.

So to that end, the book goes through a ton

of different productivity topics including procrastination,

how to focus on your tasks without getting distracted,

how to avoid multitasking, how to batch tasks,

plan your day intelligently,

and gets into things like meditation.

I also like how every chapter ends with a challenge.

So, if you wanna start putting things into action

he gives you a lot of direction to do so.

The 7th book on my list

is The Happiness Equation by Neil Pasricha.

I put this book on my list

because a lot of us aren't actually very good

at knowing what's going to make us truly happy

when we're planning out our career goals

or other life goals.

We might look at what society seems to value

or we might trick ourselves in different ways.

But as Neil's research points out in this book

a lot of people who are rich, or in positions of power,

executives of big companies, they're not actually happy.

Now this book goes through a lot of different things

and there's a lot to think about

but one of the biggest lessons

that I took away personally from this book is

that milestones don't actually make us happy.

And this is something that I've had to deal with

quite a bit in my life.

I mean, if you look right down there

at that subscriber count that's something that I use

as sort of a marker for my success in my YouTube career.

But, I remember the day when I hit 100,000 subscribers

it didn't feel any different.

The bar just kind of moved to a million

and it didn't make me any happier.

So, I realized that happiness actually comes

from the fulfillment in the work itself,

not in the external rewards.

And when you can internalize that and accept it,

you're gonna be a lot happier on a day to day basis.

Alright, so we are now to book number eight in the list

and that book is Steal the Show by Michael Port.

Which is a book all about communication.

Now, a lot of this book deals

with how to give a great speech.

How to prepare for it.

How to master your body language.

How to get an ovation from the audience at the end.

But it also deals with a lot of interpersonal communication.

Networking, job interviews, negotiation tactics,

and for that reason I think it's a great

all around communication skills book that you should read.

Book number nine is Your Money,

The Missing Manual by J.D. Roth.

Which is a great introduction to personal finance.

Now, there are a ton of personal finance books out there

and I actually run a personal finance podcast myself

so I can't tell you this is the best introduction

to personal finance in the world

but it's the one that I read and I found it very helpful

for learning how to manage my money,

how to pay off my debt faster,

and how to start investing smartly.

And that brings us to my final pick on this list,

my ultimate book recommendation for you, which is,

not actually any specific book at all.

At this point in the video, I want to encourage you

to go out and indulge your interests.

Productivity for productivity's sake is useless

so you need to be able to do something

with all these personal development tips

that you're learning from all these books

I'm recommending you.

The problem is, a lot of people who get interested

in self-development, in productivity, they go too narrow.

They stick to the recommended lists by online gurus

and they never actually branch out

and become experts in something unique.

So, if you have an interest, indulge it.

Go read a book about the history of the telegraph

and at the next party you're at, you'll be able

to tell a cool story that nobody else will know.

So, hopefully you're not too disappointed

that I only really had nine books on the list

but I did think it was important

to mention that at the end.

And, I'm gonna have links to all those books down

in the description below so definitely check them out.

And on that note, of indulging your interests

and going and learning new and unique things,

I wanna recommend a channel that I really like to you guys.

And that channel is Wisecrack.

Now, there are a lot of education channels on YouTube

but Wisecrack is one of my favorites for the way

that they seamlessly blend nerd culture and education.

They do it in a lot of different ways

with a lot of different series,

including the Philosophy of series

which takes anime and movies and video games,

TV Shows and it looks at the philosophy

that underpins their stories.

So, I'm gonna put one of my favorite recent videos