Books like The Future of Happiness

01

Digital Minimalism

Cal Newport · Self-help

Digital Minimalism is Cal Newport's argument that most people's relationship with smartphones and social media is not freely chosen but engineered — the product of business models that monetize attention and design interfaces for compulsion rather than value.

Both dig into technology.

02

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

Oliver Burkeman · Self-help

Four Thousand Weeks is Oliver Burkeman's philosophical attack on the entire project of time management as it is usually practiced.

Both dig into productivity.

03

Make Time

Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky · Self-help

Make Time is a practical guide from two former Google Ventures designers who grew frustrated watching their own attention get swallowed by the default rhythms of the modern workday.

A kindred self-help read.

04

The Happiness Hypothesis

Jonathan Haidt · Psychology

Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist at NYU who spent the early part of his career studying morality and happiness, and this book — published in 2006, before his work on political psychology brought him wider attention — synthesizes ancient philosophical wisdom with modern psychological research.

Both dig into happiness.

05

Authentic Happiness

Martin E. P. Seligman · Psychology

Authentic Happiness is Martin Seligman's founding statement of positive psychology — the scientific study of what makes life worth living.

Shares happiness and well-being with The Future of Happiness.

06

Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence

Rick Hanson · Psychology

Rick Hanson is a neuropsychologist and meditation teacher, and this book is his attempt to explain why wellbeing is so hard to sustain and what the brain science suggests you can do about it.

Shares happiness and mindfulness with The Future of Happiness.

07

Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself

Kristin Neff · Psychology

Kristin Neff makes a claim that many readers initially resist: treating yourself with the same kindness you'd offer a good friend in distress is not self-indulgence, weakness, or an obstacle to high performance.

Shares well-being and mindfulness with The Future of Happiness.

08

Stumbling on Happiness

Daniel Gilbert · Psychology

Daniel Gilbert is a Harvard psychologist whose central finding, after decades of studying affective forecasting, is that humans are systematically wrong about what will make them happy.

Shares happiness and well-being with The Future of Happiness.

09

The Emotional Life of Your Brain

Richard J. Davidson and Sharon Begley · Psychology

Richard Davidson spent decades in a field where discussing emotions in relation to brain science was considered soft and suspect.

Shares well-being and mindfulness with The Future of Happiness.

10

Deep Work

Cal Newport · Self-help

Deep Work is Cal Newport's case that the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task is becoming both rarer and more valuable, and that people who cultivate it will thrive while everyone else stays stuck in shallow busywork.

Both dig into productivity.

11

Do Less, Get More

Shaa Wasmund · Self-help

Do Less, Get More is Shaa Wasmund's argument that most people's productivity problem is not a shortage of effort or time but an excess of wrong activity.

Both dig into productivity.

12

Eat That Frog!

Brian Tracy · Self-help

Eat That Frog!

Both dig into productivity.