Books like The Organized Mind

01

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman · Psychology

Thinking, Fast and Slow is Daniel Kahneman's account of the two cognitive systems that govern human thought.

Both dig into decision-making.

02

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 attention.

03

The Distracted Mind

Adam Gazzaley and Larry D. Rosen · Science

The Distracted Mind brings together two distinct research traditions — cognitive neuroscience and psychology of technology — to explain why modern humans find sustained attention so difficult and what can be done about it.

Shares attention and neuroscience with The Organized Mind.

04

Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life

Nir Eyal · Self-help

Indistractable is Nir Eyal's argument that distraction is not a technology problem — it's a psychology problem.

Both dig into attention.

05

A Mind for Numbers

Barbara Oakley · Self-help

A Mind for Numbers is Barbara Oakley's guide to learning hard subjects effectively, written primarily for students struggling with mathematics and science but drawing on cognitive science principles that apply to any demanding field.

A kindred science read.

06

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

Nicholas Carr · Science

The Shallows is Nicholas Carr's argument that the internet — and the way we habitually use it, skimming hyperlinked text, watching short videos, checking feeds — is reshaping the neural circuits responsible for deep reading and sustained concentration.

Shares attention and neuroscience with The Organized Mind.

07

Descartes' Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain

Antonio Damasio · Psychology

Antonio Damasio is a neurologist at USC whose work challenges the centuries-old idea that reason and emotion are separate faculties, with reason the reliable guide and emotion the unreliable interference.

Shares decision-making and neuroscience with The Organized Mind.

08

Getting Things Done

David Allen · Self-help

Getting Things Done is David Allen's argument that the main source of stress in modern knowledge work isn't the volume of tasks — it's having commitments that live only in your head.

Shares decision-making and organization with The Organized Mind.

09

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

David Eagleman · Psychology

David Eagleman is a neuroscientist at Stanford who argues that the conscious self is a late, small, and largely uninformed participant in the brain's activity.

Shares decision-making and neuroscience with The Organized Mind.

10

The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others

Tali Sharot · Psychology

Tali Sharot's second book turns from how our own brains distort perception to how we can change what other people think and do.

Shares decision-making and neuroscience with The Organized Mind.

11

The Optimism Bias: A Tour of the Irrationally Positive Brain

Tali Sharot · Psychology

Tali Sharot is a neuroscientist at University College London, and The Optimism Bias is her account of a finding that surprised researchers: most humans systematically overestimate the likelihood of good things happening to them and underestimate the likelihood of bad ones.

Shares decision-making and neuroscience with The Organized Mind.

12

Your Brain at Work

David Rock · Psychology

David Rock's approach is to map a working day onto what neuroscience knows about prefrontal cortex function and then derive practical implications.

Shares decision-making and attention with The Organized Mind.