Readers Recommend: 15 More Productivity Blogs You Probably Never Heard Of

Last week, I recommended over 60 productivity blogs, from the big name sites to some of the little-known discoveries I’d made in my travels through the productivity Web. At the end, I asked readers to recommend the sites that they’d come across that they felt deserved wider recognition, and this is what you came up with.

1. Aim for Awesome: Vern Lovic shares his simple recipe for life (“smiles + smarts + success”) with an odd but interesting mix of high technology and spiritual seeking.
2. Avani Mehta: Avani Mehta offers “Food for Mind”, with posts on motivation, stress and relaxation, and “mind hacks”.
3. Chief Happiness Officer: Alexander Kjerulf answers questions, shares tips, reviews books, and indulges in a little bit of silliness on this blog dedicated to living happily ever after – and today.
4. Encouraging Greatness: Jeff Hurley focuses on office relations, with tips and tricks for coaxing success from any staff.
5. Effing the Dog: A blog and podcast offering a not-so-slightly offbeat take on productivity: Eventualism, which as far as I can make out, holds that eventually everything gets done. Filled with interviews of productivity greats (that he eventually gets posted…).
6. Get Everything Done: The blog of Mark Forster, author of Do It Tomorrow and other books on personal productivity and time managment. Here he offers tips and motivation for more productive living.
7. Lesson In Life: Mohamad Zaki, known as “banji”, shares his lessons on living, with posts on self-motivation, attitude adjustment, studying kills, and related topics.
8. On Simplicity: Sara shares her findings in her quest for “a happier, easier, more enjoyable life”. Contains a pretty even mix of practical advice and inspiring thought-pieces.
9. Productive Flourishing: Charlie Gilkey’s blog is notable for his philosophical approach to just living, as well as his free downloadable monthly planner pages.
10. Sneak Up On Your Dreams: Aileen Journey discusses how to make and achieve your goals in little steps on this new but promising site.
11. Study Matrix Blog: A unique site dedicated to exploring the potential of a kind of mind map known as a “study matrix”. Gorgeously illustrated, there’s lots of useful information here for people interested in learning how to explore and represent ideas visually.
12. Success Making Machine: Heshy Shayovitz presents his “life management system” – along the way touching on topics related to productivity and effective management.
13. Team Taskmaster: This BNET blog cy CC Holland is geared towards office workers, with an emphasis on workplace relations and other issues.
14. YangTown: A spiritual blog for men, this site is Ryan Randolph’s attempt to forge a new concept of masculinty. Scroll down – all the content was below my browser window when I visited!
15. Zen College Life: Ibrahim Husain presents the technology news, health and fitness tips, study advice, and life knowledge students need to succeed at college – and life.

Thanks to everyone who recommended sites – even if they were your own. There are a lot of sites here that I plan on subscribing to – and a few I wouldn’t, but that’s the beauty of the Web: there’s plenty for everyone.

My larger list last week drew quite a few comments from people complaining about the length of the list. I’ve grown to expect the refrain of “you’re a productivity site, how can a huge list be good for productivity” on any post with more than a few ideas in it, but I suppose it’s a valid complaint and deserves to be addressed.

First of all, I haven’t exactly hid my feelings about productivity – it’s a lot more than work work work. Some of these sites provide useful, immediately applicable information – and some provide inspiration, spiritual instruction, or just plain fun. Some I read every day, and some I read once a week or less – and some I visit just every so often, when I feel like it. Some are essential reading for the advice they give, and some are occasional reading to snuggle up with on a long afternoon with nothing else pressing.

Second of all, I don’t expect anyone to read all of these sites. I don’t read all of them – and many I only read occasionally, as I said! I fully expect that some of you will absolutely loathe some of my recommendations – the author is too arrogant, too spiritual, too feminine, too masculine, too money-centric, too self-righteous, too whatever. Others might find the same site exactly what they’ve always looked for. This is not an all-or-nothing affair – by all means, pick and choose the ones that work for you.

Finally, on a different note, if you write one of these sites, we’d love to hear from you. Maybe you’d like to join Lifehack as an ongoing guest contributor, or submit an occasional guest post. What has become especially clear to me in the year-plus at Lifehack (last week marked my one-year anniversary as a Lifehack writer) is that there’s a huge community of people out there seeking ways to better themselves and their lives.

But that community is somewhat disjointed, scattered into tiny niches (student life blogs, management and leadership blogs, make money online bogs, and on and on).

Let’s start changing that – let’s open up some lines of communication and see what we can achieve if we start building relationships amongst ourselves!

If you’re interested and have any ideas, contact us or email me directly at dustin (at) lifehack dot org.