Santi Tacoronte

Sleep is the first thing busy professionals cut and the last thing they should. One short night hits your focus, mood, and decisions the next day, and no productivity app can fix that. These are the tools I recommend to measure your sleep, set up a bedroom that helps you fall asleep, and wind down and recover after long days and hard training. Sleep and Calmness sit in the Well-being vector of my 4 Productivity Vectors framework, and this list is how I would start training them.

Your workspace decides how long you can focus before your back, eyes, or voice give up. These are the home office upgrades I recommend to clients and to my community who work from home: a desk and chair that fit your body, light that protects your eyes, clear video and audio for calls, and small tools that keep your desk calm. This list covers two of my 4 Productivity Vectors: Efficiency, because friction costs time every day, and Well-being, because your body pays for a bad setup.

Every hour you spend copying data between apps, typing meeting notes, or editing by hand is an hour you don't spend on the work only you can do. These are the AI tools I recommend to clients and to my community to take that work off their plate: automation, meeting notes, content creation, and planning. AI Automation sits in the Efficiency vector of my 4 Productivity Vectors framework, and this list is where I would start.

I spent 20+ years in corporate roles, the last one leading data teams across Europe and Eurasia as Chief Data Officer. These are the books from my audiobook library that shaped how I lead. Some are about leading yourself before anyone else. Others show how to earn people who follow by choice, and how to run conversations and meetings that move a team forward. Accountability sits in the Ownership vector of my 4 Productivity Vectors framework, and these books are how I train it.

Notifications, inboxes, and chats keep me reacting to whatever feels urgent right now. These are the physical things I use to slow down, get back into my body, and decide what matters before I respond. I call it breaking the tyranny of now.

Productivity without joy is a fast road to burnout. These books cover the other half: caring about fewer things, living in the present, keeping your ego in check, and seeing the world with clearer eyes. Well-being is one of my 4 Productivity Vectors, and these are the books I recommend to train it.

My memory is not a reliable system, so every idea, meeting, task, and object needs a place to land the moment it shows up. These 15 tools do the catching: wearables and voice for ideas on the move, recorders and AI notetakers for meetings, smart paper for handwritten notes, and labels and trackers for the things I would otherwise lose. Meetings sit in the Efficiency vector of my 4 Productivity Vectors framework, and four of these exist to lighten them.

I spent 20+ years making calls with incomplete data, the last stretch as Chief Data Officer Europe & Eurasia. These are the books I go back to when a decision feels heavy. Some teach you to decide under pressure. Others help you read data without freezing, or accept that someone will dislike your call. Decision Making sits in the Effectiveness vector of my 4 Productivity Vectors framework, and these books are how I train it.