Self Improvement seems intertwined with ideas surrounding being productive. If you are on the hunt to become a better creatively driven and ambitious architectural designer you know that learning doesn’t stop once you leave university. There are so many skills that will ease you into workflows, keep you organised and up to date with both your mental and physical health. University might have been a place of imbalance and organised chaos structured among piles of wrong scale prints of your drawings and pixelated versions of who you thought you were and who you wanted to be. Let’s be honest, you don’t know how to not be in chaos around your deadlines. That is why you need to branch outside of architecture - the architecture of theory and history that you might have found your workspaces drowning in. Those habits that you develop shape you greatly so although you’ve dived headfirst into architecture and what it means to be an architect you need to know what it means to be a better human, for yourself and those you design for. Self-improvement books are where this comes into play. If you enjoy reading around becoming better you need to seek books that will offer you insights that will allow you to develop healthier relationships with yourself and the work you produce.
So here are 5 self improvement books I recommend you read to help pick yourself up in the aspects you may need it the most.
Deep Work by Cal Newport
This book completely changed the way I thought about productivity. Our ideas of ‘hustling’ and ‘working hard’ are often skewed with a very toxic embodiment of what it means to be the best at what you do. Working long hours doesn’t make you productive, it just means that you are working for longer hours, it doesn’t equate to a better outcome certainly if you have no idea how to prioritise your workload. The idea of deep work challenges so many existing ideas about working efficiently in all your endeavours. It is where your focus lies that you begin to understand how to work better and not longer. With great analysis of some great thinkers of our time you really get to picture and differentiate some of the underlying factors behind why you might not be getting as much work done as you thought you might have been. I used to think that I was a slow worker and to an extent it was the case until I realised the underlying issues behind why I was slow, distracted and not giving myself pockets of ‘deep work’ moments that I needed. It really uncovers why you should be looking to get deep into your work in a way that overall makes you efficient at every challenge you encounter. This isn’t written for students per se but so you’ll definitely be able to pick up some gems along the way that will make you a better learner overall.
Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
This is a book that will alter the way you see yourself and those around you, for all the right reasons. This remains as one of my favourite books and authors of all time. You might be thinking why would you need to read this as an architecture student? You see when you get so consumed by the work you produce often you can develop habits and self image that can sometimes hurt you on a much deeper level. In a creative environment where you are often compared to, driven to make things bigger and better, you can often develop an unhealthy self image that ruins your confidence and hinders your ability to grow as a person in the work you choose to create and produce. Often students don’t have the confidence in their skills and the work they produce because they may not see it as perfect or the best. Feeling stuck when encountering a problem you often can see the problem as you not being a good enough *inserts the skill you are good at*. You are in a learning environment even if you aren’t at university or school you are allowed to ask for help when you need it. The shame that comes with it seems displaced when you really think about it, but there is no reason not to seek assistance. This book really expresses a lot of ideas surrounding vulnerability and how it is in fact, your vulnerability in all given circumstances regardless of who you are that make you a better individual when you remove the ego and social expectation that surrounds the idea that you have to do things on your own. You’ll learn best when you realise that to get better at what you work on you’ll need to be open to the idea that you need help.
The Imposter Cure by Dr Jessamy Hibberd
Now at some point you’ve felt like an imposter. You shouldn’t give advice. You shouldn’t start that blog. You're not good enough to get into architecture school. The list I’m sure is endless. And that is the problem. It is one thing to be confident in your ability and another to not be. When first starting out, the idea that you aren't good enough to be where you are or to do what you are doing can really inhibit your ability to commit to doing something that you have worked hard for and deserve recognition for doing so.. .so yes, you might not be an expert but that isn’t the point, you are good enough even if the voice inside you says you are not. This book is definitely great and helps you tackle these thoughts, and help you get through moments when you feel like this. When you understand that your own negative self-talk can trap you’ll realise just how powerful it is to re-shape the way you think about yourself. Especially as you progress as a student into the industry that is architecture. It is a common ‘syndrome’ especially among architecture students and design students but understanding it is half the answers to overcoming it.
Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
Now this book was not only encouraging but fun to read because it didn’t really feel like a ‘book’. With loads of playful illustrations and graphics throughout this one really surprised me the most. If you are someone who is constantly seeking the validation of what brings you joy (your writing, photography, design work and the list goes on) this is the book for you. You see sometimes the fear of your work not being good enough can stop you from getting your work out there altogether. You might not be amazing at what you do, but the point is that eventually you will. It really will push you to think differently about your creative process, and not shy away from showing work that is ‘in progress’. You shouldn’t take yourself too seriously after all, the journey to getting better at a particular skill or exploring your design process, that imperfect journey filled with pumps and trips is far more interesting, visually and that is where the most growth happens for you.
Everything is Figureoutable by Marie Forelo
If you aren’t a determined individual or rather take on excuses easily to avoid the challenges you face this is a great place to change that. This is a book that is part biographical part activity that explores some of the aspects of ‘life’ that we often find excuses for. As with most of the recommendations this is full of encouragement to allow you to really push yourself and what you think you are capable of doing. Often you can get bogged down by how hard it is to learn something, or how limited your resources and circumstances are but that shouldn’t stop you. You should be creatively ambiguous, you aren’t going to overcome the challenges that you’ll face whether it is studying, looking for work or both. It really highlights just how much we limit ourselves in what we can accomplish. You might feel like you don’t have enough time, your too *old/young/inexperienced/unqualified* to be able to have achievements that you work for and find fulfilment in. The truth is often we talk ourselves out of starting projects that we dream of because we don’t believe in having those achievements to begin for ourselves. If you need a little push in a direction that forces you to reflect and take action on what is stopping you, give this book a read.
It was tough to bring it to 5 titles but the list for self improvement books to read is endless and these are a good reading list to start with.
Links to the books mentioned in this article (shop in local bookstores to help out if you can)