Self-help or personal development is a perpetually popular genre of non-fiction. The broad appeal of self-help books lies in their promise of improving the reader’s life by improving their skills, resolving their problems, or enabling them to fulfill their potential.

Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936) is the book that firmly established the genre’s popularity. An instant bestseller, Carnegie’s book advises on achieving success by improving relationships with others. How to Win Friends and Influence People provided a template for the many self-help books that followed, establishing the genre’s features.

The increasing popularity of self-help books has led to the emergence of sub-categories within the genre. Topics often reflect the societal concerns or preoccupations of the time. For example, books focusing on financial success tend to be popular during periods of economic austerity. The success of Napoleon Hill’s self-help classic Think and Grow Rich (1938) coincided with the Great Depression. Meanwhile, self-help books emphasizing spirituality and personal growth became popular in the 1960s and 1970s.

When Getting Things Done was first published in 2001, its author presented the book as providing solutions to a new societal problem: the increase of workflow caused by the fast pace of the 21st century.