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Posted December 11, 2025 Reviewed by Hara Estroff Marano
As you make and pursue your self-development plans during the year ahead, consider applying ideas derived from the visionary work of Peter Drucker, management consultant and philosopher whose wisdom is, if anything, even more applicable today than when originally published, in the last half of the 20th century. Notably, it applies outside the workplace as much as it does inside it.
Whether or not you have yet considered specific goals for 2026, two books provide inspiration, templates, and guidance for reading, leading, managing, personal productivity, and creativity: The Daily Drucker: 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done; and A Year with Peter Drucker: 52 Weeks of Coaching for Leadership Effectiveness.. For those who are newcomers to Drucker’s wide-ranging insights as well as veteran readers, both books are rich with advice for daily, weekly, and monthly organizing for self-development.
Published in 2004, a year before Drucker’s death at 95, The Daily Drucker is credited to Drucker and Joseph A. Maciariello, his longtime friend and teaching colleague at the Drucker School of Management. The book presents a theme per day, each elaborated in a brief excerpt from (usually) one of Drucker’s 40-plus books. And each is accompanied by an action point detailing how to put the information into practice.
There is so much insight on Managing Oneself the topic is addressed on 22 different days, with action plans for each, along with an annotated bibliography. Decision Making and Knowledge Work are each allotted 15 days, and Leadership guidance spans 14 days.
Here are some sample action points:
Maciariello went on to solo write A Year With Peter Drucker in 2014. Although it is focused on leadership effectiveness, you don’t have to be a current or aspiring leader to benefit from its coaching on organizational effectiveness, strategy, and, a recurring theme, self-management.
A Year With Peter Drucker is organized by weekly topics, some grouped together in larger themes—“The Road Map to Personal Effectiveness,” “Developing Oneself From Success to Significance,” and “Character and Legacy,” to name a few—addressed over multiple weeks.
Maciariello briefly introduces each topic before showcasing Drucker’s own words of guidance, drawn from both published and unpublished works of Drucker. Each topic is accompanied too by points for reflection and detailed “Practicum-Prompts.”
Much of the previously unpublished material informing the book was drawn from dialogues Drucker conducted over many years with Bob Buford, who began as an executive consulting client of Drucker’s in the early 1980s and became an author, social entrepreneur, and founding chairman of the Drucker Institute. The weekly guide leaves little to chance: It concludes with a summary of lessons learned, and an appendix summaries “Drucker’s Principles”.
There are a variety of ways these books can be read and applied:
Having a guide like Drucker by your side can spur you to make the most of 2026 and beyond. As you work through the year on self-development, keep an open mind for changing and adjusting your plans and goals based on what you absorb from the books. And whatever the day, remember The Daily Drucker topic for September 9: “Take Responsibility for Your Career.”
References
Peter F. Drucker (with Joseph A. Maciariello) The Daily Drucker: 366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done. HarperBusiness, 2004.
Joseph A. Maciariello: A Year with Peter Drucker: 52 Weeks of Coaching for Leadership Effectiveness. Harper Business, 2014.
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Bruce Rosenstein is Managing Editor of Leader to Leader and author of Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life.
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The best way to begin something new—in love, work, and life.
Self Tests are all about you. Are you outgoing or introverted? Are you a narcissist? Does perfectionism hold you back? Find out the answers to these questions and more with Psychology Today.