Reddit reviews A Guide to Chess Improvement: The Best Of Novice Nook

If you want a book that covers study plans, thought process, time management, eliminating bad habits I'd recommend
https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Chess-Improvement-Best-Novice/dp/1857446496
I wish I knew about it when I first started chess.

Get any book by Dan Heisman. Good one to start with is Everyone's Second Chess Book, or A Guide to Chess Improvement. Jeremy Silman is another excellent chess author for amateurs.

I would highly recommend Dan Heisman's book "A Guide to Chess Improvement." It is the least chessy "chess book" I've ever read. It is basically a compliation of his Novice Nook column that he wrote for years at Chess Cafe, but in it he lays out a plan for study and improvement, links to more detailed articles from the column and provides lots and lots of resources for how to improve and what areas to study at what time in your development.

Basically you will want to break up your chess time into two areas, studying and playing, you should look to play about 50-60% of your chess time and study the rest. Stay away from Blitz and Rapid until you are 1400-1500 and practicing openings. You want to play slow chess and focus on discipline, thought process, time management and tactics.

Heisman recommends a breakdown like this until you reach 1500 level (based on 10 hours per week):

• 5 hrs per week playing slow games (g60+5 at least) against players 100-200 points better than you, with occasional games against weaker players.
  
  
• 2-3 hours per week studying tactics, starting with safety and counting, simple mates and winning material. I use the excellent "Chess Tactics for Beginners" and CT-ART on my phone, and they also have PC applications. You can also do tactics at chesstempo.com or chess.com, but I find the structured studies better to start since you will be working through a theme and that helps guide your thoughts.
  
  
• 1-2 hours per week of reading, he recommends you split this between playing through annotated master games (Logical Chess Move by Move by Irving Chernev is a great place to start) and reading some more text based book on principles or improvement.
  
  He also recommends a similar set of homework for the progression from 1500-1700, 1700-1800, and 1900 and beyond but I have not changed up my study schedule yet.
  
  You might also look at a simple program to practice with and record your games on, and to analyze your games against other players with later. I used Lucaschess (Free and excellent) for a long time and then bought Fritz 15 on sale recently.
  
  If you have a club in your area try to go and meet other players. The best way to improve is to play and if you can play and discuss your games with other players in person, you will improve faster than just playing online. Even if you only play online, if you are playing a long game, ask your opponent to discuss the game with you afterwards and try to keep a record of your games, either in a notebook or a chess database software.
  
  Again, I really recommend Heisman's book, as it will really help you prepare you to start improving. And realize, it will take time, 200-300 point improvement in 2 years is pretty good, so if you are an adult beginner, it will probably take 3-5 years of continued study to reach 1800 level, but it is very rewarding.
  
  For me
  

Heisman's book A Guide to Chess Improvement: The Best Of Novice Nook includes the thought process for avoiding blunders.