Beat Procrastination and Boost Productivity with These 6 Courses

This Saturday, June 20, is World Productivity Day. And it couldn’t come at a better time. Many of us have been working from home for several months now. Our workplaces are also our living spaces and we’re trying to navigate how to support our family members while also fulfilling our work obligations. 

We recently surveyed employees in the US to see how they’re faring. Not too surprisingly, 74% of respondents said concerns about the coronavirus are a work distraction affecting their normal business activities. And as workforces have gone remote, employees say their top distractions are personal calls and texts, watching TV, and kids or other family members.

In response to the distractions that come along with working from home, many employees are looking to online courses to boost their productivity. According to Udemy research, focus mastery has seen a 119% surge in popularity on Udemy over the past several months, and self-discipline has seen a 237% surge on Udemy for Business.

And while this increased interest in focus and productivity makes sense in the current environment, it’s actually part of a larger trend that predates the coronavirus. According to Udemy’s Employee Experience Report, half of the survey respondents (and 53% of managers) said they could improve their time management skills. Employees often find that productivity tools like email, chat, and online collaboration spaces can be distracting. And time management was ranked the #3 top soft skill in the workplace for 2020 by Udemy for Business.

Let’s look at some courses that will help you and your employees improve your focus and productivity.

1. Time Management Mastery: Do More Stress Less

Time management and productivity coach Alexis Haselberger has identified three top challenges for those who struggle to accomplish everything they want to. According to Alexis, the main reasons people aren’t as productive as they’d like to be are: 

• Attempting to rely on memory
• Not having a system for tasks and to-dos
• Distractions and focus struggles

In her course, Time Management Mastery: Do More Stress Less, Alexis walks learners through understanding their own preferences and developing a personalized system for capturing everything they need to do. 

Alexis says, “Productivity is often about getting out of our own way and creating systems to help us to achieve that. I’ve found that it’s much easier to build a productivity system around who someone is already than trying to adopt a ‘one-size-fits-all’ system.” To hear more from Alexis, be sure to check out her blog post How to Become a Master of Time Management at Work.

2. Productivity and Time Management for the Overwhelmed

Procrastination can be a major hurdle that prevents us from accomplishing everything we’d like to. And procrastination and other productivity-killing behaviors can be changed — as long as we’re willing to put in the effort and replace them with good habits.

Productivity and goals coach Josh Paulsen has been helping students and clients reach their full potential in their careers and their businesses for over 15 years. Josh’s course, Productivity and Time Management for the Overwhelmed, explores what causes procrastination and feelings of overwhelm.

Josh introduces fundamental behavior changes that have an impact on productivity such as sleep, hydration, and mastering energy and emotional states. After building a strong foundation with these essential elements, he introduces many proven productivity hacks and tricks to help learners beat procrastination and make dramatic improvements in their productivity. 

3. Productivity Machine: Time Management & Productivity Hacks

As our lives become busier, it’s incredibly easy to fall into the trap of trying to do everything, but by the end of the day, we end up accomplishing nothing. If you and your employees struggle with overcommitting, check out Productivity Machine: Time Management & Productivity Hacks.

Based on instructor Patrick Dang’s Productivity Machine methodology, this course covers what world-class performers do to get more done in less time, how to set clear goals and develop a step-by-step plan of execution, how to best organize your day to get the most done during the hours you work, and how to be productive in every aspect of your life, including with work, friends, family, health, and hobbies.

Patrick is an international sales trainer who started his career at Oracle in Silicon Valley and quickly became one of the top performers in North America in just one year. After gaining experience in both the enterprise and startup world, Patrick became an instructor. Through his numerous Udemy courses, he’s taught over 50,000 students in 150 countries.

4.  Modern Productivity — Superhuman Focus in a Distracted World

Does the constant stream of notifications prevent you and your employees from achieving a sense of accomplishment each day? Many employees struggle with chasing short-term gratification over long-term achievement. And it’s not necessarily their fault — we have people and companies vying for our attention during every single moment of our waking lives.

Instructor Brad Merrill is an entrepreneur and journalist who has taught over 50,000 students. Brad believes that in our current global economy, focus and productivity are infinitely more valuable than almost any other trait — including talent and intelligence. In his course, Modern Productivity — Superhuman Focus in a Distracted World, Brad covers a variety of strategies that you can implement to reclaim your focus, maximize your productivity, and achieve your goals.

For example, he shares how to minimize distractions, how to set long-term goals and break them into actionable tasks, how to conduct annual, quarterly, and weekly reviews to increase your productivity and improve your life, and how to focus for longer periods of time while avoiding burnout by changing the way you work.

5. Smart Tips: Productivity

International speaker, author, and Udemy instructor Chris Croft believes that “Time management doesn’t just mean getting more done, it means getting the right things done.” But how do you know what to focus your time and energy on? Chris’s course, Smart Tips: Productivity, will help you and your employees identify your priorities, improve your ability to say no, minimize interruptions, and get the most out of your meetings and inbox. 

The course features plenty of relatable real-life examples and practical tools you can use to get better results right away. Learners can look forward to minimizing urgent “panic” tasks and focusing on reaching their goals, creating a calm and effective work environment, and mastering to-do lists and organization.

Chris, who has taught over 130,000 students on Udemy, designed this Smart Tips course with many short lectures to help learners pick up new skills quickly. The lectures can be watched in any order, and Chris encourages learners to choose the skills or topics that are most relevant to their interests and simply dive in.

6. 10x Superhuman Focus: Maximize Your Brain & Focus

There’s an undeniable connection between goal-setting and productivity. When we have a clear idea of what we want to achieve, it’s so much easier to accomplish it. This is instructor Silviu Marisk’s approach in his course, 10x Superhuman Focus: Maximize Your Brain & Focus.

The course begins by building a foundation of goal-setting and planning for the future. Silviu covers why it’s important to make both long- and short-term goals and how to organize them. Lectures cover topics such as how to increase focus, boost discipline, improve brainpower, and use concentration at work. This course is especially recommended for learners who have a particular objective or project in mind, but it can also benefit anyone who’d like to be more productive in their work. 

Instructor Silviu Marisk is a productivity coach, project manager for a Fortune 500 Company, and instructor who has taught over 125,000 students on Udemy.

World Productivity Day may be just around the corner, but these courses will help ensure you and your employees are more focused and productive well after that day has come and gone.