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University of California, Irvine

Work Smarter, Not Harder: Time Management for Personal & Professional Productivity

University of California, Irvine via Coursera

Overview

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You will be able to gain and apply your knowledge and understanding of personal and professional awareness, organization and commitment, and use the tools, methods and techniques that you have learned in goal setting, prioritization, scheduling, and delegation to overcome time management challenges and enhance productivity.

Upon completing this course, you will be able to:
1. Learn to plan effectively to achieve your personal and professional goals
2. Learn to recognize and overcome barriers to successful time management
3. Identify specific time management tools and use them effectively
4. Manage resources both effectively and efficiently
5. Keep your sense of perspective to prevent and manage crises
6. Learn to delegate effectively
7. Learn to manage expectations and say “No” when appropriate

Syllabus

  • Module 1
    • Welcome to Module 1 of Work Smarter, Not Harder. This module we will explore the difference between productive and unproductive work, the importance of prioritizing, and basics of time planning. We will also reflect together on some of our past work situations and create our own individual work plans.
  • Module 2
    • Welcome to Module 2 of Work Smarter, Not Harder. This module we will discuss whether work/life balance is a myth and complete a work/life balance toolkit. We’ll also reflect on the time/money tradeoff and consider what tasks we may be able to hand off to others.
  • Module 3
    • Welcome to Module 3 of Work Smarter, Not Harder. This module we’ll discuss the importance of timing and how to handle communications. We’ll share our personal experiences of time management as well as journal our energy levels to find when we’re most productive.
  • Module 4
    • Welcome to the final module of Work Smarter, Not Harder. This module we’ll wrap up by exploring focus as a competitive advantage and the idea of multitasking. We’ll share our takeaways from the course and conclude with identifying our most common distractions.

Reviews

3.6 rating, based on 43 Class Central reviews

4.6 rating at Coursera based on 15560 ratings

Start your review of Work Smarter, Not Harder: Time Management for Personal & Professional Productivity

  • It is a very basic course. There were a couple of tips I learned, but I feel like this course could've been better.
  • This "class" is more like an hour long presentation split up into modules. And it's being charged $32 in the specification...really!? The content was ok. It really isn't challenging in the least bit. It offers some interesting advice on how to impr…
  • The course is great and helpful for individuals of all age groups, working at any level in a company or even managing their own businesses. The instructor is awesome in the way she teaches techniques with relevant examples. This kept me engaged to the course until I finished it.
  • For me personally this was 2/5 but I'd rate it 4/5 generally. As I'm from Finland, and no one works 80-100 hours per week here, I have difficulty imagining such conditions. Now I understand the term "wage-slave" better. If you are in that kind of situation, the tools and techniques in this course will surely work for you. Otherwise, maybe not so much.
  • As far as MOOCs go, I have not seen a worse design. This course which is supposed to be taken over 4 weeks will actually take you at most around 2 hours to complete. The tips given in this course are quite basic and there is not any content that was…
  • Anonymous
    Focus on the main topic, simple, easy. Just as I need it! 100% recommended for those who want to improve their productivity and time management.
  • Vickey
    I started the course, but it was a bit tedious. I am taking several other courses and decided to drop this one in order to make better grades in the others. Sorry.
  • Anonymous
    This course is relatively short, straightforward, and simple. I did have some background knowledge on the topic, however I found this course to be very helpful in putting things into perspective. I appreciated the practical resources offered.
  • Profile image for Mazen Tarek
    Mazen Tarek
    the course is really good it gives you tools you may not know them

    and will show you the importance of tool you may now give it a mind

    it will be bitter if they till us about software or program that actually works
  • Profile image for Ul'yana  Zakharova
    Ul'yana Zakharova
    Only for beginners in time management who know nothing about time saving tecniques. That is why I used it as a background sound for my housework. Unsatisfied
  • Peace be upon you, education is not limited to a specific age, but continues to the end of life, and you always discover that the information you obtain is useful and new.
  • Anonymous
    I got this MOOC provided by my company so didnt pay anything. Thought it will be useful so I suscribed.
    If your starting your career maybe itcan be useful otherwise managing yoyr time will be to avoid this MOOC.
    Advices are extremely basic like : try to evaluate time for tasks, give priority to priorities etc... even videos are of poor quality which strengthen the feeling of beeing loosing your time. With all the good will that i had (I had a look to all of the 4th week) I unsuscribed because didnt want to see it in my certification.
  • Profile image for Ayman Zaaqoq
    Ayman Zaaqoq
    I think the major problem with this course is the poor presentation skills, such as monotonous voice and absent animation. In addition, it needs more real-live examples & activities.
  • Profile image for Steve Wang
    Steve Wang
  • Zoe Aukim
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