Work Smarter, Not Harder [University of California, Irvine] [Coursera]

Photo Credit: Taken from one of the lecture slides

I achieved a personal record of completing a MOOC in a single day. The overall video content was short (< 1 hr) and its based on one of my favorite topics - personal productivity. 

There's a lot of stuff we learn on the job such as setting priorities and coming up with estimates. The tips provided in this course are elementary in nature but they reinforce the basic principles. How do you distinguish between important & urgent work, which time of the day are you most productive and what sort of work do you schedule during those hours, what does work life balance mean to you?

One of the topics that stuck a chord with me was teaching people how to treat you. For instance, if you wanted to take a few days off next month, which approach would you prefer? 

(1) Ask your boss if he's ok with the dates and adjust them if needed

(2) Inform your boss & work with him to make it happen (this may include getting critical work done before the vacation)

Note that in both approaches you are being respectful of your work commitments. Its just how you approach it that's different. Make a conscious choice to choose the approach that works for you, communicate it, stick to it. This applies to other aspects of your working life, such as your availability after work hours - do you share your home number, are you available for calls on weekends, do you answer your phone during vacations?

I liked the section on multitasking. I'm particular bad at doing many things at the same time. I prefer to focus my energy on one task, get it done and move on to the next. Unfortunately, its not always possible to spend the whole day doing just one thing. At times, that can slow you down as well. The key to doing multiple things at once is to leave some context on the unfinished task before moving on to the next. Personally, I like to use the Pomodoro technique when working on a task.

Here's some reference material that I came across while taking this course - 

(1) Short online quiz to discover what kind of a productive person are you

(2) A follow up article to the above quiz listing all types of productive people

(3) 5 part video series by Mike Sanders on multitasking (in particular I liked Part 5 & Micro-meditation)

Why not challenge yourself to complete a MOOC in a single day like I did? Regardless of your work experience, you might find some interesting insights. 

Link to the online course.