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    COURSE INTRODUCTION

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    • Time: 12 hours
    • Free Certificate
    Time and stress management are two basic components of success. Our challenge is to budget our time wisely and create a system to identify, evaluate, and eliminate personal and work-based distractors and stressors. This course teaches you how to earn more time and be less stressed.

    Unit 1 introduces the concepts of time and stress. What does it mean to manage time and stress? Unit 2 dives deeper into identifying key stressors and distractors to help you better understand your specific situation. Unit 3 offers strategies for eliminating distractors to reduce our stress.

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    Unit 1: Time Management Skills

    Unit 1 introduces the concepts of time and stress management and discusses the importance of goal setting and time tracking. For example, you have had to put aside other activities and tasks to allow time to take this course. Were they important or urgent, and did they align with your goals? How did you decide what activities to modify, reschedule, or eliminate? Did you hand some actions off to someone else? Do you still feel overwhelmed and need help with obtaining a successful outcome from incorporating this course into your schedule, which was already chaotic?

    This unit emphasizes putting you in control of your time and giving you the planning tools to meet goals and reduce your unhealthy stress levels. You will learn that distractions, lack of planning, and a failure to prioritize can sabotage your personal and professional life.

    In the materials below, you will learn about tools you can use to gain control of your time. For example, creating a to-do list can help you manage your time and reduce stress. Remember that efficiency may necessitate recruiting others to help you complete your work. In business terms, you want to optimize your time as a return on investment. How can you maximize balancing your personal and work time to achieve a healthy, rejuvenated, and successful life?

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 3 hours.

    • Upon successful completion of the unit, you will be able to:

      • discuss why time is such a valuable commodity;
      • differentiate the relationship between time and efficiency;
      • explain why corporations value your time, focus, and attention;
      • explain the value of knowing how you spend your time;
      • give examples of how distractions can affect your productivity;
      • explain the benefits of prioritizing tasks; and
      • explain why "proper planning can prevent poor project performance".
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          1.1 What is Time Management

          If you were on a game show and asked to identify your most valuable resource, would time be your answer? Time is a finite resource that has the most potential to create value for you personally and professionally. Although everyone has access to the same amount of time each day, it is up to you to allocate this precious commodity in the most productive way to yield maximum benefit and the least stress. Using effective planning techniques, setting goals, delegating tasks, and prioritizing help us work smarter, not harder. Moreover, practicing these new skills helps us gain control over self-defeating stress levels that typically accompany ineffective time management.

          • Managing Your Time Page
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            Watch this lecture which explains the importance of maximizing the return on time spent. We should aim to acquire assets and qualities beyond financial gains, such as knowledge, skills, reputation, goodwill, and relationships. Accomplishing this requires being present "in the moment". An imbalance between our personal and work lives can damage our currency, such as our relationships and good health.

          • Organization and Time Management Page
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            This article explores strategies for "staying on top of things". Suggestions include arriving early to work, planning your day ahead of time, dealing with the tasks at hand, addressing feeling overworked, and taking a problem-solving approach to identifying and relieving stress. Incorporating these tips into your daily activities will likely improve your productivity!

          • Reminders and Prioritization Page
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            Watch this video for a definition of time management and tips to organize time, starting with a to-do list or checklist method. These powerful yet simple time management tools can help you become more productive.

          • Making a Time Management Inventory Page
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            This resource provides worksheets to help you prioritize and organize your tasks. Notice that the worksheets are time and goal-oriented. Your planning should include time to rejuvenate and strive for a balance of self-care and productivity. Take the Time Management Inventory to identify growth areas and improve how you manage that precious commodity: time.

          • Practical Time Management Page
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            Watch this video on steps college students can take to better manage their time. It explains how to create a calendar to manage activities and responsibilities and discusses the importance of studying. The narrator cites the golden rule of studying – you should study at least two hours outside of class for every hour of scheduled class time. Time management allows busy students to balance work, class, and social activities!

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          1.2 Tools for Time Management

          We often face obstacles of our own making. For example, creative people may feel their minds are cluttered with ideas and distractions. Project managers may not realize the importance of using their team members to effect a positive outcome. Students may dismiss the benefits of using time management tools to prioritize activities that are important but not urgent. The articles below show us how planning, organizing, and delegation can result in positive decision-making.

          • Time Management for Creative People Book
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            This article emphasizes the challenges creative people face in corralling their thoughts and ideas into productive activities. The chapters explain how to use to-do lists and prioritize commitments. McGuiness suggests several tools for keeping track of daily activities. Complete the questions at the end of each chapter to help assess your planning abilities.

          • What Is Project Management? Training Video Page
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            What is project management? It is more than a one-off attempt to complete a task. Watch this video to learn time management tips to complete ongoing projects on time and within budget. Pay attention to the final tip: the project is not finished until you can apply an analysis of things learned to future projects.

          • Elements of Time Management Page
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            Just when you think project management is not in your future, help has arrived! Read this article on how a work breakdown structure (WBS) technique helps you reduce a project into manageable components. You can use this approach for personal projects or more complicated work-related tasks. Test your understanding of this concept by doing the exercises at the end of the article.

          • Activity: Personal To Do List Forum
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          • Time Management for Managers Page
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            This video explains how managers can conquer the challenge of time management. The speaker describes five ways to gain more time by incorporating input and assistance from your team. He emphasizes the need to prioritize tasks, delegate appropriately, and know when to ask for help. Managers should analyze the purpose of any meeting. They should cancel meetings that lack a clear purpose!

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      Unit 2: Enhancing Workplace Productivity

      Unfortunately, most of us lack the benefit of a quiet corner office on the penthouse floor or the ability to retreat to a soundproof room to concentrate on our work. We must often perform our jobs amid multiple sources of noise and distractions. Do you or your manager measure your productivity in terms of how many tasks you can perform at once without really looking at the quality of the outcomes? The following resources will help clarify the impact of these obstacles on your success.

      In this unit, you will learn how we undermine our productivity and gain tools to improve our ability to focus, prioritize, and improve our decision-making and problem-solving skills. Pay particular attention to how goal setting relates to personal and professional accomplishment.

      Completing this unit should take you approximately 5 hours.

      • Upon successful completion of the unit, you will be able to:

        • explain the relationship between multitasking and task management;
        • articulate a process for determining whether activities are urgent vs. important;
        • explain how goal setting can motivate employees;
        • describe the characteristics of practical goals;
        • explain the benefit of using an incremental approach to achieving long-term goals;
        • give examples of ways to plan your time and avoid your tendency to procrastinate;
        • examine how time management tools such as the Five-Minute rule or and Pomodoro method work increase productivity; and
        • illustrate three sources of distraction (other people, unnecessary policies, and distractions we create) and list ways to avoid them.
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            2.1 Setting Appropriate Goals and Priorities

            Setting goals can provide a powerful motivation tool to help you and your team keep track of your accomplishments. However, be sure to avoid feeling overwhelmed by endless to-do lists.

            • Efficient Time Management Book
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              Read these chapters to learn how to manage your time in any business, industry, or field. The concepts will help you complete work and business-related tasks more efficiently, giving you more time to devote to other priority activities. Complete the questions at the end of each chapter to help assess your planning abilities.

            • Motivating Through Goal Setting Page
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              While most agree goal setting improves performance, the mere presence of a goal does not automatically generate motivation. In this chapter, we learn how goals that are specific, measurable, aggressive, realistic, and time-bound (SMART) tend to produce results. Be sure to note how to avoid the downsides of goal setting.

            • How to Write a SMART Goal Page
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              This video defines SMART goals as specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and timely. Using a hypothetical trip to the moon, the narrator describes how each component of a SMART goal might look. Then he analyzes each aspect of the breakdown to see if the goal meets the SMART goal criteria. He also presents some more realistic goals related to personal physical fitness. Are these examples comparable? Maybe it is simply a matter of degree? After all, we have landed on the moon!

            • Managing Focus Page
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              In this lecture, Savinda Ranathunga explains why he celebrates the first of January every day. You must refuse to let time control you and concentrate on your dreams for the future. When you take inventory of your daily progress toward interim goals, you break your larger dreams into smaller, achievable targets. This allows you to celebrate your success every day.

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            2.2 Determining What is Important

            We have learned that time is a valuable but limited resource and the importance of writing specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time-bound goals. However, reaching your goals brings more complexity to our decision-making and problem-solving tapestry. To-do lists are the starting point for corralling our thoughts, ideas, and activities. Let's examine how to determine the urgency or importance of each task and how to effectively meet its project management or academic challenges. These readings provide valuable tools for gaining control of your time and increasing your ability to balance relationships and academic, social, and professional commitments.

            • Setting Priorities Page
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              Watch this short video, which offers a logical framework you can use daily to identify your work tasks and prioritize them for completion, especially if you feel overwhelmed.

            • How to Stay Organized Page
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              Watch this brief video which presents a simple framework for categorizing and organizing your tasks regarding people, priorities, and projects. Do you think this three Ps method could work for you?

            • Prioritizing Your Tasks and Activities Page
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              Watch this video which offers a simple framework for organizing your priorities to determine the urgency of tasks. Spend some time organizing your tasks according to the ABCD task framework. Some people call it the Eisenhower Matrix.

            • Essential Tools Page
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              This reading describes Stephen Covey's (1932–2012) description of a fourth-generation in the field of time management. He focuses on preserving and enhancing relationships and accomplishing results. This unit goes beyond time management with powerful tools to help you decide how to act. Decision-making forces us to choose between two or more courses of action. Pay attention to the stages of effective decision-making accompanied by good judgment and clear thinking. The problem-solving steps will help you achieve your goals.

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            2.3 Methods of Increasing Productivity

            The productivity level of any process refers to the effective effort where output is measured per unit of input. In other words, how efficient are you at obtaining your goals, given your effort? Remember our discussion of SMART goals? Each component of this acronym plays an important part in getting to the finish line. Pay special attention to the "actionable" element to increase your efficiency and effectiveness. You might surprise yourself by attaining your goals if you use tools like the Eisenhower Matrix to identify important and urgent demands on your time and avoid procrastinating on less enjoyable or more difficult tasks.

            • Procrastination Page
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              Are you an eleventh-hour person? Do you wait to study for an important exam until the night before the test date? Does the advice, "never put off until tomorrow what you can do today," make you uneasy? You may not consider yourself a procrastinator, but do you feel anxious when you receive deadlines? This resource explains why we procrastinate and challenges some common myths about why we put things off.

            • How to Stop Procrastination Page
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              Watch this video on the five-minute rule, which the narrator uses to build motivation and complete challenging or complex tasks. He celebrates each win by setting clear, realistic, and specific goals to accomplish in a five-minute time frame. He embarks on the next step of his assignment with extra motivation and momentum.

            • The Pomodoro Method Page
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              This short video introduces the Pomodoro method, a time management technique Francesco Cirillo created in the 1980s to break projects into smaller, more manageable chunks to make them seem easier to complete. This technique uses a 25-minute work interval followed by a five-minute break. After you have completed four Pomodoros, you get a 15-minute break, and so on. Experiment with the Pomodoro technique and the timing of breaks to see what works best for you.

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            2.4 Reducing Distractions and Staying Focused

            Are you a victim of distractions when you try to complete a project on time? For example, do you find TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media irresistible when you try to complete your work? Strategies for staying focused and managing our time include enabling ad blockers and bookmarks to stay focused when you are on your computer. It often helps to designate a distinct workplace or use different email addresses or phones to separate your personal and professional lives. We often reward ourselves for completing a pre-planned goal.

            • How to Stay Focused Page
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              Watch this short video that identifies the top workplace distractions and how to avoid them. What are your top distractions?

            • Avoiding Distractions Page
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              Our brilliance is dimmed by distractions that distract our attention from our intended goals. You probably do not live on a deserted island. Friends, family, and coworkers often seem to need our attention at the most inopportune times. We need to recognize the source of these tugs in our focus to address their impact on productivity. Watch this video to develop powerful ways to identify distractions and change your behavior to meet your goals.

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            2.5 Avoid Multitasking

            Many jobs and situations require us to multitask, but research has shown it can be unproductive and damage our health. The following resources offer examples of the negative consequences of multitasking. For example, a 2015 study (Lin, Cockerham, Chang, and Natividad, 2015) showed that college students take longer to do their homework and earn lower test scores when they multitasked while studying.

            • The Myth of Multitasking Page
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              We can only confidently rely on our decision-making or critical thinking abilities if we commit 100 percent of our attention to a task. Multitasking causes us to fall behind on our own time-bound goals, and we suffer the harmful effects of others who try to multitask, such as distracted drivers and walkers.

              This video describes why multitasking can be bad for our brains and how we are usually more productive when we focus on one thing rather than try to multitask.

            • Multitasking versus Commitment Page
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              Watch this video which describes the difference between multitasking and working in parallel and offers a framework for commitment. The presenter says multitasking is a misnomer: we should use the paradigm of working in parallel when discussing task management. Do you agree? Can you explain the difference between multitasking and parallel working? What are some examples of times when you were multitasking when you should have been working in parallel? Can you identify how your work may have suffered from a lack of focus?

            • Does Multitasking Improve Your Productivity? Page
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              The videos have shown that shifting your focus from one activity to another wastes time. But how can you avoid giving in to interruptions and distractions, especially in a busy workplace? What is the best way to stay on track to complete your goals according to your plan? Watch this video for steps to enhance your productivity rather than allow multitasking to diminish it.

            • Building Your Concentration Page
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              Now that you have a prioritized to-do list you are ready to tackle, other less difficult or more enjoyable activities seem to conspire to sidetrack you. Watch this video for tips on maintaining productive concentration during workday tasks and projects. The narrator explains that giving yourself a simple "breathing break" can rejuvenate and restore your focus.

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        Unit 3: Managing Stress

        What are stressors and distractors? Why are certain jobs more stressful than others? Why do some people handle stress better than others? How can you use stressors and distractors to your advantage? Let's discuss some common myths and truths as we figure out how much time we need to devote to certain tasks.

        Completing this unit should take you approximately 3 hours.

        • Upon successful completion of the unit, you will be able to:

          • define stressors;
          • compare surface and core stressors;
          • discuss Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD);
          • list four signs of high-functioning PTSD;
          • compare acute and chronic stress;
          • list the four capacity sectors of Jim Loehr’s and Tony Schwartz’ High-Performance Pyramid;
          • give examples of rituals we can incorporate into our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual capacities;
          • give examples of ways corporations can avoid the outcomes of negative stress for their employees; and
          • explain the benefit of different coping strategies for reducing stress.
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              3.1 What is a Stressor?

              Most of us feel stressed from time to time. Of course, the degree of stress we experience depends on our ability to cope with unwelcome or unexpected events or stressors. This tension affects our minds and bodies.

              You have probably heard of the fight or flight response to stress. Walter Cannon (1871–1945), an American physiologist, was among the first to explore stress and how our bodies respond to stressful events. He described the "fight or flight response" to stress, which suggests our body quickly arouses the sympathetic nervous system and the endocrine system when confronted with a stressful event so that our pupils dilate, our breathing quickens, we begin to sweat, our heart rate increases, and our muscles tense or tremble. These physiological responses prepare us to fight or escape from stressful events.

              This coping mechanism helps us protect ourselves from perceived or real threats (stressors). Examples include the fear of public speaking, phobias (such as spiders, snakes, bridges, and water), and fear of a lack of control in a given situation. Of course, some stress level is a healthy sign of realistic awareness. We may have to meet a physical or mental challenge that immediately demands our knowledge, ability, or experience. These same stressors that prompt us to run to safety motivate athletes to perform their best when facing competitors. Let's examine the causes of stress and ways to reduce unhealthy stress.

              • Stress and the Brain Page
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                Watch this video on how the brain processes real and perceived threats. Jaime Tartar notes that the human brain and nervous system are wired to defend us from threats to our survival. However, more complicated life stressors and hassles force us to decide about our relationships, work, and ambitions.

                We must consider our knowledge, skills, and experience to respond to individual stressors. Answers may lie in psychotherapy, social support, good sleep habits, and other strategies. However, he warns that our actions to reduce or avoid stress may have complications or negative side effects, such as time and energy spent or drug dependence. Tartar reminds us that we control our stress response. We can ignore the signs at our peril or act on them to improve our lives.

              • How to Reduce Stress Page
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                What is stress? Peter Gerlach makes a distinction between our false and true selves. Watch this video for an overview of recognizing the true (core) causes of our stress. When we identify the core causes of stress, we can better understand the mental and physiological stressors. Can you name all of the stressors in your life? It might be helpful to examine the three real causes of stress cited in the video.

              • High-Functioning PTSD Page
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                This video discusses the signs of high-functioning post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD. It suggests ways to get help for this common ailment if you are experiencing negative emotions due to past traumas that keep you from leading a healthy and productive life.

              • How to Deal with Stress Page
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                Watch this video to learn about a framework for identifying, reacting to, and responding to stress. Ameer Rosic offers practical tips for reframing stressors so we can respond positively and positively. Take a moment to identify some stressors in your life and write down how you normally respond to them. Would you benefit from a different response?

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              3.2 Managing Stress to Boost Mental Health

              Stress can negatively affect your mental health – but it doesn't have to! Now, we'll explore how to manage stress.

              • Stress Management Strategies Page
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                Watch this video, which offers three main strategies for managing stress in the workplace. The speaker focuses on building resilience and emotional agility. The online seminar is interactive so be sure to have a pen and paper ready to do the exercises.

              • Avoiding and Managing Stress Page
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                Read this text, which describes individual and organizational approaches to managing stress. Individuals benefit from a workflow that offers challenge, meaningfulness, competence, and choice.

                The reading describes ways corporations can reduce unhealthy stress by providing job design and management practices that include clear expectations, autonomy, fair work environments, and other opportunities for job enrichment.

              • How to Deal with Conflicts Page
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                Unresolved workplace conflicts can sap energy, decrease motivation, and create a toxic work environment. In this video, Jess Coles stresses the need to proactively tackle negative conflict by ascertaining the source of unproductive disputes and changing the people or processes that interfere with effective team collaboration.

              • Managing Stress Page
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                Watch this video to learn how to manage stress by organizing and prioritizing tasks (as we return to the time management skills discussed in Unit 1). Some tasks may be easier or more enjoyable than others, but having a realistic "conversation" with ourselves may prompt us to admit they are not must-do items. Take time for yourself amid the compound stressors we face daily. Remember to reserve time in your schedule for family and friends!

              • Stop Overthinking Page
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                Do you find yourself staying awake at night reviewing the things that may have gone better during the day or wracking your brain for solutions to current and potential problems? Watch this video which recommends creating a shutdown process to help you sleep peacefully and devise creative problem-solving ideas.

              • How to Stay Calm under Pressure Page
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                Watch this video to learn how to deal with multiple high-pressure situations. Tips include learning to control your breathing, change your posture, and plan responses to various leadership and social situations. These coping mechanisms are easy to follow and can help us reduce pressure and stress.

              • How Exercise Improves Health Page
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                Watch this video which discusses how our minds and bodies benefit from exercise. Changes in muscle growth, heart rate, hormonal, and brain chemistry can help us increase our endurance and improve our mental outlook.

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          Certificate Final Exam

          Take this exam if you want to earn a free Course Completion Certificate.

          To receive a free Course Completion Certificate, you will need to earn a grade of 70% or higher on this final exam. Your grade for the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first try, you can take it again as many times as you want, with a 7-day waiting period between each attempt.

          Once you pass this final exam, you will be awarded a free Course Completion Certificate.