Productivity & Time Management: Finally, Get Things Done

Welcome to the course on goal setting for personal development! This introductory lecture outlines the topics coming up in the course and details the skills you'll gain from completing it.

In this section we take a look at the science and psychology of purpose. This lecture serves as an introduction to the idea of "purpose" and highlights the health and social benefits and cognitive advantages of knowing your purpose.

In this lecture, you will be given seven key indicators that could suggest you're are not in line with your purpose.

Download the Purpose Awareness Worksheet, which will prepare you for Section 3.

This section deep dives into self-awareness. Having discovered the importance of having a purpose in the previous section, this lecture will be an introduction to explore areas of yourself and your life to uncover and/or create your own purpose.

Download the Core Values and Purpose Discovery Worksheet.

In this lecture, you will critically evaluate your own assumptions about success. Firstly, you will list your ideas about what success is. Secondly, you will examine whether your list is influenced by culture, peers and your upbringing, before working out what is truly aligned with your purpose. Lastly, you will divide your list into internal vs external metrics.

In this lecture, you will analyse and evaluate your energy levels across various time periods. You will look at a variety of factors that can influence these energy levels. By having a realistic picture of your energy levels, you can then set realistic goals. You will be encouraged to continue this energy-level tracking as a regular habit, even after goal-setting has been completed.

Download the Energy Levels Worksheet.

This section looks at the science and psychology of goal setting. In this lecture, you will discover how goal setting creates changes in the brain and in one's behaviour, based on psychological and neuroscientific studies.

In this lecture, you will be exposed to scientific studies illustrating the ways in which goal setting has a positive effect on outcomes and success rates.

This lecture will ensure that you have the information you need to make goals that are important to fulfilling your purpose. It gives practical tips on finding inspiration for goals that are meaningful to you across different areas of your life.

Download the Identifying Goals Worksheet.

Here, you will learn how to complete a personal SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) matrix, in order to have realistic data upon which you can build your goal setting. You'll then be encouraged to write a list of considerations to take into account based on your goals, and/or filter your goals through your findings to make sure you are not setting yourself up for failure.

Download the SWOT Matrix Worksheet.

The purpose of this lecture is to ensure that you learn how best to organise your goals in the most efficient way. It breaks down various aspects of this process, including creating a timeline and breaking goals into manageable steps.

In the last lecture of this section you will learn how to devise a plan and integrate it into your daily life using positive habits and actions, as well as tools and software to stay organised and motivated.

In this section we take a look at how to review, optimise and stick to your plan. This lecture provides helpful tips for you to stay motivated and avoid distractions when working towards your goals.

In this lecture, you will gain a greater understanding of how to track your goals, measure success and hold yourself accountable using various techniques.

In this lecture, you will learn the importance of evaluating failure, and how to embrace a Growth Mindset before evaluating weaknesses and failures. You will then be taken through a Failure Analysis process to help work out why the goal broke down. Finally, you will use this data to reactivate the goal under new conditions for greater success.

In this lecture, you will look at the importance of giving extra attention to areas of strength and explore why this is important. You will then be guided into thinking about how you can create new goals to capitalise on your areas of success.

This lecture covers long-term change and how it can affect the goal-setting process. You will learn how to evaluate your changing feelings about the goals you originally set and how to take action from there, in order to create new goals or to develop an environment conducive to attaining your original goals.

In this concluding lecture, you will review the key learning objectives and identify ways that the lessons from the course can be used to help individuals achieve their goals in life, and to adapt when faced with failure or changing situations and feelings.

Through real-world examples from companies like Apple and Sony, you’ll see how prioritisation influences not just daily operations but entire organisational trajectories. We'll also examine how prioritisation can enable you to navigate uncertainty, focus resources effectively and avoid costly missteps.

Here, you will look into the close connection between prioritisation and decision-making, learning how you can use strategic tools to enhance clarity, reduce overwhelm and stay focused on what truly matters. We'll dive into the Eisenhower Matrix to learn how it can help you distinguish between urgent, important and unnecessary tasks. Through real-world examples, such as Elon Musk’s use of prioritisation at Tesla, you’ll see how this framework can be applied to high-pressure environments, ensuring decisions are made with purpose, not panic.

In this lecture, we'll address the ABCDE method, a powerful prioritisation framework designed to help you simplify decision-making and organise tasks based on urgency and impact.

In this lecture, you’ll dive deep into the critical difference between urgent and important tasks and why striking the right balance between the two is the rigth approach.

Here, you'll tackle some of the most common challenges business leaders face when trying to prioritise effectively, procrastination, task overload and difficulty maintaining focus.