Ali Abdaal's Productivity Masterclass

Welcome to the 6th edition of the Notes by Chris B Co newsletter. This week, I’m sharing with you my review of and notes from a Productivity Masterclass. The class is from Ali Abdaal and is hosted on Skillshare. I’ll explain further below. Let’s go!

Here's what I've prepared for you today:

• Introduction

• Free Trial

• Review

• My recommendation

• My project submission

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Introduction

Incremental improvements, an hour at a time, week after week.  That has been my focus for the past few months while setting up my new work life.  It started with a course for designers growing their business and taking notes along the way.  Then, at the end of the course, I reviewed my notes, set myself up with a new Trello workspace, and listed all of my actions as separate cards.  Five months later, I still have 40+ steps to work through, and I am adding more every week.

Part of my approach is to supercharge my learning.  I find information in articles, watch videos and listen to podcasts each week.  Some are useful, others are entertainment, and others are discarded.  During one of these recently, a course was promoted at the end of a piece of content.  It was Ali Abdaal’s Productivity Masterclass on Skillshare.  As you would know, if you’ve been following my journey, Ali has influenced me recently.

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Free Trial

The excellent news for you is that the course is FREE with this trial.  You get 30 days to try it out, which is more than enough time to complete the course, which is under two hours of viewing time.

To help you decide whether it’s worth your time (it is!), I’ve compiled a brief review below.

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Review

Structure

The course includes 11 modules,  all between 10-20 minutes long.  There’s some intro and outro information as well.  The content starts with The Productivity Equation, discusses several Myth’s and concludes with some actionable skills for you to build upon.

Each module ends with a question for the student, typically something to reflect upon. 

Most Skillshare courses allow the student to submit a project that can be made public or private.  Some teachers will provide feedback, but I’m not expecting that from Ali, given I’m the 430th person to submit.

Highlights & Most Valuable

The highlights were the modules that challenged my beliefs or provided the most value.  Typically, these ideas gave me the most food for thought and items to action.

My most valuable lesson was about getting in a state of “flow”.  If you know the feeling, you will also want to return to that place to be most productive.  Understanding that some circumstances or mindsets lead you to that “flow state” and that they could be replicated elsewhere was a big light-bulb moment for me.

Outcomes

I completed the course in two runs.  The first time around, I watched all the videos in the background while working on a project.  I skipped the reflections.  I let the ideas sit for half an hour before I went back and skipped to the question section of each module.  This time, I answered the question with thoughts/ideas/actions.

Given I’ve been a viewer of Ali’s content for several months, I already knew of some of the content and had acted upon it - so I skipped those answers.  

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My recommendation

This course is only for some.  It requires reflection.  You need to make time to complete it and reflect.  Think of it as an investment!  Spend four hours now, save four hundred hours in the future.  Isn’t this one of the main drawcards of improving productivity?

You should be open to self-reflection and have a growth mindset.
You should not be under stress, personal or financial.  
You need a clear mind to consider the lessons and respond with thought.

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My project submission

As mentioned, I did complete a submission for the Masterclass and left mine public.  Comments are welcome.  Click here to view my submission to see my take-outs.

If you have any feedback or questions, please reply to this email.  I’d love to hear from you.