Listen, I know I keep posting that I’m going to post and then not posting, so I’m not going to do that. I’m just going to post when I post.  Okay? Okay.

That said, I’m going to try a thing this month. I got a great deal on a Skillshare membership, and though I’ve tried them out a few times in the past and really found the courses inspiring and useful, I’ve had trouble making time to, you know, actually do the courses. As you know, I’ve also had trouble making time to blog. SO. This month, my goal is to do a Skillshare* course (or part of a course) every day, and blog about it (live-blog style, it turns out).

There may not be pictures (but there might be). I will let you know which courses I try, what I like about them, and whether I’d recommend them to a friend (that’s you. You’re the friend in this scenario.). If I really bounce hard off something in the first lesson, I’m going to choose something else to do and you’ll never hear about it – this isn’t about being negative or hating on courses. There are definitely some courses that I’ve found more useful than others – you’re going to hear about the useful ones. I’m likely going to be doing mostly productivity/lifehacks and art courses, just because that’s my jam right now. But I’m also planning to mix it up a bit with some gardening and baking, too.

So, without further ado, I’m going to kick it off with MEANINGFUL PRODUCTIVITY | Create Sustainable Habits, taught by Julian Merten:

Okay. This is basically a breakdown of the principles from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. Merten is very upfront about this. I’m not learning a ton of new stuff, but these are definitely good tips on how to actually Do The Things.

I knew this going in but it’s really being reinforced by this course (in a good way!): productivity and habit-building are like healthy eating, in that lots of different things that actually work if you are good at implementing them and stick to them, but you gotta actually do it. There’s no magic pill that will make me more productive.

Ah, the Rewards step. My favorite part. I need to find something that’s not food or shopping to reward myself with, though. Fun story: last time I was job hunting, I used to reward myself with buying a little something for my Future Office whenever I sent off a bunch of applications or had an interview. So I had this whole bag of things like a new mug, a fun tape dispenser, unicorn paperclips, cool sticky notes (yeah, I said cool! Don’t @ me!), a hedgehog planter, etc. Then I got an amazing remote position, so I get to work from my home office, which is already fully stocked with things I love.

Anywho, this was a decent class. I didn’t really learn anything new, but it did reinforce the things I already knew about habit-building, so that’s nice. Kind of a refresher. I didn’t feel like it really tied in the productivity angle effectively, but if you’re looking for some habit-building tips, this is a decent place to start.

That’s one down, y’all!

*”Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes for creative and curious people, on topics including illustration, design, photography, video, freelancing, and more.” They’ve got classes in everything from art to baking to productivity to gardening to trumpet (I will not subject you to my efforts to relearn the trumpet). Classes range from 20m to a few hours, but even the longer ones are broken into bite-sized chunks. It’s pretty cool.

If you decide you want to sign up and you like me enough to give me a free month, too, here’s my referral link. 

This project is in no way endorsed, sponsored, or paid for by Skillshare (afaik, they don’t even know about it).