Intentional Student
Online Course
Intentional Students use their time wisely in work AND play.
And enjoy the process.
The next live group sessions run from October 18 to November 22, 2021.
See below for more details.
Intentional Productivity
In this course, you’ll learn our system for Intentional Productivity. There are different ways of thinking about productivity. Many think of it as simply a means to an end, a way to mindlessly do more and more (even at the expense of your own psychological well-being). My approach to productivity is different. I think it’s in everyone’s best interests when productivity is intentional, as I explain below.
Productivity is INTENTIONAL when it is...
- Done with purpose
Your actions are in alignment with your goals and personal values.
- Done with awareness
Instead of acting on auto-pilot, you act with awareness of what you’re doing and why.
- Done with a sense of choice
You feel that you have control over how you act and greater control over the outcomes of your actions.
- Done by design, not luck
You’re not effective by luck, you’re effective by design. You intentionally develop strategies that are more likely to produce the outcomes you are seeking.
- Done with the long-term in mind
Long-term effects and outcomes are given more weight than short-term fleeting gains.
- Liberating
Intentional action creates more space, more breathing room, more freedom for choice in your life. This space is where you can plant the seeds for other goals you wish to pursue (e.g., learning new skills, social action, etc.).
Intentional productivity isn’t easy, but this course will make it easier.
The Productivity Superpowers
Intentional Productivity is the goal. In this course, you’ll learn how to develop your Productivity Superpowers – the knowledge and strategies that make Intentional Productivity possible. We’ve integrated different areas of psychological research to develop these Productivity Superpowers and our approach to strengthening them. If you’re looking to increase your own productivity, these are the superpowers you need. If you’re in a leadership role and want to help group members to improve their productivity, these superpowers are an important place to start.
- Mind Control
If you’re tired, stressed, unmotivated, and can’t concentrate, your productivity will suffer. You need practice with different research-based strategies (e.g., specific meditation practices) for managing your internal state.
- Task Control
What tasks should you be working on today? Do you trust that your list of tasks is complete and accessible, or do you worry that it’s missing important tasks or that you won’t see them in time? You need a task-management system you can trust.
- Distraction Control
What sources of distraction are in your environment? Are you getting constant email and social media notifications? What internal forces are driving you to seek out distractions? You need strategies for managing these internal and external distractors and your response to them.
- Time Control
Do you end your day feeling like you spent your time well? Do you feel like you’re in control of how your time gets spent? You need a time-management system that gives you control. Our research-based time-management system is unique and can’t be found elsewhere.
This course is for you if you want to...
- Get more out of your time
- Know what to do when your productivity drops
- Take better care of yourself
- Enjoy your work more
- Find time for other side projects/activities that you care about
This course is for leaders too!
- If you're leading a team of people, you need to understand the factors and tools that enable productivity before you can effectively lead your team to be more productive.
- Even if you yourself are productive, this doesn't mean that you understand the factors that drive other people's productivity.
Which course to start with?
- If you're interested in both the Intentional Productivity and Intentional Leadership Courses, I recommend that you start with the Intentional Productivity course. The Intentional Productivity system is actually central to the Intentional Leadership system, which partly involves applying Intentional Productivity strategies to yourself and the people you're trying to lead.
Course Pricing & Package Options
Since 2015, I’ve been developing and honing the Intentional Productivity system. I came to the current pricing for the course based on the amount of work I’ve done in the past and the amount that I continue to put into refining the system, the amount of time it took to create course materials (and to continue refining them as needed), and the time I’ll spend with you in the course, both through the discussion forum and through live group sessions (if you choose that option). I think you’ll see that I’ve put a lot of time and effort into this course: from the hand-drawn images that capture key concepts, to the concise instructional videos, to the reflection exercises, to the various online forms and tools that you receive in the course. All are things that I developed myself and that you won’t find elsewhere.
But ultimately, the most important thing to me is that the knowledge and strategies from this course get into the hands of people trying to do good work, which is why I attempted to make the pricing reasonable and fair for people in different circumstances through different course packages and options for discounted pricing. In addition, all courses come with a 60-day, 100% Money-Back Guarantee so that you can be confident your money will be put to good use.
60-Day, 100% Money-Back Guarantee
I don’t want concerns that a program won’t work for you to prevent you from giving it a try. I’m confident in the quality and effectiveness of my programs; If within 60 days of purchasing the program you are unsatisfied with it for any reason, please email me at matt@productiveforgood.org to request a full refund, no questions asked.
Course Packages
I want the content of this course to be accessible to as many people as possible because I strongly believe these strategies will bring you more satisfaction in your work and life, and will ultimately benefit your organization and those around you as well. One thing I’ve done to make the course more accessible is to break it into different packages that better fit people’s available time and finances.
Quick-Start Guide: The Quick-Start Guide to Intentional Productivity can be thought of as a mini course whose goal is to get you strengthening your Productivity Superpowers as easily and quickly as possible. In short, concise videos, it focuses on 1-2 techniques/strategies for each of the 4 Productivity Superpowers – all of the videos combined are only an hour long. It includes techniques for managing your mind (with functional breathing meditation), your tasks (with a template and strategies for organizing tasks), your time (with a unique and flexible time planning technique), and your distractions (with concrete strategies for minimizing distractions at their source). The momentum that you generate from this Quick-Start Guide will then carry you, if interested, into the larger Intentional Productivity course to dive into additional techniques and the concepts/science behind the Intentional Productivity System. Note that the Quick-Start guide doesn’t go into the background concepts and science due to its focus on actionable steps that you can take right away to become more intentionally productive. You can also ask questions and get feedback from me and others via the private Quick-Start Guide discussion forum. To hear more about the Quick-Start Guide, check out this blog post.
Self-Paced: The Self-Paced course package gives you online access to the Intentional Productivity course content so that you can work through it at your own pace. The Self-Paced course includes concise instructional videos (typically 10-15 min long), hand-drawn images for easy review of key concepts, reflection exercises, and online forms/tools. The Intentional Productivity course includes 2.5 hours total (for a grand total of 3.5 hours if you include the Quick-Start Guide content). You can also get feedback from me and others as you progress through the course via the private discussion forum. You will have unlimited access to the course materials into the future, including updates and additions to the primary course materials. The Self-Paced Intentional Productivity course package also includes access to the Quick-Start Guide.
Live Group Sessions: The Live Group Sessions course package gives you access to the Self-Paced online course (as described above) and also has live sessions over 5 weeks in which I walk you through the content and dive a bit deeper according to your interests and questions. These sessions are recorded for revisiting later or for those unable to make the live sessions. You can begin working through the content by yourself before the live sessions begin (I recommend running through the Quick-Start Guide in advance) or wait until the live sessions begin.
The live group sessions usually take place on Mondays at 12:00pm ET/9:00am PT. The next live 6-week session dates are TBD. If you register for the Live Group Sessions course package now you’ll have access to the next 6-week series or can choose to participate in any future series after that. With the Live Group Session package, you will also be able to sit in on future Live Group Sessions for free in order to get a refresher on course content.
Guide Certificate: The certificate program is for those who want to be Productivity Guides. These are people trained to help guide people through the Intentional Productivity system. Guides can also help point their own clients or students towards the resources they most need in their own productivity. In order to complete certification, students will need to work through the Self-Paced Intentional Productivity course content, participate in or observe one 6-week series of Live Group Sessions, participate in a 4-week Live Guide Training program (next session dates TBD), and complete a Guide Project in which they guide some other person in need of help with their productivity through the Intentional Productivity system. There is no deadline for project completion, so students can take the time they need.
The next live 6-week session runs from October 18th to November 22nd, 2021 (Mondays at 12:00pm ET/9:00am PT).
Course Package Summary
What you get
Quick-Start Guide
Self-Paced
Live Group Sessions
Guide Certificate
Package bundles
Includes Quick-Start Guide
Includes Quick-Start Guide & Self-Paced Course
Includes Quick-Start Guide, Self-Paced Course, & Live Group Sessions
Concise videos on core techniques and strategies
Additional advanced techniques and strategies
Concise videos on background concepts and science
Digital & printable tools to help you implement course strategies
What you get
Quick-Start Guide
Self-Paced
Live Group Sessions
Guide Certificate
Free access to future updates & additions to core course materials
Lifetime access to online discussion forum with peers and instructor
6 live group sessions (+ free audits of future live group sessions)
Guide-specific videos, exercises, & other resources
4 live guide training sessions
Time commitment
60 min of videos +
30-60 min setup of Task & Time Control Systems
30-60 min/wk (videos, exercises) x 6 weeks
30-60 min/wk + 60 min weekly group session x 6 weeks
30-60 min/wk + 60 min weekly group session + time for guide project x 10 weeks
Course Package Summary
Quick-Start Guide
-
Concise videos on core techniques and strategies
-
Digital & printable tools
-
Free access to future updates & additions
-
Discussion forum access
-
Time needed: 60 min of videos + 30-60 min setup of task & time management systems
Self-Paced
-
Videos & exercises
-
Digital & printable tools
-
Free access to future updates & additions
-
Discussion forum access
-
Time needed: 30-60 min/wk (videos, exercises)
Live Group Sessions
-
Videos & exercises
-
Digital & printable tools
-
Free access to future updates & additions
-
Discussion forum access
-
6 live group sessions
-
Time needed: 30-60 min/wk + 60 min weekly group session
Guide Certificate
-
Videos & exercises
-
Digital & printable tools
-
Free access to future updates & additions
-
Discussion forum access
-
6 live group sessions
-
Guide-specific videos, exercises, & other resources
-
Time needed: 30-60 min/wk + 60 min weekly group session + time for guide project
Discounted Pricing Options
In order for Intentional Productivity and Intentional Leadership to be used for the good of all, it needs to be accessible to all. Yet we live in a world that has inequity embedded into it. The social and political forces that shape our lives concentrate resources, wealth, and opportunities into the hands of a few, to the detriment of the many. Systemic inequities and racism continue to hurt BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ people, as well as disabled people, refugees, and migrant workers. Our discounted pricing options reflect a desire to actively work against this inequitable distribution of resources and opportunities, regardless of whether you can or cannot comfortably afford to pay the normal course rate. If you fit in one (or more) of these groups, please take a look at the discounted pricing options. We also offer discounted rates for people working in a nonprofit, in education (as educator, staff, or student), doing social justice work, or doing ecological justice work. If you are in one or more of these groups that are eligible for a discount but prefer to pay the normal rate for any reason, that’s completely your choice.
We recognize that these rates, even when discounted, may still be uncomfortably high for some. We also recognize that many are currently facing financial hardship. If you worry that the cost would make it difficult for you to afford necessary monthly expenses (e.g., rent, utilities, groceries), then email matt@productiveforgood.org so that we can explore other payment options. If you feel a need for a particular program, we don’t want money to be a barrier.
Group Packages Available
Group packages are also available for organizations wanting to make these course packages and related services available to groups of employees. For more details and pricing, please email matt@productiveforgood.org.
Add-On Pricing
If you prefer to start with just the Self-Paced program before trying the Live Weekly Group program, or perhaps you decide that you want to do the Guide Certificate program after having done the Self-Paced or Live Weekly Group program months or years ago, you can individually add the additional programs you need using the links below. Note that the Guide Certificate program requires that you do the Live Weekly Group sessions as well, so if you only did the Self-Paced program in the past, you would need to then do both the Live Weekly Group program and the Guide Certificate programs below.
- Pre-requisite for Live Weekly Group Program: Self-Paced Course
- Pre-requisites for Guide Certificate Program: Self-Paced Course & Live Weekly Group Program
In summary, if you’re completely new to the Intentional Productivity course and haven’t done any of the programs before, then you can ignore this chart and focus on the Course Package Summary above. But if you’ve completed the Intentional Productivity course in the past and now want to go deeper with the Live Weekly Group program and/or the Guide Certificate program, below is the pricing for those additions. Note that you can only use the links below if you’ve already completed the prerequisite program(s) – the links below will take you to a course page that contains instructions for add-on purchases at the bottom of the page. This means you need to be logged into the website to see the link. We’ve tried to make this pricing as clear as possible, but if you have questions about any of this, please email matt@productiveforgood.org.
Self-Paced
Add-On
Live Weekly Group*
Add-On
Self-Paced + Live Weekly Group**
Add-On
Guide Certificate
Add-On
Live Weekly Group +
Guide Certificate***
Add-On
Self-Paced
Add-On
$195
Live Weekly Group* Add-On
$135
Self-Paced + Live Weekly Group**
Add-On
$335
Guide Certificate Add-On
$925
Live Weekly Group + Guide Cert***
Add-On
$1025
*The “Live Weekly Group” option is for those who have completed the Self-Paced course.
**The “Self-Paced + Live Weekly Group” option is for those who have only completed the Quick-Start Guide and wish to now complete both the Self-Paced course and the Live Weekly Group sessions.
***The “Live Weekly Group + Guide Certificate” option is for those who have only completed the Self-Paced program and wish to now complete both the Live Weekly Group component and the Guide Certificate program (the Guide Certificate requires that you complete the Live Weekly Group sessions).
As with the normal package pricing, discounted rates are available for Add-On programs to those who qualify. Please visit the discounted pricing page for more details.
