Udemy: Easily Improve Work Productivity to Increase Your Value and Efficiency

Posted on May 25, 2021 at 6:00 am

BY CRYSTAL MILLER

For anyone working at an office job, remotely or on-site, work performance has probably looked a bit different this past year than previously. I know I would benefit from some training to spruce up some of my office-related skills and tasks.

If you are in the same boat, Gale Presents: Udemy is a great place to find relevant, current, and accessible online trainings that cover a wide range of topics. There are thousands of online video courses that offer upskilling in the areas of business, tech, and personal development. Today, I’m going to focus on Office Productivity.

Udemy has a large collection of courses that help you increase your efficiency and knowledge of work collaboration platforms, such as Microsoft Teams or Slack, business communication, office software applications, time management, and even public speaking.

You could improve your business communication skills with the course Communicate for Business: Write, Email, Close the Loop. Learn how to write more clearly and concisely in email and all business contexts. In this course, you design a communication plan to make sure it sticks. This course is quick, and should you need something more in-depth, you’ll find dozens of options for the communication skills you’d like to improve.

Along with Zoom, Slack, and other remote collaboration platforms, the use of Microsoft Teams surged for just about any office environment. Hybrid and remote work scenarios may become normal in many office settings. Consider polishing up your video meeting skills in the course Microsoft Teams: Discover How to Collaborate Online for Work. The course is a walk-through of Microsoft Teams that considers best practices and offers practical advice.

For a productivity overhaul for using Microsoft Office 365, consider taking the course The Ultimate Real-Life Office 365 Productivity Course with Productivity Coach and ex-Microsoft employee Ulrika Hedlund. In a unique concept of story-based tutorials, you will see real-life scenarios of “what you need to know” to effectively use these tools to work smarter.

If your email inbox looks anything like mine—full of email subscriptions, emails that need responses, and well… chaos—then you may be struggling to stay on top of all the emails you receive. So when opening your emails brings you dread, I suggest the course that I recently took: Email Ninja – Take Back Control of Your Email Inbox. Another quick course, the skills and techniques learned here will transform your email and time management habits forever!

Over 13,000 people have taken Email Ninja so far. This course consists of one hour of on-demand video, 18 downloadable resources, and a certificate of completion. This course is based on hundreds of hours of one-to-one email management coaching with CEOs, leaders, and managers with real world applications.

I found the course fun and engaging. It is self-paced and works for any email program you might use. The course videos provide actionable advice that you can begin to apply to your own inbox immediately. This course is also offered in several languages, including French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

The beauty of Udemy is the robust variety of courses it offers. Along with techniques on how to be more efficient at work, you can learn a new software program, study a new language, or try some self-enrichment courses such as learning positive self-talk.

All you need to access Udemy is internet access and an in-district library card. So, check out what you can learn with a few short courses today.

For help accessing Udemy, you can call the library at 509.893.8400 or schedule a Book-a-Librarian appointment to get help from library staff in a one-on-one session to set up your Udemy account and access this great learning resource.

Crystal Miller is a Business and Career Development Librarian and has been working in libraries for 15 years. She has a master’s in library science from Simmons College and has worked at the Harvard Development Office Library, MIT Libraries, and the Coeur d’Alene Public Library. When she’s not at the library, she can be found at the dog park with her three fur babies or with a cookbook in hand, flipping through the pages, looking for the next recipe to try out.

Tags: Gale, lifelong learning, online classes, online training, Udemy