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Master writing by writing mindfully (Udemy.com)

Tips from mindfulness and mind wandering to improve your writing style, habits, and attitude. Become a mindful writer.

Created by: Mike X Cohen

Last updated August 2026

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What you will learn

  • Tips to improve your writing
  • How to have a positive and mindful attitude in writing and in life
  • The benefits of mind wandering (really!)
  • How to overcome writer's block
  • Concrete tips for improving your writing style

How it compares

Against the other 1,107 rated Udemy courses in Personal Development on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.3 out of 5higher than 10% of them
  • Reviews366#483 of 1,108 by number of reviews
  • Length5.2 hourslonger than 77% of them
  • Last updatedAugust 2026more recently than 83% of them

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Course Description

What is this course about?

This is an unconventional course. I take a different approach to teaching writing skills. Sure, you can memorize a bunch of grammar rules and fancy-sounding words; you can read the classic writing style guides. Those are good uses of your time, and obviously you need a decent grasp of grammar. But memorizing rules and words won't make you a better writer.

I've read tons of style books and websites, and took several writing courses in university. And what did I learn? I learned that all good advice on being a better writer is basically the same, except no one says it in a straight forward way. So let me spare you the time and effort: Good writing comes from mindful writing.

What is mindful writing? It's basically taking principles of mindfulness and applying them to writing and editing. I take a psychological and experiential approach to becoming a better writer. I think this is much more fruitful than taking a purely technical/academic approach. That's because I believe that being a good writer comes from having the right mindset. And that mindset is what I focus on in this course.


What will you learn in this course?

You will learn about mindfulness and acceptance and how to apply these to your writing. You will learn different kinds of mind wandering and how the right style of mind wandering can promote creative problem-solving. You will learn how to deal with writer's block. And you will learn concrete tips along with real examples of improving sloppy writing.


Why is the instructor qualified to teach this?

I've published four books (and am working on two more right now!) and over 100 research articles. I've received praise for my clear and easy writing style for decades. And several of my teachers when I was a kid told me I should be a writer when I grow up ;)

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Instructor Details

Mike X Cohen

I am a full-time educator and writer, and former professor of neuroscience. I "retired" from that position so I could focus my time and energy creating high-quality educational material just for you.

I have 20 years of experience teaching programming, data analysis, signal processing, statistics, linear algebra, and experiment design. I've taught undergraduate students, PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers, and full professors. I have taught in "traditional" university courses, special week-long intensive courses, and Nobel prize-winning research labs. I have >100 hours of online lectures on neuroscience data analysis that you can find on my website and youtube channel. And I've written several technical books about these topics with a few more on the way.

I'm not trying to show off -- I'm trying to convince you that you've come to the right place to maximize your learning from an instructor who has spent two decades refining and perfecting his teaching style.

Over 350,000 students have watched over 50,000,000 minutes of my courses. Come find out why!

I have several free courses that you can enroll in. Try them out! You got nothing to lose ;)

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By popular request, here are suggested course progressions for various educational goals:

MATLAB programming: Get Started with MATLAB; Master MATLAB; Image Processing

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Reviews

4.3

366 ratings on Udemy

Select a bar to show only those reviews.Select the bar again to show every rating.

By Shannon A Barber on 3/6/2025

The course moves smoothly and easy to understand. One thing is on the examples (i.e. Python) if you are unfamiliar with the subject the example is just one long run on sentence. While it may be broad maybe using a topic that is more familiar. Overall, a good course.

By Kaladar Chandra on 1/8/2024

I loved your course on deep learning. It was the reason i bought this course. So i know that you are extremely talented. However, you haven't taught much in this course. 60% of course is about mindful writing which can be explained in 2 to 3 videos. Hope you update this course in future. We need more insights into habits to develop writing. More procedures for improvement and more examples and all.

By David Grimm on 6/5/2023

This was an excellent course at improving academic writing. I am not too familiar with mindfulness, and this was my first real effort at understanding using mindfulness. The tips on how to improve writing were very helpful and I plan to use these tips as a resource for improving my writing.

By GJoseph Peck on 3/2/2023

I like the 'requirement' that I actually "DO" something rather than just sit at/in a lecture. Too, I enjoy the steering towards intentional writing and its focus

By Mattie Jones Hopes on 11/13/2022

All of the writing tips were helpful. I especially enjoyed the exercises. Multiple opportunities to practice what I learned. My biggest challenge was writing passive sentences. Notice, I said that "was" a challenge. The sentence exercises were followed up with paragraph challenges, who could ask for anything more? Overall, just what I needed and I am most appreciative. Thank you.

By Eric W Hockemeyer on 3/25/2022

Some of the the thing's discussed in the course have been wriggling around in my skull for quite a long time. But they've only been caterpillars, waiting for the perfect piece of information to feed on. To become something bigger and better. I'm only about half a hour in and I feel like I've made big steps. I would recommend listening to his advice for a few videos and then to practice it yourself. Come up with some fun experiments and then use them to enhance your writing.

By Bruno Bastos on 3/11/2021

This course is a gem! Mike is really knows how to teach you about writing - and he shows it. I've already done so many courses about writing on Udemy, and this one is unique because it also helps you to develop the best mindset to good writing: presence, simplicity and acceptance. I feel much more confident with my writing style after this course. I recommend it.

By Tim Conkey on 12/20/2020

This is definitely different than any other course I have taken before. I have a better understanding of meditation vs mindfulness and - just being halfway - have already implemented what Mike is instructing in my writing prep. Now, at the half-way mark, I am excited to see more practical applications and exercises.

By Robert Reichert on 8/31/2020

Its really on point without unnecessary information. The combination of mindful writing and deliberate, positive mind wandering unlocked my own creativity and writing flow instantly. Sometimes, it takes quite a while until you encounter the missing piece of your own puzzle.

By James on 7/2/2020

I like writing. But I often feel my thoughts are blocked by some "invisible energy" or "entropy". The series of lectures provide a unrivaled perspective to transform those entropy into useful energy for writing. Highly recommend to those who have the similar experience!

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Overall Score : 86 / 100