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Modern Productivity: Superhuman Focus In A Distracted World (Udemy.com)

Boost your productivity, reclaim your focus, and achieve your goals with this proven approach to personal productivity!

Created by: Brad Merrill

Last updated November 2023

Our take

Based on the ratings of 27,786 students, a sample of their written reviews and the syllabus, as the course stood in November 2023. No course pays to be reviewed.

Brad Merrill's course is a short tour of personal productivity. It runs about 1.8 hours across 30 lectures and eight sections: mindset, distractions, peak hours, planning, execution and balance. The biggest chunk is on distractions, with eight lectures on topics like multitasking and social media. It asks for no background, only a willingness to change habits. There are no quizzes or exercises, so the doing is left to the student. With roughly 78,000 students, it is clearly a popular starter pick.

Reviewers like how brief the lessons are. One says the small chunks of knowledge stay to the point, and another says the action items could be used right away. The teaching gets credit for being light and easy to follow. The criticism is mild. One student found the constant drawing on screen annoying, and another called the model outdated and the pace so fast it felt stressful. The ratings back this up: of 27,786 ratings, about 25,000 are four or five stars, and under 400 are one or two.

The course was last updated in November 2023, so some advice may feel a little dated. Because it is short and paid, it works as a low-risk starting point for someone who has never thought about a system. Anyone who wants depth should look to a book or a longer course. Recommended if you want a quick push and are happy to supply the follow-through.

Best forPeople who want a quick, practical reset on focus and planning, not a deep book-length system.
Skip it ifYou already run a task system and want research-heavy depth or an updated take on modern tools.

Pros

  • Short lessons, about 1.8 hours in total, that reviewers say stay to the point
  • Reviewers say the lessons give action items they can use right away
  • Eight lectures on distractions, multitasking and social media habits
  • Planning section covers goal breakdowns, periodic reviews and a task manager

Cons

  • No quizzes or exercises, so follow-through is entirely on the student
  • Last updated November 2023, and one reviewer called the model outdated
  • Fast pace and constant on-screen drawing bothered a couple of reviewers
I enjoyed this course. It was concise and provided some good action items that I can implement right away.
Linda V., a student

All Levels fits. No background is needed, just willingness to change habits, so beginners are covered.

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What you will learn

  • Develop a productive mindset and stay motivated
  • Develop strong self-discipline and use the power of habit to your advantage
  • Understand the difference between busy work and productive work
  • Minimize the many distractions of modern life
  • Understand the truth about multitasking
  • Break your compulsive social media habit
  • Take charge of your time and stop living on other people's schedules
  • Identify your peak hours for productivity and become an early riser (if you want to)
  • Set long term goals and break those goals down into actionable tasks
  • Conduct annual, quarterly, and weekly reviews of your life
  • Use a task manager to plan and organize your work
  • Develop a strong work ethic
  • Stop procrastination in its tracks using a very simple strategy
  • Increase your efficiency with deadlines
  • Avoid burnout by changing the way you work
  • Understand how music affects your productivity

Course content

8 sections · 30 lectures · 1.8 hours of video

  1. 1Introduction 1 free preview1 lecture · 5 min
  2. 2Mindset 1 free preview3 lectures · 12 min
  3. 3Distractions 1 free preview8 lectures · 27 min
  4. 4Peak Hours For Productivity2 lectures · 9 min
  5. 5Planning 1 free preview6 lectures · 29 min
  6. 6Execution7 lectures · 21 min
  7. 7Balance2 lectures · 3 min
  8. 8Wrapping Up1 lecture · 1 min

Who it is for

The instructor says it suits

  • Anyone who has goals they want to achieve

What you need before you start

  • No experience necessary—however, you should be ready, willing, and able to adopt the habits and behaviors outlined in the course. There's nothing to it but to do it!

How it compares

Against the other 143 rated Udemy courses in Productivity on CourseDuck:

  • Rating4.6 out of 5higher than 69% of them
  • Reviews27,786#5 of 144 by number of reviews
  • Length1.8 hoursshorter than 55% of them
  • Last updatedNovember 2023earlier than 60% of them

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Course Description

Why does productivity matter?

We all have goals and ambitions, but most of us aren't on track to reach our goals because we're not taking the right action at the right time and with the right consistency.

We live in a world that's constantly distracted. Everyone seems to be chasing short-term gratification over long-term achievement. And it's not necessarily their fault—we have people and companies competing for our attention during every single moment of our waking lives.

The result is a global economy where focus and productivity are infinitely more valuable than almost any other trait—including talent and intelligence.

In this course, we'll walk through a variety of strategies that you can implement to reclaim your focus, maximize your productivity, and achieve your goals.

More specifically, here are some of the things we'll cover:

  • How to adopt a productive mindset
  • How to stay motivated
  • How to develop strong self-discipline and use the power of habit to boost your productivity
  • The key differences between busy people and productive people
  • How to minimize the distractions of modern life
  • The truth about multitasking
  • How social media is KILLING your productivity (and what to do about it)
  • The benefits of waking up early and how to become an early riser in less than a week
  • How to set long-term goals and break those goals down into actionable tasks
  • How to conduct annual, quarterly, and weekly reviews to increase your productivity and improve your life
  • How to use a task manager to plan and organize your work
  • How to develop a strong work ethic
  • A simple strategy you can use to stop procrastination in its tracks
  • How you can increase your efficiency with deadlines
  • How to focus for longer periods of time while avoiding burnout by changing the way you work
  • How music impacts productivity

By the end of the course, you'll have all the tools you need to become the most productive version of yourself—it's just a matter of putting it all into action.

This course is based on hundreds of hours of research, as well as my own personal experience in building two successful media companies. The strategies you'll find inside are used by some of the world's most productive and successful people to get things done—and it's all neatly packaged and presented in a format that makes it easy to digest and implement.

So if you're ready to stop procrastinating and start bringing your most ambitious goals to life, get yourself enrolled and give these productivity strategies a try. They've made a huge difference in my life, and I hope they'll do the same for you.

I'm really confident that you'll love this course, and my confidence is backed by Udemy's 30-day money-back guarantee. If you don't love it, you get your money back—no questions asked.

With all of that in mind, I hope to see you inside!

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Instructor Details

Brad Merrill

Brad Merrill is the CEO of Merrill Media, a modern holding company focused on building independent, scalable businesses at the intersection of technology and media. He is regarded as an expert in his field, teaching business and technology courses to more than 100,000 students and providing marketing training to a number of prominent startups and Fortune 500 companies.

Merrill considers himself a passionate creative: he loves creating articles, videos, websites, companies, workflows, and new ideas. He has been creating things on the web since 2007, working on dozens of projects and reaching tens of millions of people in the process.

In 2010, Merrill founded VentureBreak, which became a leading source of news about innovation for forward-thinking entrepreneurs, investors, business executives, and interested consumers. Under his leadership, VentureBreak served more than half a million monthly readers, appeared regularly on Techmeme, and found itself cited by a number of notable publications, including the Wall Street Journal. While at the helm, Merrill personally interviewed hundreds of entrepreneurs and industry luminaries, sharing their stories with VentureBreak’s global audience. In 2015, VentureBreak was acquired by the organizer of Europe’s largest technology meetup.

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Reviews

4.6

27,786 ratings on Udemy

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

By Fernando Alves Barbosa on 9/13/2026

The training hold my attention and I worked in 2 fronts while watched all content provided that are increase my english level and also listen about techniques that can improve my studying method ( pomodoro's seems very good ) for reach desired results in my routine. Thanks very much !!

By Rafał Kotowicz on 7/6/2026

I particularly loved small an concise chunks of knowledge and lessons to the point. I did not manage to implement all the tricks and methods presented in the course, but all the ones I managed to introduce made me more productive at work and personal life. Highly recommend to try this course.

By Praveena Kannan on 2/24/2026

This is amazing content but really outdated model. And it is fast paced to keep the audience engaged but it rises the heart beat and tension towards reading more faster. It creates the fear of leaving the course. So chunking it and reducing he learning speed a bit might help us. Thanks

By Maija Pajula on 2/19/2026

It was good. Nice to notice I'm already doing things right but there is still a lot of improvements in a easy way, what this course really was all about!

By Mohammed Ayman Ahmed on 2/11/2026

This course offers practical strategies to boost productivity and stay focused without feeling overwhelmed. The content is clear actionable and easy to apply in daily work and life.

By Matthew Scott Anstey on 2/6/2026

I enjoyed the concise way the material was presented. I did find the animations distracting at times, but overall, quite a good course.

By Nurul Nazirah Binte Hassan on 1/22/2026

A very straight forward course that helps you to realise the mistakes that you have made unknowingly while trying to be productive. The biggest takeaway for me would be to always use my time intentionally even if it is for breaks. Love the animations that accompany the entire video because it highlights the relevant points and help form into a summary for us to refer back to easily.

By Manuel Antonio Romero Sáez on 1/21/2026

I am Spanish and my English is not very good. The tutor explained everything correctly using simple words, enabling me to understand everything correctly. Perhaps the course was a little repetitive, but it made me think.

By Megan Lara on 1/19/2026

This was a good course to learn how to be organized and multitasking and other key point that definitely are good to know to improve.

By Christina Lohia on 1/10/2026

The course is pre-dominantly easy to understand. I enjoyed listening to the ways, we tend to derail on our goals and why discipline is important. The Tips are useful, will implement them in my routine. Thank you, Brad !!

By Selesia Turner on 11/8/2020

Enjoying the content thus far

By Cheri Green on 11/8/2020

I have found the information very enlightening

Showing 12 of 310 reviews

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Quality Score

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Overall Score : 92 / 100