# Productivity & Time Management Strategies for Goal Setting & Eliminating Distractions - review & insight | Gareth B. Davies Source: https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/productivity-and-time-management-strategies-for-goal-setting-and-eliminating-distractions/ [← All courses](https://garethbdavies.com/course-insights/) Productivity · Quick win · Rated 4 /10 # Productivity & Time Management Strategies for Goal Setting & Eliminating Distractions By Gareth B. Davies · Updated July 2026 Patrick Dang · International Sales Trainer All levels · 144 min A motivational sales pitch dressed as a productivity course, thin on method beyond the 80/20 rule. [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fproductivity-and-time-management-strategies-for-goal-setting-and-eliminating-distractions%2F1566059215) New to Skillshare? Your first month is free, enough to take this course at no cost. Patrick Dang built this course around a single idea he returns to again and again: figure out the one priority that matters most, then protect it from everything else. That idea, borrowed explicitly from the Pareto principle, gets applied to to-do lists, calendars, and even career choices, and it is genuinely the backbone of the whole nineteen-lesson arc. The course opens with a sales video, moves through priorities, big-picture goal setting, and personal mission ("Your Why"), then pivots into daily execution: batching, energy management, saying no, and building routines. ## What it actually teaches The strongest stretch is the middle third. Batching tasks to avoid "switching fatigue," scheduling four hours of deep work before doing administrative busywork, and the habit of asking "would this person ask Oprah for this favor" before agreeing to a request are all specific, teachable moves rather than vague encouragement. The SMART goals lesson and its accompanying worksheet give a template for turning a vague ambition into a dated, measurable target, which is useful scaffolding for someone who has never set a goal that way before. Where the course thins out is anywhere it needs to go beyond restating the 80/20 rule. Several lessons, particularly Dream Big and Your Why, lean heavily on autobiography: Dang's path from Oracle sales rep to consultant in Chiang Mai, the snowball effect he says reshaped his six-hour workdays into a functioning business. These stories are pleasant but they substitute for instruction more often than they illustrate it. A viewer looking for a concrete weekly planning system, a specific tool for tracking energy levels, or numeric goal-tracking will not find one here beyond a single downloadable worksheet. ## Structure and delivery The lesson titles promise a comprehensive system (Managing Your Time, Managing Your Energy, Crafting a Healthy Routine), but several of these run short and repeat the same "protect your time and energy" refrain rather than introducing new mechanics. The course also opens with what is essentially a marketing video for the course itself, which eats into the runtime without teaching anything. At 144 minutes across nineteen lessons, several individual lessons are quite brief, and the pacing feels more like a motivational seminar broken into chapters than a structured curriculum with distinct, non-overlapping techniques. The tone throughout is upbeat and personal, closer to a sales coach's pep talk than an operations manual, which fits Dang's background as a sales trainer. That makes the course easy to sit through, but it also means the "master course" framing in the marketing oversells what is delivered. Anyone already familiar with Cal Newport's deep work concept, the Pareto principle, or standard SMART goal frameworks will recognize nearly everything here, just repackaged with anecdotes from Dang's own career. For a true beginner who has never organized a day around priorities or set a measurable goal, this course offers a gentle, encouraging on-ramp with a few techniques worth trying immediately, the Oprah test chief among them. For anyone past that stage, it will feel like a well-produced retread of ideas available elsewhere in more depth. The standout The 'Oprah test' for declining low-value favors, a concrete filter for protecting time from other people's requests, is the most reusable single idea in the course. ## What you will learn - · How to apply the Pareto principle to shrink a long to-do list down to one dominant priority - · A simple 'who do I want to become / why' exercise for identifying your personal mission - · Scripts for saying no to low-value requests without burning goodwill - · A rough day-structuring formula that allocates most of the morning to one high-value task - · Batching similar tasks together to avoid switching fatigue - · Setting SMART goals and breaking a ten-year vision into yearly, monthly, and daily targets Best for: Total beginners to productivity who want motivational framing and a few basic organizing principles rather than a rigorous system. Skip it if: Anyone who has already read Deep Work, the 80/20 Principle, or similar productivity staples, since most of the content restates those books without adding new depth. Engaging Teacher Clarity of Instruction Actionable Steps Helpful Examples [Get a Free Month on Skillshare](https://skillshare.eqcm.net/c/3155494/298081/4650?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.skillshare.com%2Fclasses%2Fproductivity-and-time-management-strategies-for-goal-setting-and-eliminating-distractions%2F1566059215)