Learn to accomplish more by managing your time, attention, and energy. 

"Why should we invest in our productivity?" is the first question Chris Bailey asks when you begin the course, perfectly setting the scene for this month's theme of productivity. 

The Productive Life course, created by Creative Live, is hosted by Chris Bailey, author of “The Productivity Project.” Chris spent a year of his life conducting productivity experiments on himself in order to discover the secrets to living the most productive life possible, which he shares through this week's course. 

Since finding more hours isn’t an option, we search for ways to be more productive—to better use our limited time to not only complete our required tasks but also accomplish our loftier goals. Through this course Bailey shares his most insightful lessons on how to work deliberately rather than reactively, manage your energy better, avoid excessive procrastination and have more time to do what you find meaningful in life.

The Productive Life is one of Go1's longer courses, at 3 hrs 15 mins. It is broken down into 17 video lessons covering topics in Wellness, Communication, Self-improvement and Time Management. 

Shrink or eliminate the unimportant from your life.

Focus on your highest-leverage tasks that give you the greatest return.

Distract yourself from inevitable distractions.

Use a healthy diet, sleep and exercise to be more productive.

Form good habits so your productivity is automatic.

Motivate yourself by understanding why you want to get something done.

We highly recommend you check out Creative Live content. They are a new addition to Go1 Premium and have a breadth of content topics available! They specialise in business and creativity skills, and broadcast live classes to an international audience. They have over 1720 courses joining the Premium Library, and are known for their engaging, high-quality courses. Their courses cover a huge range of topics, and help develop people into more creative, communicative and resilient humans – at work and in life. 

The Productive Life is available as both a course in Go1 Premium and each of the 17 topics within the course are available as standalone interactive resources. This means you can pick and choose from the content within the course and include these resources within courses you create! Read how to do that here!

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Accomplishing more by managing your time, attention, and energy

Interested in learning more about the future of work, how Artificial Intelligence and Big Data interconnect, and the opportunities and challenges that can present? Watch the  Go1-hosted webinar featuring four industry experts: Rohin Aggarwal (SEEK), Dr Adnan Bader (Teradata), Sriram Bhargav(Wipro HOLMES), and Chris Scanlon (Swinburne University of Technology), discussing AI, Big Data and Industry 4.0.

AI, Big Data, Industry 4.0 and the Future of Work

Go1 and Swinburne Online have partnered to deliver Professional Development and Micro Unit courses.  Find out more about the partnership here. 

The Micro Units are bite-sized future-focused learning, with 4-6 hours of study over 6 weeks. There are 5 units to choose from with a range of units covering emerging topics, and combining the best of real industry knowledge with Swinburne’s academic expertise.

Missed our recent webinar on Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Industry 4.0 and the Future of Work? 

Webinar catchup: AI, Big Data, Industry 4.0 and the Future of Work

Here at Go1, we work to bring you the best training content in the market. That’s why we partner with innovative content providers like Filtered - the world’s leading adaptive learning solution for business.

Learn more about how Filtered is using artificial intelligence (AI) to transform eLearning below!

Filtered is a London-based content provider that uses adaptive algorithms driven by real user data to create personalised online training courses. Each full course includes over two hours of content that is broken down into hundreds of bite-sized five to ten minute modules; however, the actual course length varies depending on the individual learner. 

At the beginning of each course, the user completes a survey that assesses a variety of factors, including their learning history. Filtered’s algorithms then use these survey responses to tailor the course to the user’s needs, stripping out the modules that they already know and those that are not relevant to their role.

Filtered has partnered with Go1 to offer a variety of courses on IT and business skills in Go1 Premium. Training topics include:

Want to start training with Filtered? Sign up for Go1 Premium today!

This month, we are pleased to be co-hosting a very exciting industry event in Chicago!

Join us on Thursday April 25 for The Future of Learning event, and hear from leading learning and development experts about current trends in the professional learning landscape. 

Go1’s Caroline Brant, Global Learning Strategist in the United States, will be facilitating the panel, joined by:

Trish Uhl - Founder, Talent & Learning Analytics Leadership Forum

Brandon Carson - Director of Learning, Delta Air Lines; Author, "Learning in the Age of Immediacy"

Rachel Horwitz - Global Learning and Development Director, Mars Incorporated

Peter Fox - Global Head of Digital Learning and Talent Technology, Citi

Kevin M. Yates - Learning Technology Manager, McDonald's

Mike Pino - Senior Director, Cognizant Digital Academy

The event will run from 10.30am to 6.00pm and will be held at McDonald's Corporate, 110 North Carpenter Street, Chicago. Your $10 registration fee will be donated to the Ronald McDonald House Charity.

Breakout sessions throughout the day will help you determine what you need to stop, what you need to start, and what you need to strengthen to lead your organization into the future of learning. 

As Caroline says, “It’s a very exciting time for learning technology and the need for good training has never been stronger.”

If you’re in the Chicago area, and you want to learn more about current trends in the L&D landscape, we encourage you to add this event to your calendar. These events are also a great opportunity to network with like-minded professionals, while hearing from some of the best minds in the industry. 

Be sure to pre-register for this exciting event!

Discover what you can do to update your mindset, skillset, and toolset to impact your learners, at Go1’s Future of Learning event this month. 

Register for Go1’s Future of Learning event in Chicago

According to research, employees who have friends at work are seven times more engaged. People are social creatures and good relationships with colleagues make them feel more satisfied with their job. Good relationships make work more meaningful, which is very important because many people spend more time at their jobs than with friends and family.

Good relationships in the workplace can make a big difference, increasing commitment and creating more opportunity for career development. Good relationships among colleagues are also the key to creating strong teams because employees don’t waste their attention and energy on solving personal problems and can focus on what is really important.

Why Relationships Are Important and What to Focus On

Although the need for good relationships in the workplace is rather obvious, not all businesses manage to create a comfortable emotional environment for employees. The main reason is that we all see the concept of good relationships differently. There are many kinds of business relationships. Quite often, they are purely transactional, only consisting of the necessary interactions. In turn, transactional interactions can be either competitive or collaborative. Collaborative interactions imply that both parties are satisfied with the results of their collaborative efforts, while competitive relationships are often associated with unfair treatment and have a very negative impact on teams.

There are also relationships of another kind — relational interactions, where both parties care not only about the outcome but also about each other. Relational interactions take collaboration to a new level. To build relations of this kind, employees should realize the long-term benefits of such interactions, prioritizing the quality of the communication process.

The main distinctive features of good relationships in the workplace are trust, mutual respect, and mindfulness. Employees should be responsible for their actions and words, understanding that their negative emotions impact the whole team. Strong teams also welcome diverse people and opinions, understanding the benefits of diversity for decision-making. The last but not least feature of good relationships is open and honest communication.

How to Establish & Maintain Good Relationships in the Workplace

Conflicts are natural, and it’s impossible to avoid them forever, especially in a stressful business environment. According to statistics, American employees spend about 2.8 hours a week solving conflicts. At the same time, 37% of leaders feel uncomfortable when dealing with conflicts and communicating with their employees. Therefore, supervisors and managers should pay particular attention to de-escalating conflicts and recovering relationships, acting as mediators and showing an example of respectful behavior.

Honest communication is crucial for any relationship. It only becomes possible when people appreciate each other for who they are and don’t try to change others. The first step towards honest, open communication is acknowledging what you know and what you don’t. It’s better to honestly say that you don’t know an answer to a question than to make things up, undermining your own credibility.

Sometimes, your intonation, facial expression, and gestures can say much more than your words. People don’t use verbal communication only. If you’re being sarcastic, a person you’re talking to understands it. The same way, if you don’t feel respect for people, they also understand it. To ensure the right type of nonverbal communication, companies should build their corporate culture around respect.

Employees should clearly understand what to do, as well as when and how to do it. This way, a company can eliminate many conflicts between individuals. Therefore, it’s very important for leaders to set clear, measurable goals and to explain how every employee can get the necessary help.

According to statistics, two-thirds of millennial employees feel stressed out most of the time. The main causes of stress in the workplace are an inability to maintain a healthy work-life balance and communication problems. Stress leads to employee burnout and numerous negative consequences for both physical and mental health, making companies lose up to $190 billion a year. Therefore, companies should create opportunities for cognitive, emotional, and physical relief.

The best way to build strong relationships within a team is to recognize and reward every member’s contribution to the overall success of the company. Employees should feel valuable, regardless of their position. Leaders should make sure that every member of their team understands their importance and the importance of teamwork, creating a motivational environment. An individual growth of every employee benefits the whole company.

Quite often, an office environment prevents employees from demonstrating their highest productivity. Gossipy coworkers, social media, office noises, and other factors are the most common causes of distraction. The more your employees get distracted, the less productive they become, and the higher the stress level. In turn, stress leads to conflicts in the workplace and makes employees feel unsatisfied with their job. Therefore, companies should create a comfortable environment, motivating employees and setting clear goals, instead of encouraging multitasking and micro-management.

A positive work environment and good relationships in the workplace are crucial for any business. If your employees are unhappy, their productivity declines, they get sucked into conflicts and lose their motivation. To cultivate positive relationships, companies should create an atmosphere of mutual respect. Team leaders should ensure open communication and recognize each employee’s contribution. It’s especially important to create a strong corporate culture based on respect and honesty, setting clear goals and minimizing stress.

Ester Brierley, a competent virtual assistant and a content creator for College-Writer, knows the secret for balancing freelancing and her full-time job as a QA Engineer in a software outsourcing company. She enjoys researching cutting-edge digital trends and sharing them in her writing pieces. Follow her on Twitter.

You can do it: how to establish & maintain good relationships in the workplace

You don’t have to read too many news articles to know that Internet security is on everyone’s mind. Even Hollywood knows this and is trying to cash in with hit shows like Person of Interest, </Scorpion>, and the Emmy-winning Mr. Robot. Major corporations are also taking notice. Gartner is forecasting worldwide enterprise security spending to total $96.3 billion in 2018, an increase of 8 percent from 2017. 

It is no wonder with 50% of respondents reporting an increase in the number of cyberattacks from last year and four out of five indicating it was likely or more likely their enterprise will experience a cyberattack in 2018 (according to the 2018 ISACA State of Cybersecurity Study). Even this past election cycle isn’t immune to accusations of stolen emails and hacked servers.

But not all is doom and gloom; for the IT professional, this is a great climate for those looking to update their skills and join the relatively new and growing sector of IT security. Don’t believe me? In a March 2018 article posted by Forbes, five of the top 15 most valuable IT certifications are security based, and all had an average salary north of $100K. Security certification has become a serious and well-respected career.

Now you are probably wondering, where does one start in getting a piece of this lucrative cyber pie? As I quickly found out myself, this is not an easy answer. There are many different certifications around security to choose from and many different companies and organizations offering them. But don’t fret; let me help you carve the right path and get you on your way.

Being a security professional is not about finding the one perfect certification; it’s more about finding the right combination of certifications. What certifications you seek depends on what areas of security you’re most interested in and how high up the corporate ladder you wish to climb. The most popular certifications are those that are relevant to all areas of IT security.  But before we get into too much detail, I think it is important to establish some baselines. One does not simply jump immediately into security without a solid background in the general IT hardware and networking field.

If you’re going to attempt entering a security field and IT is not a current profession or hobby of yours, then I’d suggest tackling a couple of certifications to get you started. The first is CompTIA A+ where all IT begins by focusing on learning the standard computer hardware, basic operating system functionality, and general troubleshooting. From there, I’d recommend getting certified in CompTIA Network+, which will get you familiar with basic networking concepts like IP addresses, DNS, domains, routing—essentially everything that defines the framework that Internet security relies on.

Okay, you are now an IT expert. So, what next? It’s good to start with the basics of security, and the best certification for that also comes from CompTIA. Their Security+ covers all the core concepts in IT security from Wi-Fi passwords and firewalls to employee best practices. Although this doesn’t necessarily go deep into any one area, it provides an excellent starting point and a balanced overview of the major topics. 

So, what next? After you have Security+ under your belt, you can start considering some specialty certifications. One of the most popular next steps is EC-Council’s Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) certification and Certified Security Analyst (ECSA). One of the best ways for a company to ensure that their systems are hardened (or secure) is to hire someone to try and break in. And since recruiting hackers from the Dark Web is considered very unwise (really, don’t do it), they instead look for those trusted individuals who are trained to think like a hacker. Based on that premise, the ethical hacker certification was born. Once certified, you will understand the tools (like Kali Linux) and the techniques (like penetration testing) that you can use to assure companies that their systems are indeed secure.

Another very popular certification is EC-Council’s Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (CHFI) certification. Like the television show CSI, it is an area of the security field that focuses on how to collect and analyze digital evidence to detect when something is about to or has happened. Most companies know that it’s not if you will be hacked, but when. And with any hack or attack, there are always telltale signs or fingerprints that are left behind, leading companies to hire professionals to look for these to identify areas that may need more hardening, to avert an pending attack, or to clean-up after the damage is done under document what happened. This certification is about learning the skills for detecting or mitigating the aftermath of a successful hack.

That’s all we’re covering in this post, stay tuned for part 2 where we will continue down the road to more advanced IT security certification…

Vice President of Technology | LearnNowOnline | Eden Prairie, MN

Martin Schaeferle is the Vice President of Technology for LearnNowOnline. Martin joined the company in 1994 and started teaching IT professionals nationwide to develop applications using Visual Studio and Microsoft SQL Server. He has been a featured speaker at various conferences including Microsoft Tech-Ed, DevConnections and the Microsoft NCD Channel Summit. Today, he is responsible for all product and software development as well as managing the company’s IT infrastructure. Martin enjoys staying on the cutting edge of technology and guiding the company to produce the best learning content with the best user experience in the industry. In his spare time, Martin enjoys golf, fishing, and being with his wife and three adult children. 

Navigating your IT security certification, part 1

At Go1, we strive to bring our customers content from the world’s best training providers to meet all their training needs. Interaction Training is one of our valued content partners who is helping us achieve this goal.

Learn more about Interaction Training and their course offerings below!

Interaction Training is an Australian-based provider at the forefront of the self-paced learning industry. Since helping pioneer computer-based training more than 30 years ago, Interaction Training has been committed to adopting the latest technologies that have the capability of accelerating the effectiveness of corporate learning. 

Through their partnership with Go1, more than 80 of Interaction Training’s courses are available through Go1 Premium for our Australian users. Their content covers a range of business, compliance, and personal development topics, including:

Get started with Interaction Training’s courses through Go1 Premium today!

Meet Go1’s content partner: Interaction Training

If you feel like you’re always rushing through the day, trying to get a million things done at once, it may be time to look at ways of improving your productivity.

Do you have a co-worker or friend who always seems incredibly productive and on top of everything? Take a deep breath and a leaf from their perfectly organized notebook – it’s time to get your work life in order.

We’re going to show you how to take control and take charge of your work day. Getting on top of your To Do lists and feeling confident in your productivity skills will:

Improve your work efficiency and performance

Reduce stress and build your self-confidence

Allow you to have more time to do what you like!

Read on for our top 5 tips to become a more super-productive version of yourself.

When we talk about productivity, it soon becomes clear that it’s a really personal thing – especially, it seems, in the way we manage our inboxes.

While some people stick fastidiously to checking their emails first thing every morning, others swear by leaving their inbox well alone until at least 10am, allowing them to focus their full attention on completing other tasks.

Regardless of what time of day you decide is right for you, one of the best things you can do to improve your productivity is to schedule proper time each day to go through your inbox. Constantly checking emails, or responding to every little notification from your inbox, results in a lot of wasted time and energy and disruption to your workflow.

Choose the time (or times) of day you’ll use to process your inbox and stick to it – for example, you may decide to read and respond to emails every morning, noon and night. Don’t be tempted to keep flicking over to your inbox to see if anything new has come in. With your new schedule you’ll have ample time to read and action new mail.


By committing to handling things once, and once only, you’ll be able to focus on dealing with things as they arise, particularly little things that only take a moment but can easily be forgotten. Or start adding up when you put them all together! Taking the time to do things in the moment will actually save you time in the long run, as well as a lot of potential stress.

You can start practicing this way of thinking by paying bills as they arrive, replying to emails when you read them or simply putting something back in its place straight away. Doing this means it’ll be done, dusted and out of your head – allowing you to focus on new tasks at hand. 


Richard Branson is known to be a big fan of the humble notebook, carrying a notebook with him wherever he goes and claiming he’d never have got where he is today without this habit.

Using a notebook to get things out of your head and onto the page is very effective for stress management, allowing you to keep on top of your daily To Do list and jot down your ideas throughout the day.

Whatever you write in your notebook, it’s sure to be a lot better for your brain and creativity than staring at a screen and hitting refresh on social media.


Did you know that the average office worker is only productive for two hours and 53 minutes a day? That’s only three hours of productive work, out of the general eight-hour work day. This tells us that a lot of time is spent being distracted by other things. Or sites.

Take a look at your own day and evaluate how you spend, or waste, your time. If checking social media has become a problem for your concentration or work deliverables, consider taking a break from it or at least putting some strong strategies in place to manage it.


It’s important to find productivity tools and strategies that make sense to you, while fitting in with your personality and lifestyle. Look for apps and websites that offer tools that can boost your productivity as soon as you start using them. There are also apps that can help you kick bad habits and change old behavioral patterns.

Check out the Top 10 Apps for Enhanced Productivity by organization expert Suzanna Kaye. This online course shows handy productivity apps in action, providing tips for leveraging their best features and offering cool alternative uses.

Online learning courses are a great way to learn more tips and tricks, helping you to boost productivity and achieve your goals. You may also like to enroll in 10 Steps to Ultimate Productivity, an online course offering simple, practical steps to help you create the perfect productivity system and build powerful habits to help you achieve your goals.

Good luck with your new systems and strategies – we hope they work as well for you as they do for us!

We've added Manager Foundation courses to the Go1 Premium library – these courses are marketed as teaching you skills you didn't learn in school to help you succeed!

Keith Tatley founded Manager Foundation to show people the real world skills they need to manage employees. Manager Foundation is passionate about making organisations better places to work. Better places to work results in happier employees with higher profits through people. Helping managers to make work, work. Available in Go1 are some of Manager Foundations' best-selling programs on leadership and positive thinking in the workplace. 

Go1 has access to 30 of Manager Foundation courses, divided amongst different workplace management categories including:

You Can't Change the World, You can Only Change Yourself: To get what you want, develop yourself.

This is a short course to help you overcome the usual obstacles that get in the way of developing yourself, such as time, money or resources. Developing yourself is one of the best investments you can make in your health, wealth and happiness.

How you can use positive feedback to fix employee performance problems. 

Management is hard because you are responsible for your employees performance. When your employee doesn't perform, it's your responsibility to fix this with performance communication.

Find out how to run a One-on-One meeting that is so good it will change your life and put you on a path to manager Nirvana.

Go1 makes it easy for businesses to train their staff, with the world’s largest compliance, professional development and general training marketplace. You can now find all of Manager Foundation courses available in Go1 Premium.

Go1 announces partnership with Manager Foundation 

Go1 is very excited to announce our recent partnership with Aged Care Learning Solutions, the first specialised Aged Care training provider to join the Go1 Premium library!

Aged Care Learning Solutions has been helping aged care service providers meet their compliance requirements and address their unique needs since 2004. They were the first external eLearning provider to partner with the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation and receive endorsement for their educational material. 

Through our partnership, 60 courses from Aged Care Learning Solutions will be available to our Go1 Premium users in Australia. These courses have all been mapped to the new Aged Care industry quality standards to meet any Aged Care facility compliance and professional development employee training needs.

Want to gain access to Aged Care Learning Solutions training? Sign up for Go1 Premium today! 

Go1 teams up with Aged Care Learning Solutions

Welcome to the Go1 blog. Helping you to achieve your L&D goals through the latest learning and development insights, trends, and technology.

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