How to Earn PDUs fast this year

Is your re-certification cycle coming to an end for your PMI certificate? Do you need to quickly get your PDU total up to the minimum so you can stay certified?

You’re in the right place! Read on for tips on how to earn PDUs fast.

PDUs are the Professional Development Units you need to earn to show that you are invested in continuous improvement and ongoing learning.

The PMI Continuing Certification Requirements guidelines are laid out in the CCR Handbook, which you can download from the PMI website. That’s a good starting point to review what you actually need to earn. There are different requirements for each of the PMI certifications.

But time is ticking… let’s get on with the 7 ways to quickly earn PDUs.

PDUs fall into two categories: Education (stuff you have learned) and Giving Back (volunteering or work you did).

1. Review what you are eligible to claim

Have you claimed everything you are already entitled to? Check your PDU totals on the PMI CCRS tool, as you might already have some logged.

Then review your calendar for the past 12 months (or go back further) and see if you have attended anything that you can claim for.

Look for Education PDU opportunities:

• Training sessions or courses (internal or external)
• Organization meetings like attending PMI Chapter events or even internal lunch and learn events
• Seminars
• Webinars you attended
• Conferences (virtual or in-person).

Look for Giving Back PDU opportunities:

• Webinars you delivered
• Internal training sessions you gave
• Mentoring or coaching colleagues
• Blogging or making video content on project management – I’m not 100% sure that LinkedIn status posts would count here, but you could try it, with some screenshots of the knowledge you shared to relevant groups etc
• Volunteering in a relevant role e.g. as part of a PMI Chapter leadership team.

Anything internal or external that covered project management topics could count, so make sure that’s on your record. This work all counts and you’ll probably find that you have many more PDU-worthy hours racked up than you were expecting.

2. Claim for doing your day job

Did you know that you can claim up to 8 PDUs in the Giving Back category simply for working in a project-related role? Being a practitioner will earn you PDUs, and you’ll definitely want to include those!

Note that you can only claim 8 PDUs towards some PMI credentials like the Project Management Professional (PMP)®.

If you are earning PDUs for CAPM or other certifications, do check the handbook for the exact requirements. Some of the credentials won’t let you claim that many for doing your job. For CAPM, you can only claim 2 PDUs every 3 years for working as a professional, but even so, these are basically free so definitely worth having!

3. Buy a PDU bundle

If you want to get all your PDUs in one go, Brain Sensei has three self-paced bundles of videos you can watch or listen to on the go. The 60 PDU bundle covers a full PMP renewal, with 35 Ways of Working, 15 Power Skills and 10 Business Acumen PDUs, so the Talent Triangle split is done for you.

If you’re renewing a CAPM, the 15 PDU bundle is enough. For PMI-ACP, PMI-RMP or PMI-SP, choose the 30 PDU bundle. You can try it first: the 7-day free preview of the 15 PDU bundle earns you 1 free PDU. Use code RGPM10 for 10% off.

4. Become a PMI Member

It’s worth becoming a member and it only takes a moment (click here to join PMI for free and get the free PMI Kickoff training course in the process).

Not only will you get cheaper certification renewal fees, but you’ll also get access to their own PMI PDU online learning resources – more on those in a minute.

5. Watch webinars

If you are a PMI member, get yourself over to projectmanagement.com and start watching their free on-demand webinars. You could watch one every lunchtime for a month – that’s another 20 PDUs right there.

Each online video comes with a description that tells you exactly what you can claim in each of the different PDU categories.

You don’t even have to spend time updating the CCRS: anything you earn by watching PMI webinars is automatically credited to your PDU balance. You should get a confirmation email a couple of days later confirming that your PDUs have been added to your account.

If you aren’t a PMI member, you can still find PDU webinars online. Here are some of mine to get you started:

• Tips for managing multiple projects
• What it takes to be a successful project manager
• Practical strategies for managing your work

Online resources really are a fast way to earn free PDUs.

6. Use your commuting or gym time

Look for time in the day when you could (safely) multi-task on some professional development.

For example:

• Commuting on the train: read a book
• Working out at the gym: listen to a podcast
• Waiting for the children to finish swimming lessons: read a professional journal, many of which are available online if you log in to the professional body’s website
• Cooking dinner: play another podcast
• Driving to work: play another podcast.

There are so many options to squeeze in a bit of learning. If you need some more inspiration, check out my 15 easy ways to earn PDUs.

Digital media gives us so many options! This might feel like informal learning, but it still counts. Remember, you can claim PDUs in increments of 15 minutes, so even if you spend a quarter of an hour reading a book, you can claim that time.

You’ll maximize your time and earn PDUs quickly if you look for pockets of time where you can be learning and doing something else.

7. Take an online course

I get it, you don’t have time to study for a new certification right now. But what if you could find the time to do at least a few lessons on a self-study timetable? You don’t have to take an exam for the study time to count towards your renewals.

There are loads of courses available, through platforms like LinkedIn Learning and Coursera, as well as micro-credentials from PMI like the Citizen Developer course.

But how do you select something quickly without spending ages browsing through the huge selection online?

I’ve done the heavy lifting for you. Here are some places to get started:

• 10 Best Coursera courses for project managers (great if you already have a subscription to Coursera Plus or there is one available to you through work, but you can audit some of the courses for free and that would still count for PDUs).
• The best free online project management certificate courses (great for collecting evidence of your learning for your PDU records).
• Brain Sensei also has curated bundles of video training on topics like stakeholder engagement, agile and adaptive planning that come with a ready-to-submit PDU certificate.

Check with your company: they may reimburse you for educational materials.

Create a plan

You’re short of time, and the best way to get lots of things done in a short period of time is to have a plan.

Look at the suggestions above and choose how you are going to earn your PDUs the fastest way in the time you have available. Block out the time in your calendar to watch webinars and listen to podcasts.

Review what you need to get — specifically — because not all PDUs are created equal! For example, people often say that it’s hard to find ways to earn Power Skills PDUs. So if you need them, plan a way to get them.

Also, block out time to report PDUs.

Gather your evidence

If you are earning PDUs fast, you’ll have a lot of similar dates in the CCRS. That’s not necessarily bad – let’s face it, many people leave their PDU recertification requirement to the last minute, so I’m sure PMI has seen it all before!

However, it might make you more susceptible to being audited. I have no evidence that this is the case, but if it was me sitting in PMI HQ reviewing your application for renewal, I’d want to make sure that you actually did do all the professional development in the few weeks when you said you did it.

That’s why it’s important to gather evidence to support your renewal. Prioritize learning providers who can give you a certificate or claim code for participating in their learning.

PMI-registered training providers are more likely to have a way of auto-certifying you for consuming their educational content, like those projectmanagement.com webinars.

Make sure your evidence is all there – you might need to earn them fast, but don’t scrimp on your PDU documentation because you’ll only be causing yourself a headache and a whole lot of extra work if you don’t have your records in order.

Change your approach going forward!

The whole ‘cram as many PDUs as I can in the shortest possible time’ approach isn’t sustainable long term! It’s a lot of stress, and re-certification doesn’t have to be like that.

Think now about how you are going to pace yourself for the next cycle, for example, considering what Chapter events to attend next year. Make a plan to earn and report PDUs on a regular basis, so you avoid the last-minute rush.

Read next: How to make time for professional development.