What is time management? It is nothing but the strategy of planning out the available time and controlling the number of hours you spend on specific tasks. Online tutors and course creators need to maximize the time they have on their hands to grow their businesses. Proper time management can help you do just the same. 

When you properly manage your time, you can focus on expanding the reach of your existing courses and keep an eye out for opportunities to create new ones. This enables you to sustainably grow your business. 

Importance of Time Management 

• Setting timelines to complete important tasks of the day will help improve your overall performance. You will have a better idea of everything you need to finish and how long it should take. 
• When you are not constantly trying to catch up with deadlines, you can put more thought into your work. Prioritizing tasks using time management thus allows you to produce your best work because you are not scrambling to finish your work by deadlines.
• The most obvious benefit of time management is that you will almost never miss a deadline. 
• Time management can also reduce your stress levels by giving you the much-needed personal time to spend time with your family and indulge in your hobbies. 
• It can also help improve confidence when you complete tasks on time. It fills you with a sense of accomplishment and confidence in your abilities. 
• Time management also helps you become more efficient by helping you focus on one task at a time. 

Tips for Course Creators 

Now let’s get to the core of this topic. Below are the best tips for online course creators to manage time and get the most out of their hard work –

Document the day 

Documenting your activities might seem unnecessary and tedious, but it is an important method to break down how you are spending your time on a particular day. All you need to do is keep a notebook with you throughout the day and document the tasks you are working on and how much time it took to complete each of them. There are also a lot of task management tools that you can check out. 

What you will be looking for using this activity are noticeable gaps in your productivity throughout the day. For instance, if you were writing course content from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM and then setting up your marketing campaigns from 1:45 to 3:00 PM, how were the 45 minutes in between these tasks used? Creative tasks require breaks in between to be utmost productive. This exercise can help you plan breaks efficiently. 

Once you start noticing the gaps, highlight them and look for patterns. Use this to eliminate time wastage and schedule healthy breaks because we are not designed to work for hours continuously. At the end of the activity, create a list of activities you no longer wish to waste time doing and keep it within your field of vision all day long. Once you know where your time is being wasted, it is much easier to stop yourself from doing those tasks. 

Batch the tasks 

After you have started getting rid of distractions, it is time to work more efficiently. One of the most effective ways to do this is through Batching.

Batching simply means grouping together all the similar tasks and doing them together so that your workflow is not interrupted. For example, here’s how your batching process could look like – 

• Monday: Write course content, outline graphics, plan video shoots 
• Tuesday: Shoot videos, create graphics 
• Wednesday: Edit course content, write newsletters 
• Thursday: Plan social media posts, send out email marketing campaigns 
• Friday: schedule social media campaigns, engage with students 

Overall, batching your tasks is much better than trying to do a little bit of everything every single day. You can avoid unnecessary jumps between tasks by using this free project management software. There is also the added psychological benefit of knowing you won’t have to worry about certain tasks for a while until the priority tasks are completed. 

Delegate tasks

The odds that you are excellent at everything you do are very likely not in your favor. You are only human, and you need help with certain tasks that you are not good at. If such a situation arises, don’t hesitate to ask for help. No matter who is working on what, you will always be the soul and heart of your courses. 

For example, the time you spend on social media marketing is better used elsewhere like improving the course. You don’t have to hire full-time employees for tasks like this. Find a freelancer on Upwork and Fiverr to do this for you.

This is the best option if you are just growing your business as it is more economical and has fewer procedures than hiring someone full-time. 

Create a plan 

To avoid the ‘I bit off more than I can chew’ moments, it is always advised to break down seemingly large tasks into small, manageable ones. Even the most complex projects can be made simpler this way. 

Work backward from the launch date of a new course and cover every step/dependency along the way. For example,

1. Decide the main topic or title of the course.
2. Conduct market research to identify a transformation by checking out Facebook groups, Twitter, Instagram, Quora, etc.
3. Develop/Refine your courses to address a problem you identified using your research.
4. Test the course topic by getting honest opinions from a few of your friends.
5. Refine the course based on the above feedback.
6. Begin outlying the course and start writing the content.

Further Reading: How to organize online courses?

Get enough rest

Creating the best course content requires your undivided attention. Your brain will not function normally without enough sleep. You should also be eating healthy. Take enough breaks between tasks to chill by listening to your favorite music or playing with your dog. 

Don’t panic

Do not panic if you are not able to complete a task on time. It is completely okay to extend deadlines a bit if the quality is not compromised. Distractions will happen and last-minute adjustments are normal. Always remember not to panic during these times.

Have fun

You put in your best work when you genuinely enjoy what you do. You are creating the course content so, quality is important for the overall success of your courses. 

About Learnyst?

We are the trusted partner for thousands of online educators who have built, marketed, and sold their own courses to the right audience. Learnyst is the one-stop app for growth-focused online course creators who wish to scale their business beyond what they thought they could. 

To know more, reach out to us now!