No, this isn’t about those ‘exciting’ videos you’re forced to watch every year as part of your company’s mandatory education schedule. This is a way of tackling the inevitable frustration of patiently explaining the same thing, three times, because people keep ‘forgetting’ what you’ve told them.
Do you ever have those days when you feel like all you do is repeat yourself? Somehow EVERYBODY needs access to the reporting system and they’ve ALL forgotten how to run a query.
On my quest for the perfectly productive life, I discovered the magic of creating training videos. Instead of sitting down and explaining how to do a task, time and time again, I now record a video of my screen with a voice-over outlining the steps. The end result? A video where people can see exactly what to click and when, along with a commentary of everything they need to remember. And the best part is they can watch it over and over while YOU only explain yourself once!
Initially I was skeptical: Would people even watch a video if I sent it to them? I sound awful on video anyway! I’m not the next Justin Bieber (nor do I aspire to be).
Thankfully, I put my skepticism aside and was pleasantly surprised by the results. None of my videos will win an Oscar but they all meet their objectives. People can watch the video and complete tasks without having me there to train them in person.
Videos are especially handy if you work in a role where people move around a lot. Personally, I’ve found the most benefit in making training videos for our interns. Every year, they learn essentials skills and all I’ve had to do is provide a training video or two. I also use videos for FAQs and common tasks.
There are easy ways to make training videos:
- On a Mac, you can use QuickTime to create a video of your screen.
- Screencastify is a Chrome extension that can record your screen and upload it straight to YouTube or Google Drive.
- Another option is CloudApp, which you can use to easily create and upload screenshots, GIFs, and videos.
A great way to start is to ask yourself, “will I ever have to teach this again?” (credit: Dale Beaumont). If the answer is “yes”, then make a video instead. Do yourself a favour: Save your voice, save your time, save the world.
Happy Productivity!
