How many video projects are languishing in your drafts?
Half-finished edits. Incomplete raw footage. Heaps of ideas you never even started filming.
Sound familiar?
It’s easy to get stuck in different phases of the video creation process. Here’s how to overcome these hurdles and actually get your video done. Especially if you’re a busy creator.
Key Strategies
- Embrace authenticity. Give up on chasing perfection.
- To avoid filming or editing taking up too much time, set yourself fixed slots for both tasks – and stick to them. The raw footage and the edits that you have at the end of them is what you’ll work with.
- Accept rough cuts faster. Having an edit done is better than wasting time on trying to make it perfect.
- Outsource time-consuming and technical tasks like video editing to free up your time and brainspace.
Keep reading for the full scoop!
Contents
Be Authentic, Not Perfect
When you’re on camera, you want to appear professional – flawless.
But there’s always a minor detail that does not match the image you-äre aiming. A pronunciation trip-up, a weird facial expression, something that’s off in the background.
So you do take after take, hour after hour, until you’re satisfied. Except you never quite get there.
Resist this temptation. Embrace authenticity instead.
Being yourself on camera, and working with minor imperfections instead of trying to avoid them won’t just drastically reduce your filming time. It will also help you appear more human and relatable to your audience.
Set Fixed Editing Times
Another major time-consuming step in the video production process is editing. It can easily take between 30 and 60 minutes of work to edit a single minute of finished video. Even if you’re an experienced editor.
Fine-tuning color grading. Enhancing sub-par audio. Trying to get transitions and effects just right. Aiming for that one jaw-dropping VFX twist you have in mind.
And suddenly it’s the early hours of the morning.
To save your time and your sanity, set yourself fixed times for editing your content. Assign a set number of hours during the week and pencil them into your calendar. Then stick to them.
You work with what you have at the end of those editing sessions. This can seem impossible at first, but with time you’ll learn how to gear your editing workflows to fit into the length of your sessions.
Time Savings Calculator
Accept Rough Cuts Faster
As with the quality of your footage, let go of the compulsion for perfection in your edits – and accept rough cuts faster.
It’s always possible to invest a few more hours into a video edit to make the final product more professional-looking, or to give it slightly better pacing.
But those hours quickly add up. And they tank your creation momentum.
Instead, hit your stride, accept imperfect edits, and just focus on building traction. Audiences and algorithms still reward consistent content production over perfection – and 20 solid videos will do more to help you extend your reach than a single perfect clip ever could.
Bonus: Outsource Video Editing
Finally, you can also follow the strategy that professional creators leverage – outsourcing time-consuming technical tasks like video editing.
Handing off your edits to a seasoned pro doesn’t just allow you to reclaim your time and brainspace. It also means you have access to the skills of an editor who spent years honing them.
They’ll be able to produce high-level first drafts and pitch-perfect revisions at set turnaround times. Plus, a professional editor will attune to your unique voice and style and help you strengthen your personal brand.
FAQs
To get faster at video editing, you should invest in training to get to know your video editing software better. Speed also comes with practice. Alternatively, you can accept rough cuts faster. Set yourself fixed times for editing – and stick to them. Work with what you have when you wrap up.
To streamline your video production process, planning is key. Map out your production schedule in advance and set yourself fixed times for filming, editing and uploading your content. Then stick to them. Give up chasing perfection and embrace authenticity instead.
On average, it takes about 30-60 minutes to edit a finished minute of video. The exact time requirements depend on the quality and length of your raw footage, the complexity of your edits, and the skills of the editor.
