Best Productivity Tip for Video Editors

In this video and article I discuss my best productivity tip for video editors. It’s simple but can drastically change your work output with it’s implementation.

Recapping My Number One productivity Tip for Video Editors

Let’s cut to the chase. The number one productivity tip for video editors is to always determine what your next action is.

Maybe that sounds weird to you. I’m editing. I just go do the next thing, man. Go sit down and edit!

True. However if you’re able to break it down even further than “just go edit” I promise you that you’ll have tremendously more productivity. So instead of “just go edit” maybe it’s something like, “edit scene 1” or even better “color correct camera 3’s shots in the sequence.”

The goal is to figure out what the absolute next thing to do. You need to plan, of course, but don’t worry about audio sweetening, color correction, credits, etc. when you’re stringing out your video.

I recommend that at the end of your workday you spend the last 5-10 minutes thinking about what comes next. One thing I like doing is leaving a pink marker in my timeline where I left off and saying what I was doing. And I write it in all CAPS and making it super annoying so it catches my eye the next day. Example:

LEFT OFF HEREEEEEE KEEP ADDING IN THE LOWER THIRDS

It’s not just useful for video editing. You can and should use this productivity tip for everything. Determining your next action is something that David Allen hits you hard with in his Getting Things Done productivity methodology (link in the Helpful Links section below ⬇️). I’ve been doing this for the past 7-8 years and can’t think of a different way to work anymore.

Helpful Links

• Book: Getting Things Done by David Allen (Affiliate Link)
• Book: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield (Affiliate Link)
• Can You Be a Video Editor Your Entire Career? (YouTube)
• Revealing My Freelancer Rate
• Networking Fundamentals for Video Editors

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– Josh