The end of 2018 has not been good for my challenge. I’ve stalled with the creation of the video course and kept on extending a deadline that was just too soft. Here’s the recap of what I’ve learned and what comes next.
Deadlines need to be precise
My first mistake when I launched the video course project was not to set a precise deadline. One month from now is not good enough, I need to have a date and time and keep it visible. I can then also prepare a timeline of the project and evaluate my progress towards it in chunks not just for the completion of the whole course.
Chunking progress
Having only one result to measure (the completion of the whole course) makes it harder to be conscious of progress, as it is always lacking. I should have defined smaller chunks of the project that where relevant and conducive to the result and that would have kept me on track.
For example, I did all the courses available in Udemy concerning how to make good courses (very helpful) and took notes that I used to work on my own course. I also read all the available documentation they had and checked all their files (mostly templates). I’ve also prepared 139 great slides full of content and with a lot of helpful exercises and tasks.
It is not that I did not do anything, I worked hard, but I also procrastinated because of fear of the video lesson.
Video lessons are hard
I did not think this would be a problem but it is. Speaking in public is not an issue for me; I’m used to giving interviews on radio and TV, conferences to hundreds of people and live streamed, courses… You name it.
The problem may come from the courses about making courses themselves: I got into my mind that I have to be super precise and perfect, which I’m not. I tried writing scripts and discovered that I’ve forgotten how to read aloud. The few times I tried was awful. I felt paralyzed, hesitant, with no confidence at all. It sucked.
Too big an MVP
I started with the coworking community course because it is smaller than the sales course I want to do. I thought that the MVP was to do a first online video course, but this has proven to be way too big.
I have to start with something smaller that does not demand so many hours of work on each video.
Online != Video
Online courses are not necessarily video courses. I have a lot of good written content and can easily produce more. I’m good at writing. Why impose video on myself? This has multiplied the load of work.
Next steps
I’m still going to do the course, but right now I’m exploring how to make it a text based course. I’m researching tools to try to do it as easy as possible on myself to launch and get feedback while providing a hell of a lot of value to the students.
The course is taking shape more like a workbook, with tasks that help improve the community of coworking spaces while the course is ongoing, not only at the end.
I want to improve my project management and I will test using OKR (objectives and key results) even if it is just for myself. This book has made me think a lot about it:
So this week I will be reviewing my notes and making myself a guide on how to implement OKR for the next project.
Next deadline : 21/1
This week I will take time to think about my next projects and deadlines and to get a better idea of the effort involved and tools needed. In the morning of Monday 21 I will publish a post with the next project, its deadline and a timeline.
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