The Best Tips and Tricks for eLearning Professionals to Incorporate into their Work Routines.
eLearning professionals have a unique sense of motivation to provide in-depth knowledge to the people of the world. More often than not, it is not money that motivates them or the desire to be reputable. Instead, they are charged by their own insatiable thirst for knowledge and the ability to influence their audience.
This takes the passion and abilities of a traditional teacher to another level, one that is in accordance with today’s modern world. For example, an eLearning professional knows just how a piece of text, image, or element will interact with the audience and add to the final look. Also, unlike traditional teachers, eLearning professionals are tasked with not only imparting knowledge, but also creating that piece of text or resources that are required to fully and comprehensively pass on that knowledge.
However, despite their passion and abilities and just like any normal person, they also have times when they get tired, stressed, and frustrated. The job is tough, and that’s why they need to keep their motivation, health, happiness, and productivity at optimum at all times.
Here, we’ve listed the top 7 Tips to Be a Happy, Productive, and Motivated eLearning Professional:
1) Get organized:
If you’re haphazardly doing your work, you can’t expect the mess you’ve created to sort out on its own. And cleaning up that jumble will take additional hours from your work week. As Mark Twain says,
“Eat the live frog first.”
Create plans for the next day the night before and have a list of priorities to work with.
2) Shut off all distractions:
Unfortunately, distractions are the biggest productivity killers. When you’re a instructional designer, there are too many things that could distract you and put you off track. The best way to do this is to ensure a razor-sharp focus at all times. Avoid the urge to “multi-task” and turn down or turn off anything that tries to maneuver its way in to disrupt your workflow.
3) Allot a time for everything:
When you start and finish working you should always have specific start and end times for every task you accomplish. Many eLearning professionals and web-based employees prefer using the technique of “boxing” or chunking tasks. The idea behind it is to chunk together items into a single task and fit it into blocks of time. Then you try to accomplish completing that task before moving on to another one. Having a set time for each of these tasks also pressures you to stay focused and complete it on time. This is much better than allowing distractions to get in the way and then having to rush your work later on.
4) Take breaks:
You may think that taking breaks too often is counterproductive, but research has shown quite the opposite. According to many scientists and psychologists, working continuously reduces our productivity levels and slows down the work flow. Because our energy levels deplete when we work for long periods, a mere break is all that’s needed to bring those energy levels back up. However, this doesn’t mean that you go on long breaks every once in a while! It has been reported that the perfect formula for breaks during your work is for taking a 17-minute break after every 52 minutes. However, the debate of “average” and ideal times normally rests somewhere between 15 and 20 breaks after every 50 to 90 minutes of consecutive work.
5) Keep your workspace clean:
A tidy workspace can actually contribute to your productivity levels, and a messy workspace can manage to do just the opposite. How? Clutter forces us to search for everything and waste unnecessary time on things we can’t find. Furthermore, just the sight of it can stress us out!
6) Automate, delegate, and eliminate:
Very often, eLearning professionals feel the need to take control and ensure everything is perfect. Let go of perfectionism and find ways to automate, delegate, and eliminate whatever you can. As instructional designers, there are plenty of ways you can automate tasks using tools and applications such as Hootsuite, MailChimp, Trello, Buffer, or Workflow. Don’t stress the small stuff and find ways to “eliminate” tasks that don’t offer results and drain an enormous amount of time (repetitively checking email, useless chatting with colleagues while working, etc.).
7) Stay motivated!
One of the keys to being happy and productive is to stay motivated and love what you do. Remember the reasons why you became an eLearning professional in the first place and what you plan on accomplishing from it. Whatever it is, put it on paper and look at it every once in a while. We can guarantee you that your vision for being that amazing, educated, and highly productive eLearning professional will one day come true.
