For trainers and teachers, the core task of enlightening others is tied to so many other peripheral but absolutely critical tasks. Think about preparation, planning, research, evaluation, review sessions, communication with colleagues, and much more.
It is easy to get distracted and overwhelmed unless you have a good grasp of time, scheduling, and organization. Those in the training and teaching business know the importance of accurate time tracking, especially where invoicing is done by session or by the hour.
Even then, despite our best efforts, we are reduced to playing catch-up with all that needs to be done. Worse, this problem is generally accepted because “it comes with the job.” Most will be familiar with the following challenges of teaching and training.
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Monitoring Remote Learning
The latest development in learning has also brought new challenges. You now have to monitor your charges as students take their lessons, do their tests online, carry out projects and other assigned tasks, all from miles away.
It is hard to govern such a class in the best of times, but doing it online is almost impossible. Students skip classes or simply log in and go away. Assignments are impossible to time, and long-term projects become set-and-forget kinds of work.
Online teaching and classes diminish the sense of duty that face to face interaction tends to foster. Students have no desire to learn, and teachers lose the motivation to teach, resulting in a massive conundrum.
Even the online tools such as recording and conferencing software that is meant to make life easier end up being more of a headache that most are prepared to deal with.
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Death of Concentration
Most tutors will agree that it is getting increasingly tough to stay on task when there are so many things that need to be done. You have to log hours in spreadsheets, perform advanced evaluation on student performance, chit-chat with colleagues, and communicate with superiors.
Today, we already know that there is no such thing as multitasking. At least, the brain doesn’t work that way. What happens is that as you switch from this task to the other and keep juggling them in the background, your brain just switches them on and off. This is highly distracting and prevents you from performing at maximum productivity at any one task.
Ultimately, your work suffers, your personal relationships suffer, and you are always uptight and anxious because you have to balance so much. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could allocate time slots for each task and be done with them for good?
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Overwork and Burnout
Tied closely to the problem above, but bigger and even more common is the issue of burnout. With constant fretting and working, the bounds of work and leisure fade away and your life becomes one big blurred exhausting session.
Overwork is even more common in this age of remote teaching and tutoring. There are no more of those satisfying “I’m done for the day and can go home now” moments. With online sessions, and students calling or emailing all day (and sometimes all night), it is hard to keep track of when you are on the clock and off it.
This constant working with no distinct breaks for relaxation quickly causes exhaustion and burnout. If you are always feeling drained and unmotivated, can’t eat or sleep, and your mind seems to be on overdrive but produces no good results – that’s burnout.
You have got to find a way to plausibly create a work – leisure balance so that your brain and body can relax. They need to switch off from the demanding, high-frequency activity of work in order to rest and repair. Luckily, there are a few ways to do that. Time tracking is the best of them, similar to punching in and out.
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Time Wasting on Non-Essential Tasks
Time spent in class is the culmination of many hours of material preparation, lesson planning, scheduling, and other mundane tasks. Yet the work wouldn’t be so effective if it were not for these tasks.
For trainers, it is even more important to log hours of preparation and planning. These days, your paycheck relies on the results you achieve. Even gym, yoga, and life skills coaches need to spend hours in preparation.
Not to say these critical tasks can be replaced, but you can spend so much time scheduling lessons, exams, communication, and other sessions. You have to maintain a record of all your activities and timeline for tracking and invoicing purposes, and that takes even more time and effort. If there was a way that could be taken out of your hands, it would be great.
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Invoicing Challenges
Now that we mention invoicing, logging hours accurately and reliably might be one of the biggest headaches tutors and trainers face. The aforementioned preparation and planning times can easily go unpaid if not properly recorded.
For those who hold private sessions and charge by the hour, it is imperative to keep an eye on the clock. Freelancers are not new to time tracking, and managers know just how tough it is to keep accurate timing records.
That is why most people have to draft timesheets and fill them up daily, which then have to be approved by clients or management before payment can be made. Disputes over hours worked are common, so it would be nice to have an autonomous and objective timing solution.
Time Tracking Solutions for Education and Training with eBillity
The time tracker app and attendance software by eBillity is designed to offer intelligent, autonomous time tracking and management. For those in the education and training business, the system makes life easier with simplified scheduling, record management, billing, overtime tracking, and much more.
Managers and freelancers will especially benefit from this solution as it offers an intuitive way of tracking hours logged, time-off requests, scheduling, and more, all with 24/7 alerts.
As a trainer, teacher, or tutor, Time Tracker +Billing puts the power in your hands to take back control of your daily activities. You can now easily manage your lessons, delegate billing and invoicing to our reliable software, and even monitor students remotely.
Start your free 14-day trial today with no credit card and see first-hand how our time and billing software can make your work more efficient and stress-free.
