How long does it take to edit a video?

How long should it take to edit a video? That's a question I hear all the time, but it's not a good question. It's like asking how long does it take to cook dinner? Well, are you making a Hot Pocket or a seven course meal? So it depends. It depends on the type of the video, the amount of detail you're adding, and your workflow. So in this video, I'm going to give you some ranges on how long you can expect to spend in the editing phase of making videos for different types of projects. Let's start by addressing skill level. If you're just starting out, you are going to be the slowest that you'll ever be. I like to compare it to driving a car. You didn't start by just sitting down in the driver's seat, shifting the gear into drive and pulling out onto the freeway. Instead, you probably started how I did in a parking lot with your dad, white knuckling that handle thing on the ceiling in the passenger seat. You probably drove the car at idle speed for a lap or two before you ever hit the gas pedal. And you might have bumped into a dumpster or two. Let's not talk about that. When you were starting out, you were focused on everything. The mirrors, the steering wheel, hitting the right pedal at the right time. It took every bit of your concentration just to go in a straight line. But over time, as you gained experience, all of those separate actions became one fluid motion. You're not thinking about the mechanics of driving anymore. That's the first major time saver in editing your experience. The more you do it, the more familiar you become with your software, with the shortcuts, and ultimately your own creative process. And that muscle memory will dramatically reduce your editing time over the years. The second major factor is the type of video you're making. The more complex your project, the longer it's going to take. So let's break down three common video types. The first is talking head videos, including YouTube videos like the one you're watching right now, and courses. This is the most common type. For most of you watching this, you're typically cutting between different shots of yourself talking, maybe adding some B roll and a few graphics. For a beginner, a 10 minute talking head video might take you anywhere from four to six hours to edit. As you get more experienced, you can get that down to two to four hours or possibly even less. The video you're watching right now, I set a two hour timer. So however this video looks at the end of that two hours is what you're watching. Because when it comes to YouTube, you can't let perfect be the enemy of good enough. And you need a system to get yourself psychologically over that resistance. The absolute worst YouTubers are the perfectionists because they never start. The second type of video that you might make is educational or tutorial videos. These are often more complex. You have to be precise. You're likely adding screen recordings, graphics to call things out, sound effects and a voiceover. The goal is to make a complicated topic clear and easy to understand. For a detailed technique 10 minute tutorial, a beginner could spend 6 to 12 hours or even more. An experienced editor might bring that down to five to eight hours. But you still have to be meticulous to ensure that the information is clear and accurate. The third common type of video that you're probably making is something like a documentary, a travel vlog, or short film style videos. These are the seven course meals of video editing. You have a story to tell and to do that you might have interviews, historical footage, music, and maybe even sound design. It's a very time consuming process. For a polished 10 minute piece, it could take a beginner 15 to 20 hours or more. For a professional, it could still easily take 10 plus hours because of the sheer amount of footage to sift through and the level of detail required to pull everything together. Okay, so you've got your skill level and the type of video squared away. Now let's talk about the last piece of the puzzle, your workflow. This is where you can make the biggest immediate impact on your editing time. My number one tip for editing faster, at least in descript, is to have a really good layout pack made for your projects. If you've noticed throughout the video you're watching right now, I've alternated between just a few scenes. This one, this one, and this one. Those are layouts that I made one time and can apply with just the click of my mouse. So I highly recommend you make layouts for your intros and outros, text scenes, anything else you find yourself doing over and over in the software. But seriously, this video does nothing for you if you don't act on it. So pause it right here if you need to and go and make a layout pack. I have a video about layouts linked in the top right of your YouTube screen. And once you're done making that layout pack, go ahead and hit the subscribe button because studies show that subscribing to this channel boosts editing time by 57%. Okay, next, organization is key. Before you even open your Editing software, you need to have a system. All your footage, audio and graphics should be organized. And then put everything in labeled folders and rename the files if necessary. Because nothing is going to slow you down more than searching for a specific clip you know you have somewhere but has a name like IMG1956-87-659244jpg. Because for me, the absolute most time consuming part of editing is finding B roll. It's a huge headache. But when I have all of that sorted ahead of time, it's super fast and easy. Next, let's talk about the power of the messy first pass. There's a quote I love attributed to Ernest Hemingway where he says, in order to write well, you first need to write poorly well. In order to make a well edited video, you first have to have a poorly edited video. So don't try to make it perfect the first time. The first pass through the video should should be about getting the entire story on the timeline. Just string the clips together, remove the bad takes and get the main structure done. Once that's complete, you can go back and start adding the details like music, sound effects and making everything flow smoothly. But trying to do it all at once is a recipe for overwhelm. And lastly, batch your tasks. And I mean all your tasks. Come up with an entire month's worth of videos in one sitting. I'd recommend to aim for four at a time. If you aim to release one video per week, as I recommend, then that's an entire month's worth of content in one go. And then you write all the scripts for all those videos in one sitting. And then you film them all, and then you edit them all. Think of it like this. To come back to my cooking analogy, you could cook a different meal every single night, but every single night you'd have to get all the ingredients out, start the oven, do all the prep, and then clean all the dishes at the end every single night. Or you could do that all one time on one day, just increasing the recipe size and make an entire week's worth of meals in one go. And then all you'd have to do is stick your metaphorical video in the fridge and schedule it for release. So batching your tasks is a much more efficient way to work. So how long does it take to edit a video? It's about your experience, the complexity of the project, and the efficiency of your workflow. And if you're just starting out, remember my dinner analogy. Your goal isn't to be a seven course chef on day one. It's to learn the basics, get the meals on the table, and with every meal you'll find yourself a little faster and a little more creative. Let me know in the comments. How long do your typical edits take? For me, for this channel, I think about two hours per video is right. I find that giving myself a constraint and limiting myself to that amount of time is a really helpful tool. Otherwise the video is just never going to get done.