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Power Outage: 5 Tips for Restoring Your Energy

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The power went out shortly after 9:00 am today. Thankfully, all of my devices were charged up and I have a mobile hot spot for internet access. I can respond to emails, hold Zoom meetings, and write this article. I’m all set. Eventually the power will go back on and I can plug in again.

What do you do when your power goes out? What happens if you aren’t charged up and ready to go? We’ve all seen the articles and videos about taking care of yourself. Eventually we all experience some level of exhaustion when we keep working without pause. Sometimes it’s just brain fatigue. Sometimes we are so tired and worn out that we need physical rest. Everyone has their own preferences for addressing this, but indulge me as I give you my go-to ways to restore my energy.

  • Sleep: Once upon a time I was the last person to go to bed and the first up in the morning in my house. I operated on five to six hours a sleep. This affected me in several ways: I used food to prop my energy level up during the day, I was irritable and moody, and I had to fight to stay awake while driving to remote training locations. Adequate sleep is important for many reasons. I have learned that I really need seven and a half to eight hours of sleep a night to function well. The 15 minute “power nap” has never been a solution for me.  Instead, I go to bed at night and get up when I’ve had enough sleep. Now that I know how much I need, I can gauge when I’ll awake naturally according to the time I go to sleep. If I have to get up earlier than usual, I go to bed earlier.
  • Good Nutrition: The days of grabbing a Snickers bar out of the vending machine to get me past my 3 pm slump are over. Not only did that habit lead to weight gain, I also didn’t give my body the nutrients it needed. Now I work at making sure I get a balance of protein, carbohydrates, and fat over the course of the day. I’m more alert and able to think clearly when I’m not riding the peaks and valleys of erratic eating and poor food choices.
  • Ride the bike: Exercise looks different for each person. I enjoy riding my bike whether it’s out on the road or trail, or in the spinning studio. I’m not sure it matters what you do, but some kind of regular exercise helps. In addition to the health benefits, exercise gets me out of the office and away from my desk. Sometimes my best thinking happens when I’m riding my bike or walking.
  • Read a novel: Reading has been a hobby as long as I can remember. I love to lose myself in a good book. Reading has many benefits as well as being entertaining. Although I read a broad range of topics, I find novels most entertaining when I want to relax and recharge. I read classics (yes, Jane Austen) and contemporary fiction (I’m partial to spy thrillers and romance novels). I’m happy that my local library lets me borrow physical books, Kindle books, and audio books (yes, audio books count). I will often read two or three books concurrently. Although you can read anything for fun, I think a good novel is a great way to unwind and spark your imagination.
  • Gratitude: Sometimes the pity party goes on too long. We wallow in the unfairness of our situations and can’t see a way out. We are unhappy and unsatisfied. One way to break a cycle of negativity is to focus on gratitude for what you have or experience. A coach once had me list five things each day in my journal for which I was grateful. Some days it was difficult to come up with five, but I did it for a month. Now, I return to this exercise when I find myself succumbing to negative thoughts and feelings, if only to focus on something positive for a while. Expressing gratitude has the makes you happier and more optimistic. Try it!

These are just a few ways I have found to be helpful when my tank runs low or I find myself feeling depressed or negative. If we don’t take care of ourselves as trainers, how can we expect to engage our students and help them learn effectively?

If you have other ways to rest and refresh yourself, leave a comment below!

Tips for a Memorable Webinar

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Whatever you want to learn, there’s probably a webinar being held to teach you or present an update. A webinar is a cross between a live, in-person class and online learning. You watch the webinar in real time, but you’re not in the same room as the presenter. You most likely can’t talk to the presenter although you can ask questions through a chat or Q & A function on the webinar platform.

What webinars make up for in convenience for the viewer they typically loose by a lack of interactivity or feedback. This, of course, depends on the webinar presenter and how willing the presenter is to use certain techniques for a more enjoyable and memorable webinar experience. Here are some tips I have learned and utilize to create webinars that are positive learning opportunities for the participants.

  • Customize the registration: Most webinar platforms (I use Zoom, but this is also true of GoToWebinar) give you the ability to customize the registration page, if not the entire presentation. Take advantage of this to give people an idea of what you’ll present and how you’ll deliver. This could be anything from color scheme to description and even the information you request from the registrant. If you can ask questions beyond name and email address, use this to determine participants’ experience with the topic or what they hope to learn on the webinar.
  • Tell people to register even if they can’t attend: You want people to attend the live webinar, but if they have a conflict at that time, you still want to get the information to them. If you encourage people to register even if they can’t attend, you will capture their information and be able to distribute the recording after the webinar has been completed. You can stay in touch with them and invite them to a future webinar.
  • Add handouts: Just because you’re online doesn’t mean you can’t give people something to hold onto or take away from the webinar to refer to. Handouts typically can be shared during a webinar through the platform. Participants can be prompted to download the handout at the appropriate time during the webinar and asked to refer to it later as well. If you use slides during the webinar that contain a great deal of information, give participants the ability to download a PDF copy of the deck for future reference. If you’re an independent trainer, you can use the handouts as a way to give participants your contact information and a call to action.
  • Use polls: Because the webinar is a one-to-many form of delivering content, the presenter has to work to encourage interaction. Polls are a great way to get feedback or information from participants. You can gauge whether participants are paying attention or checking their email by the number of responses and how long it takes for people to register their responses. If you are encouraging adoption of a tool or process, Polls double as a way to determine whether participants are on board.
  • Have everything open and ready to go: Close any programs on your computer that you do not need, especially email if you have desktop notifications enabled. If you are using web-based tools during the webinar, be sure to close other websites and browsers to avoid a drag on bandwidth during the webinar. Have your presentation open and in slideshow mode. You can then use the webinar platform’s menu to switch between your open documents or websites during the webinar and avoid having to minimize documents or switch between browsers. This makes for a smoother viewer experience.
  • Use a headset and test your audio: You will have more control over the sound of your voice with a headset. If you tend to move your head or use your hands as you talk, a headset will follow your mouth and you won’t risk toppling a microphone on the desk. If you have a multi-directional desktop microphone and are used to using it, by all means use it. I prefer a headset because I don’t have to worry about where the microphone is during the webinar. Test the audio before you begin the broadcast to be sure the webinar platform is picking up your voice adequately. You can also ask participants at the beginning of the webinar if they can hear you and see your screen.
  • Record the webinar: Recording your webinar serves two purposes. You can review your webinar performance and use what you discover to improve on future webinar presentations. I discovered that my gaps in presentation were disturbing (too many ummms and ahhhhhs!). I worked on making my presentation more succinct and cohesive after reviewing the recording. You can usually share the recording easily through the platform with participants and absentees for their review after the live webinar. This gives them the ability to go back over the material when they most need it.
  • Have someone monitor the webinar for questions or chat: If possible, it’s nice to have an assistant checking for questions during the webinar and posing them to you as you present. Otherwise, you must keep an eye on your chat or questions boxes to address questions during the broadcast. If you don’t have someone to assist you, notify participants that you’ll address questions at certain times during the webinar. I often answer questions at the end of the webinar for the participants only. I turn off the recording and make this personalized attention a bonus of having attended the webinar live.
  • Include the recording in the follow-up e-mail: This goes with the previous point about recording the webinar. Distribute the recording through the platform. Most webinar platforms give you the ability to create a link for the recording and include the link in your follow-up email. You will want to do this instead of attaching a recording to an email (usually not possible due to the size of the recording) or posting it on YouTube or some other video sharing platform. Why? Webinar platforms are set up to register when someone views the recording after the webinar. You can see who viewed the video and when. If you’re asked to provide this kind of information, you’ll have it at your fingertips. You may decide to post the video to YouTube, for example, but wait until a few days after the webinar to encourage initial viewing through the webinar platform.
  • Use the survey function: If there is a built-in survey function in your webinar platform, use it to launch a survey upon completion of the live webinar. This is a quick way to get feedback from participants. If the webinar platform allows for integration with a survey external survey, you can make more detailed surveys to judge participants’ retention of the material presented. Use this information to tailor the next presentation on the same subject matter.
  • Get the log: Access and download the webinar log to follow up with questions you didn’t answer during the webinar and to see who attended and for how long. Use the information you get in the log to help you prepare your next webinar.
  • Edit the recording: If you are able, download the recording and edit it before posting to other platforms. You’ll have the ability to delete dead air and take out the ahhs and ummms. If you’re demonstrating a technology tool during the webinar, you can add call-outs, annotations, and pan and zoom on the screen. I like Camtasia for video editing, but there are other options you can use.
  • Practice, practice, practice: It helps to practice before your webinar. Even more important is to practice before your next webinar. Learn from your mistakes and make the next webinar one that will have participants asking for more.

Webinars are a great tool to help people in far-flung places learn the material you want or need to teach. If done well, they can be a learning experience that will motivate participants and get results.

What’s So Funny?

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Professors who used corny jokes in my college days were considered at best quirky and most often just plain silly. We rolled our eyes at the jokes and thought they were crazy. They got me to pay attention, though, and herein lies the wonder of humor in the classroom: People are more likely to sit up and listen to what you’re saying if they like you or at least chuckle at your silly jokes. Humor enhances learning, especially when the humor is perceived to be relevant to the lesson being presented.

There have been many studies done on this topic. Some of them are anecdotal (this is what people told me) and some are more analytical (results of questionnaires or surveys). The basic question the studies seek to answer is: Why does humor help people learn? The consensus seems be that humor, when used appropriately, can have several benefits from helping students retain information to an increase in interest in learning and a decrease in anxiety and stress when dealing with difficult material.

One interesting study looked at the pros and cons of using humor in college classrooms. It became clear to the author from the answers to survey questions collected that humor done well improves students’ learning, retention, and attitudes toward the subject matter being taught. Humor that falls flat or is even inappropriate lessens the likelihood that students will understand the material or pay attention. Humor, when done well, is a positive reinforcement of the subject matter being taught and a way for instructors to help students learn.

How can you use humor with adult learners? It doesn’t really matter if you’re a naturally funny person or not. What counts is appropriate and relevant uses of humor in the learning environment. Humor that makes people uncomfortable or isn’t germane to the subject will fall flat (or even cause students to reject the instructor), but a well-timed joke or story that relates to the material being presented can solidify the point you’re attempting to make. To do this well takes a little practice and a good supply of stories and jokes.

I keep a list of stories and jokes to use in the classroom. For any particular topic, I can usually find something on my list that will help me warm up a classroom or drive my point home. If people truly learn well when you use humor in your lesson, then it makes sense to work this into your lesson. And, if using humor gets you invited back to present again, why not? At the very least, if you can’t be funny, be fun. Laugh at yourself if you make a mistake!

If you are going to used well-timed jokes or stories in a presentation, practice enough to make them succinct and natural. Try out new ideas on colleagues or friends first if you’re in doubt about how something might work in a presentation. If a joke or story falls flat, try to figure out why and don’t use it again in a classroom until you have determined whether it was your delivery or the topic that didn’t work well. Avoid singling out students and centering the joke or story on one person. If you make a reference, be sure it’s something most people will understand (TV references from your childhood may not work!). It’s important to focus on both your delivery and the relevance of the humor you’re using.

Humor can be a wonderful tool in your training/teaching repertoire. Use it well and wisely to help your students like and trust you, understand the material better, and leave the class wanting to come back for more.

 

Distractions

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There are distractions around us every day. Trying to conduct a training class with distractions in and around you is challenging.

There’s the property maintenance crew running the lawn mowers outside the window. Or the training class is in the middle of an office thoroughfare with people walking back and forth, having conversations in the process. Then there’s equipment that fails or lack of promised supplies.

These and more present themselves during training, and as trainers, we have to figure out how to keep the class focussed. Sometimes it’s enough to have people work in pairs or small groups and let them complete a task, then bring the group together for discussion.

To have participants in the class who take you off track is most challenging. They come in at least three “flavors.”

  • The grandstander wants all the attention, all the time. This person regularly interrupts the class to ask irrelevant questions, give a lengthy opinion of the topic we already covered, or ask personal questions. The grandstander thrives on questions and comments from other participants and will hold court at the drop of a hat.
  • The sub-trainer feels the need to explain everything covered to participants around him/her. This person wants to demonstrate that he/she knows just as much as the trainer and really doesn’t need to be in the class.
  • The CEO takes calls in the middle of a class and has to run out of the room multiple times to talk, missing pieces of information in class. Upon return, this person asks for clarification of points covered while he/she was out of the room. Everyone experiences a double distraction: once when the person leaves the room (often stumbling over desks and chairs in the process) and again when they return.

There are probably more types of distractions or disruptions that occur during a training class. How can a trainer deal with the frustration that he/she inevitably feels when experiencing such disruptions?

  • Be cool. It sounds easy, but it takes practice. The less likely you are to blow your top in front of a room full of professional development participants, the more likely you’ll get the material across to them in a way that causes it to stick.
  • Smile, nod, and put off the question. Sometimes you have to interrupt the questioner, but if it’s truly something that needs to be taken care of outside of the current session, the participants will be happy you stop this before it takes over the class.
  • Set the stage. Tell participants what you expect when you start the class. If you are o.k. with them leaving the room to take calls, tell them so but warn them not to disrupt others in the process. If you really don’t want people to take calls, tell them to put their phones away and turn them off. One successful technique is to tell participants what to do: Create a voicemail greeting for just that day telling callers when you’ll get back to them and setting up an e-mail out-of-office message that says essentially the same.
  • Let participants help. Use “teach-backs” or other methods to have participants teach each other the material you have presented. This gives them the opportunity to demonstrate competence and to reinforce each other’s learning.

Disruptions and distractions are common in busy places. With a little practice, a trainer can minimize those that come from the participants (and work on moving the training class to a quieter venue!).

Get It Done!

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I am the consummate procrastinator. If there’s a project or task to get done, I’ll find a way to procrastinate and put it off until it must absolutely get done. Sometimes I hurt myself by putting things off too long. Here are some techniques I use to combat procrastinate and get things done.

—Lists. I make lists–a lot. I create a list of my top five or six tasks for the next day before I wrap up my work. If I can put it down on paper (or in my phone) it gets it out of my head and becomes more likely that I will actually accomplish what I want or need to get done. There’s something very satisfying, too, about drawing a line through a task you’ve completed (or tapping the button that says “completed” on your phone). I know people who create their lists in a notebook and keep a record of all the things they’ve finished over time. I’m not that organized and prefer to use notepads I accumulate from attending conferences and expos.

—Chunk it down. I learned this trick when I was working on my dissertation. The entire project looked huge and the prospect of working on something so large became a block. I put off starting the writing because I couldn’t conceive how to finish. Someone told me to take pieces and work on just that part for a while. When I did that, I started completing chapters. Soon, the chapters took shape and I was able to connect them and shape the entire project. “Chunking it down” gave me the ability to focus and finish. Now, I do this with larger projects on a regular basis. I break it down into parts, focus on the parts, then assemble the final work. I’m more likely to finish a small piece in a timely fashion.

—Consider the end result. It’s easy to procrastinate when you don’t have a vision of where you’re going with something. I like to know what the planned outcome of a project is before I start working on the component parts of it. Sometimes it’s just a matter of considering the objectives or determining the preferred result. Whatever the end may be, starting is easier when you have a goal. This applies to just about any endeavor you undertake! I trained for marathons and half marathons one week at a time. The goal was to finish the race, and I kept this in mind as I trained.

—Set a timer. If the prospect of working on a project for a long period of time (especially when it’s something you don’t like doing, but must) keeps you from starting, set a timer and tell yourself you’re going to work on X for Y minutes. When the timer goes off, give yourself permission to do something else. Come back to the project and set the timer again. Work on it for a number of minutes, then stop. This might seem counterintuitive (work on it until it’s done!), but by giving yourself permission to step away from a task that you don’t like makes getting it done a bit easier. I use this when cleaning my house. I really dislike cleaning. I manage to get it done with the timer.

—Take a walk. Get out of the office and take a walk now and then. You’d be surprised what five minutes away from your desk will do to your attitude and ability to focus. Too often we chain ourselves to the desk thinking that’s the only way to get something done. We end up spinning our wheels and spending more time checking e-mails or looking at cat videos on Facebook. Walking away from your work at regular intervals can help you get it done. I make a point of getting up once an hour and either walking around inside the building or heading outside for a walk around the block. I’ve even done this when working at home. I come back to my desk energized and ready to get things done.

Sometimes you just need time to think and absorb the material you’re working on. Don’t forfeit contemplation in an attempt to speed up the process. Some projects are complex and need time to develop. Try any of these techniques next time you find yourself avoiding the work that needs to get done. Hopefully you’ll be able to accomplish what you thought you couldn’t and stop beating yourself up for procrastinating. That in itself will be an accomplishment!

Fatigue

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I’m tired. Maybe I’m tired because I just spent four days traveling to and attending a large convention. It might be because I’ve had no time off other than a day here or there in months. It could also be due to an election hangover, but that’s a topic for another day. Whatever the cause, fatigue has an impact both physically and mentally on the trainer.

It’s probably obvious that when you’re mentally tired, you’re not so sharp. For the trainer, this lack of mental acuity manifests itself in your approach to training. You go on auto-pilot and move mechanically through the material just to get through the session. You deflect questions and comments in hopes of not having to think too hard to pull it all together. These are the days when you hope and pray no attendees have difficulty with the material you’re presenting. Your ability to re-phrase and give alternate explanations or instructions is impaired. Training suffers. Learners don’t get the best instruction when you’re not mentally on top of your game.

When you’re physically tired, it’s hard to speak with enough breath. it’s difficult to manage a large room of learners if you’re too tired to leave your chair at the front of the class. And let’s not even get into the yawns you try to suppress. You might get through the class, but your exhaustion shows.

If you’re physically tired, you’re probably mentally tired, too. They go hand in hand. But sometimes you’re just tired of the topic or material you’re presenting. This is mental fatigue’s cousin boredom. You can teach the subject without even noticing the words coming out of your mouth.

How do you combat fatigue? My first suggestion is obvious: Get some sleep! It’s hard, I know. There’s always something more to do that keeps you from getting to bed at a reasonable hour. And then we’re up early to get going with our day. At some point, the lack of sleep becomes counterproductive. I had to figure out how much sleep was enough for me. I have to be resolute in getting myself to bed in time to get my seven hours before I have to get up and get going for the day.

Other things that help me combat fatigue are exercise and time off. The latter may be self-evident, but some people may wonder how exercise helps you deal with being tired. Regular exercise gets your body moving, gets you in a better mood, and helps you sleep. Other benefits include weight loss, increasing your strength, and boosting your energy. By exercising regularly, not only do I help myself with sleep and mood, I’m increasing my ability to handle the physical demands of being a trainer.

Taking time off to recharge yourself is also important. Vacations are a good thing. It’s hard to completely unplug from the office or your business, but sometimes you have to disengage to give yourself the space to relax and refresh yourself. Put the “out of office” message on the e-mail and phone, turn off push notifications on your phone, and pledge to yourself that you will let someone else worry about the questions and inquiries for a few days.

My last suggestion for recharging is to become a learner again. Nothing gets my creative side going as well as learning something new or different. A few months ago, I took a class in glass blowing. Yes, it was hot. Yes, I felt stupid (turn the rod how fast?). But in the end, I learned how to do something new. Becoming a learner is humbling and fun at the same time. As trainers, we need to put ourselves in our learners’ shoes periodically to understand what they’re feeling. That sends us back to our classrooms with empathy and a commitment to do a better job.

Taking care of yourself is not a luxury. It’s a necessity. Your learners will thank you, too.