Do you ever notice that you cram way too much into your workshops, courses, or other type of curriculum? Being succinct in your educational content can sometimes feel like a superpower you wish you had.

Deciding what to include and exclude can be a real struggle, so you try to include it all, and as a result your learners feel overwhelmed by information overload, leaving them unable to act on what they've learned.

A lot of people struggle with this, so you’re not alone. Conciseness is something that comes quite easily for me, so let me share with you how I approach it.

— In this article —

The outdated course model

So many courses that I've done, and probably you've done too, have hours upon hours of watch time, and much of it is waffle. They're either padding the content or providing information that's unnecessary.

I've often finished courses thinking, "You know what, the important stuff could have been said in an hour instead of 20."

For me, the amount of watch time is the main deciding factor when investing in a course because I know I won't follow through with anything over a couple of hours. I have plenty of evidence to back this up, and I know I'm not the only one.

Old school thinking around course creation and marketing positions "20 hours of content" as a benefit — it’s not. Many people like me will run for the hills when they see that.

The mindset that facilitates conciseness

One of the reasons you might struggle to be concise is because you want to give your audience as much value as possible. You aim to equip them with everything they might need to know about the topic at hand.

But in reality, you are doing them a disservice. Reflect on your own experiences of trainings that felt overwhelming. We can only absorb so much information at a time.

On the other hand, think about a time when one simple idea gave you immense clarity, enabling you to take immediate action.

There is tremendous value in continually asking yourself, “How simple can I make this?”

What’s the bare minimum needed to get a result?

Rather than trying to include everything a person might possibly need to know about a topic in your course, ask yourself, “What is the bare minimum that a person needs to get a result?”

When I started asking this question during my course creation process, students really appreciated it. For example, in the first iteration of "Create a Tiny Course," I presented five different platforms where students could host their course. In the second iteration, I presented just one platform.

Students reported that they were relieved not to have to choose a platform, which allowed them to trust the process and focus their energy on the creative process of building their course.

How to start drafting your course outline

It’s important to begin with clarity about the problem your course solves, or in other words, the transformation it offers.

Once that is clear, a typical way for me to start drafting the outline is to ask myself, "Okay, what is the first thing they need to know or do to get that outcome?" Then, “What’s the second thing they need to know or do?” and so on.

At the end of this line of questioning, I’ll usually have somewhere between 6 to 8 important points that people need to know, and that becomes the basis for my curriculum. Under each of those points, there will be a couple of sub-points. This is how simple I make it.

Your game plan:

Be clear about the solution your course provides people. What change or transformation does it help create?
From there, what are the 6-8 things they need to know to get a result as quickly as possible?

If you can write those down, you're well on your way to creating a digestible, more concise course.

I hope you find this helpful; let me know in the comments.

Danielle Gardner
The Quiet Marketer
View my bio

P.S. Learn more about working with me in Create a Tiny Course.