Online Tutoring: Why Setting Up Your Space Is Critical.
Teaching can be draining; physically, mentally, and emotionally. It is a learned skill and certainly cannot be done on the hop. It is a true investment of your time, as you cannot zone out and complete tasks in bursts of energy. You must dedicate yourself for that full hour, to truly empathising with your student and pushing them to their greatest capacity. To do this you need to feel organised, confident and calm.
The only way to achieve this is to create both mental and physical space for you to teach to the best of your ability.
Mental Space
Firstly, your mental space comes down to the number of hours you are willing to dedicate to teaching. The best practice for running an online tutoring business is to dedicate set hours each week to tutoring and allow them to be filled up with students. It can be difficult to dedicate a lot of hours initially, especially when you do not have many students. To tackle this, you should firstly dedicate the hours to tutoring but if any hours are not filled, use them to complete other productive tasks that you would normally do sporadically.
For example, extra study, reading, a workout video, journaling, writing, or even completing an online course. There are plenty of things you can do to fill in any gaps while you are establishing a routine. Personally, I would use this time to research new things and better ways to work, simply by browsing through videos or the internet. I would discover a lot and end up finding new ways to do things or new skills I wanted to learn. Reading articles, working on new projects, it’s actually a great way to allocate time for yourself without guilt for needing to do other things.
At Tutorpillar, we recommend starting with fewer hours, that are most convenient for you. You can add more hours instantly, and normally you will organise a time with a new student before they book so you will not miss out on the booking. If you are nervous about not having enough availability, simply state in your bio that you have more availability than what is listed and to reach out if interested.
If you’re a teacher and can only work outside of school hours, this is not an issue as you would be quite lucky to take bookings within the school day. Every student’s schedule is different, no matter their age, so you might be able to take bookings during the school day depending on how they are completing their schooling.
Physical Space
Creating a space to teach from is the key to ensuring that you are organised.
If you already have a desk, workspace, or study area then that can too become your tutoring space. From personal experience, it is best to keep all your tutoring materials in a separate drawer, folder or section of your desk.
Pro Tip: Do not write your tutoring notes in a notebook that is used for anything else.
It is about creating physical boundaries, to ensure that when times of overwhelm come you are always prepared and capable to tackle whatever you need to. Every year, there comes exam season or final assignment season. As a tutor, you will suddenly be very busy. To ensure that you cope with these fluctuations, you need to establish clear boundaries with both yourself and your students. Ensure that they are respectful of your time and always ask them to book a session if they need help.
