Once you have mapped out your course milestones—or the concepts and skills your students need to master to achieve their transformation—it's time to get more specific. You need to break those milestones down even further into lessons. If it helps to think about it this way, if your milestones are the sections in your Teachable course, the lessons are the individual steps inside those sections. But if you're like most of our course creators, you probably have these big questions: how do you know how many lessons to include, and how large or small each lesson topic should be?

As a general rule of thumb, each lesson should cover one major takeaway. Ideally, these sections should take no more than 10 minutes to explain, maybe 15 if it's something really in depth. But if you find yourself wondering, "could this be two videos?" the answer should almost always be "yes!" Think about it this way. The way we consume content is in bite-sized chunks. If you imagine skimming through your course videos once they're uploaded into Teachable, picture how much easier it is to find specific concepts if your lessons are labeled and broken down into smaller pieces. If you create 60 minute videos, it's going to be really challenging for your students to find specific concepts they might want to reference or re-watch, and if we're being honest, a 60 minute video can feel extremely daunting. Wouldn't it be more approachable for your students to find the time for a few 5 minute videos instead of a 30 minute video?

On the other hand, you don't necessarily want to create one hundred 30 second videos in an effort to make your course seem more approachable. There's a sweet spot where your lesson should be just long enough to cover a major takeaway, but still long enough that it can stand alone and add value to your students. Again, some lessons may be under 5 minutes while others may need closer to 15 minutes, but every takeaway and topic will be a little bit different. You know your material best, so trust your gut. Stay succinct but thorough, and remember, you'll learn as you go. With that in mind, we want to challenge you to try this yourself. Take the time to thoughtfully break down your milestones into bite-sized lessons, where students can go through your course one takeaway at a time.