My Top 2 Video Editing Productivity Tricks That Save Me Time – and Wrist Pain

Every video and every person’s video editing style is different, but one thing is for sure: for every minute of video watched by YouTube viewers, hours of editing are spent.

My numbers vary wildly. The last six-minute video took me an entire weekend. Other videos can take much longer. One eight-minute video took me almost four days.

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I’m currently working on a 10 to 15 minute tutorial video. Not counting the A-roll (the part where I narrate), the video has 128 source clips that I’m mining and cutting into a visual narrative. I’ve probably spent 20 hours on it and have at least as many hours ahead of me before I see the final result.

With the above in mind, consider these two thoughts:

1. Video editing is incredibly time-consuming.
2. If you can find a way to save time, do it.

These thoughts lead me to two things that have improved my video editing productivity. I use Final Cut Pro as my editor, but these tools can probably help you with other video editors and apps.

1. Selecting with Stream Deck+

You probably know Stream Deck. This is a wired keyboard that allows you to assign icons to buttons and then lets you define actions for those buttons.

The original Stream Deck has 15 programmable buttons, Stream Deck XL has 32 buttons, Stream Mini Deck has six buttons, and the new Stream Deck Neo and Streaming+ have eight buttons each.

(Note: Do not confuse Stream Deck with Steam deck. Steam Deck is a portable gaming computer. Stream Deck is a control surface for managing streaming and other PC processes. Today I’m talking about Stream — with an “r” — Deck.)

I have two original Stream Decks in my office. One is connected to my streaming studio so I can control all my devices and settings while conducting interviews. The other is connected to my desktop computer and is mainly used to manage shortcuts in productivity and programming apps.

Even though I already had two Stream Decks, I bought Streaming+ last month. The biggest difference between the Plus unit and all other Stream Decks is that it has four knobs and an LCD touchpad.

The knobs are what do what they do for me. I use them to control the timeline, pan and shift clips, zoom in and out on a specific frame, and jump between clips.

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To be clear, all of these actions can be done with hotkeys and a mouse, but the ability to turn the dial is both a wrist and a time saver. Plus, the process is intuitive because now there’s a physical act of moving left and right and taking different actions on the timeline.

There is also something about analog controls that is more enjoyable and activates the brain differently. Combining knobs with digital actions seems to be the best solution, at least for some actions and processes.

Stream Deck+ with knobs was the first thing that improved my productivity in Final Cut, but without this second thing it would have taken me a lot longer…

2. SideshowFX Profile for Final Cut Pro

One of the standout features of the Stream Deck family is the configuration tool used to program all the buttons. It not only lets you customize all the button images, but also lets you customize their actions.

The customization options are quite extensive and include many steps, sequences, calls to other programs, and transitions to other sets of buttons.

Programs like Final Cut Pro are both deep and broad. They have a lot of features and controls. While you can program the buttons yourself, it’s a pretty big task.

Add to that the time it takes to create perfectly tailored icons, and the customization process can start to feel like a full-time job. Yes, you can use random, existing icons you find and program a few buttons, but that won’t give you the full power of Stream Deck.

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Fortunately, you don’t have to do all this work yourself. Elgato (owned by memory maker Corsair) offers a marketplace (basically an app store) of add-ons and configuration packages for its Stream Deck series.

Rather than spend the time to fully configure a Final Cut Pro profile on my Stream Deck+, I turned to SideshowFX and purchased their $34.95 Profile for Stream Deck+. One note: SideshowFX offers different profile packs for different Stream Deck models. If you want one that supports rotary knobs, get this SKU.

The product includes 640 icons, 297 pre-programmed keys, 47 pre-programmed dialing sequences, and 14 profiles that organize functions by operation, such as editing, color correction, multi-camera, and more.

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One of my favorite pre-made profiles is the one for multicam editing, which lets you switch between different camera angles for the same content. For example, I often switch between a wide view and a close-up view of something I’m demoing. When unpacking, I often switch from a front view to a top view, then a side view, depending on what I want to show.

Here’s the first screen of the SideshowFX multicam profile in Final Cut:

In (1) are the numbers 1, 2, and 3. These indicate that there are three full screens of buttons available for this profile. You can switch profile screens by swiping left or right on the touchpad (in 2). The knob (in 3) is purple, which means that when pressed, it performs different actions (in this case, it switches between feed, scroll, and subframe). The non-purple knobs (in 4) have hotkeys depending on what the knob does:

As you can see, different rotations trigger different key combinations.

As I mentioned, you get different sets of controls when using the touchpad to swipe left or right. One reason I find this multicam approach helpful is this profile, which lets me cut and switch to a specific angle with a keystroke:

In addition to all the existing profiles, I’ve combined some of the SideshowFX keys and profiles into what I consider my “quick edit” profile. Here are the tools I use most often, especially when I’m trying to get through rough editing:

As I continue to use Final Cut with Stream Deck+, I will undoubtedly add more profiles and expand my Quick Editing profile.

What about Loupedeck CT?

Some of you may remember that I reviewed the Loupedeck CT back in June 2021. My goal was to use the Loupedeck for the same purposes that I use the Stream Deck+ for.

Then I said:

However, the button action and full graphic customization features of the Stream Deck are much better than the buttons on the Loupedeck CT. If you don’t care about knobs or a wheel, buy the Stream Deck. There is almost no comparison.

At the time, Elgato didn’t offer a Stream Deck with knobs. Since I found using knobs to be an incredible time saver and help increase efficiency, I used the much more expensive Loupedeck CT to get the job done.

That said, I never liked Loupedeck. It had some weird quirks. For example, it required a dummy drive to be mounted when the program started. Apparently, Loupedeck had to create a full virtual file system to store its customizations.

Worse still, the buttons weren’t as fluid. Button presses sometimes didn’t register, and sometimes more than once.

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I never progressed beyond Final Cut for Loupedeck because it was so annoying to use outside of the knobs. Stream Deck+ is a much nicer experience, so I expect to see Photoshop customizations, programming customizations, and probably just some general system improvements.

For this purpose, I already have a knob that controls the brightness of all three screens and another that controls the system volume.

Is this expense necessary?

Additional control surfaces are rarely needed. You can do everything I do Streaming+ and the SideshowFX profile using keyboard and mouse.

As I’ve often mentioned in my personal productivity discussions, I’m always looking for ways to save time. I already work a lot of hours, and every productivity trick I implement that saves minutes or hours means more time for my family and sleep. These tricks also save wear and tear on my wrist.

If spending $199 on Stream Deck+ gives me about 50 more hours of family time or sleep per year (and I think it will be more), isn’t it worth it? Wouldn’t you spend four dollars a week for an extra hour of family time or sleep? It’s a no-brainer for me.

What about you? Are you looking for productivity hacks? Do you think you would benefit from Stream Deck+? Are you already using Stream Deck? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

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