Video editing can quickly end up being the longest stage of a video project. However, this doesn’t necessarily have to be the case. Our list of five time-saving tips are designed to attack common areas of wasted time in the editing process. By using these tips, we hope to help you edit more efficiently, finish your project earlier, and maybe even get paid faster.

This list includes a variety of different types of tips which include viewing clips at double speed, lowering playback resolution, saving export settings as a preset, utilizing adjustment layers, and taking advantage of shortcut keys.

Each of these alone can save you a noticeable amount of time. However, if you choose to use all of these tips over the course of a project, you may be amazed at how much time you can save overall. Without further ado, here are five ways to help you edit faster in Premiere Pro.

5 Tips Become a More Efficient Video Editor

1. Shuttle Buttons

Not a lot of Premiere Pro enthusiasts are aware of the complete use of shuttle buttons — J, K, and L. There are a lot of times during the editing process when you’re just watching clips. This could include, finding 2 seconds of usage clip from a 5-minute long video or even checking for errors in the footage.

In these situations, using the shuttle buttons could prove to be handy. Hit the L key twice to view the same videos at double the speed (and hitting it more times will increase the speed more)! The K key helps you stop the video, and the J key helps you either reduce the speed or play the clip in reverse if the footage was already stopped.

2. Drop Your Playback Resolution

Have you ever experienced lagging playback? Well, as you know, it can be a painful wait! The solution: drop your playback resolution to help your computer catch up. But don’t worry, this won’t affect the video quality once it is exported, but can reduce these lags significantly. Choose the most appropriate quality reduction and you are set!

To do this, click on Select Playback Resolution under the playback window, and choose the quality reduction that works best for you.

3. Save Export Settings as a Preset

If you usually export videos using the same parameters every time, then why not create a preset? Rather than individually selecting each option whenever you export, you can save a tremendous amount of time with this quick fix.

To set this up, head on over to Export Settings > Preset > Custom and give it a name. And, now every time you go to export a video, you can just select the custom one you set up. Plus, if you work with different types of videos, you can set up as many presets as you want for different export parameters. One-click and you’re ready to good to go!

By the way, if you want to brush up on the various export settings, you should check out this tutorial here.

4. Adjustment Layers

Considering an environment where a lot of effects and edits are repeated on the video editing process, adjustment layers can be a blessing! For instance, if need to add multiple effects on each clip, it’s best to do that only once.

To get rid of all these involved hassles, make use of an adjustment layer and add in all the effects. Highlight your Project Manager > File > New > Adjustment Layer, save it and drag it at the top of the footage you want to apply to. Now make the changes you want to apply. You’ll see everything underneath the adjustment layer will display your effect. Believe us, this will save you a lot of time.

For even more tips on ways you can use adjustments layers, we’ve got you covered.

5. Shortcut Keys

Using shortcut keys is one of the best ways to save time while making video edits. There are so many combinations to help you get your work done. For instance, the toolbar has a number of features to help when editing. And each one has a corresponding shortcut key.

One way to quickly get up to speed is to hover your mouse over an item in the toolbar. You’ll see a little in brackets, and you guessed it, that’s part of the shortcut. For instance:

Selection Tool: V

Razor Tool: C

Slip Tool: Y

Type Tool: T

And so on

We’ve even put together an ultimate keyboard shortcuts list if you want to take your editing speed to the next level.

Each of these tips has the capability of saving a bit of your editing time. However, when you use all of these tips altogether, you will actually end up saving a lot of your time when editing in Premiere Pro. We hope you found these 5 tips useful. Do you have any great time-saving tricks of your own? Let us know in the comments below!