Do you find yourself giving basic lessons in these tasks
Yes. Clients are typically not tech savvy. That's what you are for. In fact, it took me quite some time to really wrap my head around just how much clients do not care about tech. The higher up the food chain they are, usually the less they care. They're worried about business which focuses on people. When you have that down, you get everything done for you. It's a difficult perspective to take on when you spend all your days and nights in front of glowing rectangles... and you do everything yourself.
The old building a house adage comes into play. I have no idea about the mechanics of wiring, ventilation, building codes. I want to decide on counter top materials, perhaps, but the rest is what I'm paying for. If my builder expected me to learn a new tool to provide information they need, that might delay things a little. To that end, I usually expect to conform to whichever for of communication they're comfortable with. As a general rule, no new accounts and definitely no new software; the CMS I usually present will be more than enough on the training front.
What are your tricks to getting content from clients in a timely manner and organized fashion?
Provide copy writing services. Preferably from a copy writer. If the client insists on doing it themselves, and they often do because everyone's a copywriter, then place it into the time line and make it clear it's a stopping point if it doesn't get turned in.
Client tasks will always delay projects. That's just kind of a reality; they have other stuff to do. For the most part, it behooves you to be very accommodating since its likely you will soon have a task on your plate which takes you longer than you expected.
In extreme cases, where the project stops for extraordinary amounts of time, you could consider charging them for a delay. This must be spelled out before you get started, however, if you want to avoid souring the relationship.
Do you require the to submit it in a certain way?
Software wise, not generally. It could be in a text message for all I care (actually I do, I'm being rhetorical for illustration). This bends a little if the client is outnumbered by other content contributors. In which case, it's usually a (or several) Word Document since it best handles the "team" thing; they're like their own mobile version repositories.