Nothing seems to be working, your presentations never finish on time. Let's look at some of the causes and suggest a powerful fix:
Some potential causes:
- A master of ceremonies or a key person in your organization has taken some of your time away with a rather long presentation.
- Questions and comments from your audience have caused you delays.
- Your content is a little too generous for the time slot.
- Your stories and anecdotes are a little longer than what one would wish.
Here are ideas for speakers who are struggling to finish their presentations on time and a horse-remedy to help them become more self aware of how they are using time:
- Agree beforehand with the person introducing you or the person who will speak during your presentation on the timing of this presentation.
- Think about the questions and comments your listeners may have and allow time for these interventions in the preparation stage of your presentation.
- Write your content based on the minimum content needed to ensure understanding or to enable decision-making by your listeners.
- Practice telling an example or an anecdote and time yourself with a stopwatch during your preparation. You will be surprised how long these take!
A possible cure:
Make a list of all your slides, including the number and title of each one, and write down the time required to present each slide. Be conservative and always plan a little longer than necessary. Add the time of all the slides. Would you still finish on time?