Unpleasant consequences of poor timekeeping
- If your presentation goes on too long, your audience will start to be bored.
- Overrunning is unprofessional and may mean a loss of respect. It could also lead to a reduced audience buy-in for what you have been talking about – be it your ideas or services.
- If another presenter is to follow you, you are basically stealing their time for yourself. Furthermore, you may make things tense for the whole remainder of the programme.
- You will be using up time that otherwise could have been devoted to a meaningful Q&A session, which would be a pity.
How to avoid it
- Fortunately, there are a few things you can do so that you always end your speech on time.
- Prepare your presentation properly.
- Double-check in advance how much time you have. Speaking slot times do change, so check with the organisers. Do whatever you can to avoid any unpleasant surprises that might occur when you appear in front of your audience.
- Be prepared to cover 80% of your time slot in order to have some time in reserve. You should know your average speaking speed so you can make a rough estimate.
- Rehearse your speech to see how long it takes.
- Use an external indicator so as to know the time situation. There might be a clock in the room but it is better to rely on your own devices. Ideally you should have someone signal the time to you; in the heat of the moment, it is easy to forget about the clock.
- Last but not least, be willing – and ready – to edit your speech on the fly if you are running short of time. This advice comes from the presentationmagazine.com website.
-jk-