Time Management for Speeches and Presentations
It is often said that the most valuable commodity in life is time. This is especially true in the world of work where we are all being asked to deliver much more in less time than before. Technology is feeding this growth in productivity, but the paradox is that we all seem to have less time than before! As presenters we need to bear this in mind and remember that good time management is a key factor in any effective speech or presentation. Your audience are giving up valuable time in to listen to you and you need to respect this commitment in two ways.
Firstly, make sure you give a presentation that adds value in some way to the medium you use. What does this mean? Well, if you are using slides, then use them to support your key points. Don’t just read from the screen – the audience can read for themselves and you will be wasting their time. If you just intend to read slide content out loud, it might be better to email some notes to them and save everybody’s time.
The second way to respect your audience’s in terms of their time commitment to you is to clearly state how long you will speak for at the outset of your presentation and stick to it. Your audience are much more likely to stay engaged in a presentation with an end point that they can anticipate. If you just speak, your audience have no indication of how long you will speak for and may be inclined to ‘switch off’. For presentations of fifteen minutes or longer try using an ‘agenda’ slide to communicate the key topics you will cover and how long the whole presentation will take. If you are including a question and answer session, then tell the audience the time allotted for this part of the presentation as well.
The best way to work out how long your presentation is going to take is to practice it. This means actually speaking as you will in the presentation. Do this a few times and time yourself. Use the average time as your guide time for the actual speech.
If you respect the time that an audience has invested in your presentation, they are much more likely to respond positively.
