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Presentation Tips

How to Manage Your Time During a Presentation

You’ve been offered a 60-minute timeslot to present to a group of stakeholders but have 90 minutes of content you want to cover — or worse yet, only 30 minutes. How do you make your message resonate with your audience while not feeling rushed or pressed for time? We offer our best tips for managing your time during a presentation while keeping your audience engaged and talking points heard.

Rehearse and then rehearse again

At a minimum, you should be practicing your presentation between five and 10 times. The goal is not to repeat the same dialogue word for word each time but rather find ways to say something differently or more succinctly each time. You’ll want to not only figure out how long each slide will take to cover, but also when and where to pivot if things don’t go as planned. Stick to the rule of thirds: Spend one-third of your time planning, one-third designing, and one-third rehearsing.

Be ready to cut it short

Life happens, especially when others are in control. Maybe participants are late getting back from a session break, the presenter before you runs long, or the inevitable technical issue happens. If you outline your presentation with key points and sub-points, you should be able to skip along more quickly by only covering the key points when short on time. What’s more, it’s better to engage your audience and encourage questions throughout than finish the presentation. By coming across as the expert in the room, you open the door to scheduling time at a later date with those who want to discuss points not covered during the allotted time.

Arrive early

The best way to avoid the unavoidable is to show up early to your designated location so setup doesn’t factor into your presentation time, and if it doesn’t take that long, give that time to the next presenter for their setup. Simply put, if you’re arriving or finishing on time, you’re running late. Plus, the added bonus of arriving early is you get to know your audience a little bit and find out what’s at the top of their mind. These are golden moments you can integrate into your presentation.

Be realistic

During rehearsal, you’ll quickly get a sense if your presentation is too long or too short. Be realistic about your personal speaking habits. Do you tend to speed up when you’re actually presenting? Do you pause a lot? Do you know if this audience loves to ask questions? Consider those real-world situations as you try to edit your deck. Some extra tips: Don’t linger on a slide for too long; make your point and move on to keep your energy high. Along the same lines, don’t try and cram everything you know into the presentation. Stick to your key points and anecdotes to make sure people are really absorbing the content. Think quality, not quantity.

Never count on a clock being in the room to manage your time in the moment of your presentation. Have your phone (silenced, of course) on the podium ready to glance at, appoint someone in the back of the room to give you cues when you are running out of time, or even discretely glance at your watch while taking a sip of water. Even though you’ve rehearsed enough to know how the time will pan out, taking an obvious break to check the time can be a big distraction.

What time constraints do you run into when making a presentation?

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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Managing Time Effectively in Your Presentation: 4 Expert Tips  – How to Stay on Track!

We’ve all been there. Halfway through a presentation, you suddenly realise that you don‘t have enough time left! This despite the fact that you‘ve practiced the presentation again and again and have always come in under time.

Presentations are often time-limited. In particular, pitch presentations, and occasions where there are several speakers, generally have rigid time limits that you must stick to. This article will give you four great tips for managing time effectively.

How to keep your presentation to time – 4 expert tips

Here are our four best tips for managing time during your presentation effectively – why not give them   a try?

Tip #1: Prepare thoroughly

You need to start thinking about the timing of your presentation from the beginning of your preparation . One way of doing this is to take a sheet of paper and sketch out your slides in sequence , making a note of the maximum presentation time you anticipate for each slide.

This helps you see which slides are essential, and which can be left out.  You should end up with a coherent narrative line, where each slide adds to your argument.

How much speaking time should you allow per slide?

It would be great if we could calculate the speaking time per slide , adding up to the time you’re allowed for your presentation, thus solving the problem of time management. Unfortunately, there aren’t any hard and fast rules. The approximate speaking time per slide depends on the content of that slide and your presentation topic.

As a rule, however, aim to speak for no more than 3-4 minutes per slide. In general, keep it shorter rather than too long – this keeps your audience attentive.

Bonus tip: Keep in mind that your presentation will almost always take longer than when you rehearse it at home beforehand. This is because you are interacting with the audience and follow-up questions are asked. Allow about 20%-40% more time for the actual presentation.

Tip #2: Look at your subject from an outsider’s perspective, and present it accordingly

Think like an outsider. Instead of considering the individual points of your presentation from your own point of view, imagine how long it would take someone without your prior knowledge and background to understand them . Use the latter times as a guide. This way you allow as much room as possible for questions.

You know yourself and your strengths best. When is your energy level at its highest? Do you start strong or do you need a few minutes to get into flow? Tailor your presentation accordingly. Who is your audience and where are you going to give your presentation?

If you are presenting on the evening of the last day of a conference, for example, you need to be prepared for a tired audience. If you are introducing a conference, you may need to clarify terms first. Also, plan your presentation time carefully in light of your surroundings. T hat way, you won’t run out of time or breath.

As a general rule, make sure you meet the needs of your audience . Ask yourself what points you really want to include in your presentation to get your core message across. You can find further tips in our short article “ Focus on audience’s needs “.

Tip #3: Use PowerPoint Speaker View

Another simple trick you can use to keep your presentation time is the PowerPoint Speaker View. This handy PowerPoint feature offers lots of helpful options. For example, you could set it to show the next slide along in your presentation, or display notes that only you, and not your audience, can see.

A really useful feature here is the timer. It shows how much time of your presentation has already passed, allowing you to keep the presentation on time.

We go through how to set the timer in our article “ PowerPoint Presenter View” .

Tip #4: Use shortcuts for PowerPoint for managing time better!

With the right keyboard shortcuts, you can save a lot of time, whether in PowerPoint presentations or generally when working on the computer. The best thing is: they are easy to learn and work on every computer! You can find out exactly which shortcuts there are and how to get the most out of working with shortcuts in our blog post on “ Shortcuts .”

With the help of shortcuts, you can work much more efficiently in the future and invest more time in presenting itself . Not only you, but also your audience will thank you!

Extra Tip: Use add-ins from PresentationLoad!

Our customers often ask whether there is an add-in available that makes it possible to display time periods, countdowns or the current time in presentations . We listened, and developed such an add-in ourselves! With the help of our revolutionary time presentation tool, you can now incorporate time management and efficiency into your next presentation in a professional way.

Until now, the only way to get an overview of time in PowerPoint presentations was to use PowerPoint Speaker View. Unfortunately, this function is only visible to the presenter. That’s why our new Dynamic Time Add-In tool equips your current PowerPoint version with the features needed to show time, date and time periods in the way that best suits your presentation.

The add-in is compatible with:

• Microsoft Office 2010 (32bit & 64bit)
• Microsoft Office 2013 (32bit & 64bit)
• Windows 7 (32bit & 64bit)
• Windows 8.1 (32bit & 64bit)

Four for one: time, date, counter and countdown

Whether it’s a presentation, a lecture, self-running info screens, or trade fair presentations, showing the time, whether faded in or as a countdown, can be a great tool . For example, you could announce an upcoming deadline for an important product or the launch of your website by fading in a countdown.

By doing so, you not only add interest to your presentation, but also have the use of a unique tool known only to a few. To help you get started, we provide a short tutorial below, to help get you up to speed. Follow the simple instructions to get started!

Just install and go: instructions

The add-in is installed by executing the downloaded file (admin rights may be required) and is automatically integrated within your PowerPoint window as a tab.

To activate the range of functions, click the DynamicElements tab. Then select the Time button to open the Time Panel options window. The editing interface for Dynamic Time now appears on the right of the screen.

As soon as you create a new textbox and select a mode in the Time Panel, it will automatically include the date (or time/countdown) you want.

Any number of text fields can be assigned with time and date display. To do this, create a text field in the conventional way, then activate it via the Time Panel (on the right of the page) by assigning a new mode (the default is none).

We’ve put in four modes (functions with setting options) for this purpose:

• Clock for the time display
• Date to show the date
• Counter to display a counter
• Countdown to see a countdown

When choosing time- or date-based displays, you need to select a time zone if the one you want is not the default.

You can display any time or date using a single field, or split it into components (e.g. the time in hours, minutes and seconds).

To see what the dynamic element looks like once inserted, switch to presentation mode via the Slide Show tab and choose From current slide .

(For further instructions, please see the ReadMeFirst file included in the add-in).

Possible uses:

• Dynamic time display
• Show the current time (including seconds) on your PowerPoint slides during the presentation:

• Show a start screen with live time in digital format (for your event, lecture, self-running presentation/info screen):

• Display a world clock with different time zones. By setting different time zones you can, for example, display an individualized company world clock, including all your company locations:

Display the date in different formats . The days of the week can be automatically included if so desired. Combine the date and time for attractive calendar pages!

3. Dynamic Counter

Show the time which has elapsed since a specified point in time (giving the date and time). For example, show the time since the launch of a new product or of your website, the founding of your company or the opening of a particular location.

4. Dynamic Countdown

Show the time remaining until a particular event (in days, hours, minutes and seconds).

Click here to get to the add-in: Download

To sum up: Managing time in presentations the right way

The chances are that your next presentation is coming up. Using our expert tips, you can plan and achieve sticking to the time you’re given for your presentation .  You should find it far easier to manage that time effectively.

If you have any further questions about managing presentation time, or indeed about PowerPoint in general, do feel free to email us at [email protected] . We’re always glad to help!

Looking for professionally designed slide templates for your presentation? Take a look around our store! We have a fabulous range of slides for download covering the business topics you need! ► Shop

You might also be interested in the following articles:

• PowerPoint Presenter View
• Concentrate on Audience’s Needs
• Preparing Presentatios: 11 tips
• Target Group Analysis

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How-To Geek

How to time your powerpoint slides for more effective presentations.

Delivering a presentation is not just about giving good slides, it is also about making sure that our presentation finishes by the time our audience w

Delivering a presentation is not just about giving good slides, it is also about making sure that our presentation finishes by the time our audience wants to have their tea break---so practicing how long to speak for each slide is essential for a proper presentation.

Rehearsing our Slides

Before we rehearse, make sure that we select our first slide. Now open the 'Slide Show' tab and click the 'Rehearse Timings' button.

Powerpoint will start the usual presentation mode with a timer panel. The clock on the panel will start ticking once we enter the presentation mode.

Click on the arrow button to move on the next slide and Microsoft Powerpoint will record each timing as you progress from one slide to the next one. You can also click on the pause button just in case you need to answer the phone or turn off the oven while you're rehearsing your slides.

You will see a summary on how much time you have spent on each slide at the end of the rehearsal.

Create a Self-Running Presentation

You can even set a self-running power point slides and let it run according to these timing, relieving us from the need to manually navigate the slides. Bear in mind that we can run into a situation where Powerpoint changes the slides before we finish, so make sure that you can deliver each slide based on your rehearsal timing.

Click on the setup slide show button.

Select the 'Browsed at a kiosk (full screen)' option to setup a self-running Powerpoint presentation. Press the 'esc' key to stop the self-running presentation.

You can re-adjust the presentation timing by recording back from the beginning or from the current slide.

If we're still not happy with the timing, we can clear all the slides timing and redo our presentation rehearsal.

Delivering a good presentation is not an easy task and requires a lot of practice. There are tons of great things that we can do with Powerpoint to add punch to our presentation, for example:

• Adding live web pages to our presentation
• Animating text and objects
• Putting video from the web in our presentation
• Using your mouse as a laser pointer in PowerPoint 2010

What other tips do you have for giving an effective presentation?

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Presentation Timing: 5 Tips to Stay On Time and Avoid Audience Wrath

Were you happy about it? Or were you mad that they now put you behind for your next appointment? Or did you leave before they wrapped up?

In this article, we examine the importance of finishing on time and give 5 tips for staying within your time constraints.

Is finishing your presentation on time important?

In most situations, yes!

Always assume that your audience is busy (because they are).

Always assume that could have chosen other places to be (because they could have).

Always assume that they have something planned immediately after you finish (because they usually do).

Audiences get uneasy if you are approaching your time limit and you aren’t wrapping up.

• They start to consider walking out .
• They start to get nervous thinking about their next appointment , and how they may be late.
• They start wishing you’d wrap it up already.
• Most importantly, they stop listening to you!

Not only do you lose credibility with your audience and risk offending them, but you also lose the opportunity to make a strong conclusion because they either aren’t listening or they aren’t in the room!

Is it better to end early, or right on time?

If it’s really bad to finish over time, then one might assume that you should always try to end well under your allowed time. However, that’s not always good either.

If you finish your presentation considerably under time (e.g. 20 minutes early in a presentation scheduled for one hour), your audience may feel cheated, particularly if they paid to listen to you speak. They may feel that you promised 60 minutes of value, but only delivered 40.

For this reason, one safe rule of thumb is to speak for between 90-100% of your allowed time . So, if your presentation is planned for 60 minutes, you should speak at least 54 (or 55 for a nice round number). This ensures that your audience doesn’t “feel cheated”, but also ensures that you don’t go over time.

There are all sorts of exceptions to the above rule of thumb, so use your judgement and do what makes sense in your situation.

5 Steps To Keep Your Presentation Within Time

It’s really not that hard to finish your presentation on time. Just follow these five simple steps:

#1 — Know Your Allowed Time

Have you ever heard a speaker walking away from a venue muttering: “I thought I had longer”?

This is the result of poor communication between the speaker and the event organizer. Both the speaker and the event organizer end up looking bad in this scenario.

Make sure you are always aware of how long you have to speak. Verify with the event organizer before the event.

#2 — Plan Your Content and Edit as Necessary

For many speakers, the problem is not knowing how much time the audience is giving them. The problem is being unreasonable with how much they can say within that allotted time.

Most people overestimate how much material they can adequately cover within a given time. They want to “share everything” and “leave nothing back”. On the other hand, the wise presenter develops strong self-awareness about how long it takes to effectively deliver their message.

When you are planning, also consider:

• Q&A : Allow time for audience questions, either within your presentation or at the end.
• Activities : Allow adequate time for any planning audience activities or exercises. One of my challenges is that I tend to underestimate how long it takes to explain an activity and “break into groups” before the exercise even starts.
• Breaks : For longer presentations, budget time for breaks for stretching, bathroom visits, coffee, or meals. This all comes out of your allotted time. In a typical full-day (8-hour) training course, for example, you might only have 6 hours of instruction once you subtract out all of the breaks.

Cut mercilessly to make sure the material you intend to deliver can be delivered within your time constraints. It’s better to present the appropriate amount at a pace which the audience can absorb rather than whizzing through too much material so the audience grasps nothing.

#3 — Rehearse Effectively

Until you gain experience as a speaker, you may not be able to accurately gauge how much content fits within a given time. For example, how many pages would you write if delivering a 30 minute commencement address? How many case studies can you cover in a lunch-time seminar?

“ If you go over time while rehearsing, you’ve got to cut material. ”

The best way to measure how long it will take is to time yourself while you rehearse effectively:

• Rehearse standing up and speaking out loud . Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that you can just “whisper” your way through your slides while sitting in front of your computer. Your pace will be different while standing.
• Speak to a test audience , even if all you can arrange is one person. This eliminates the tendency to “practice within yourself” as some speakers do while rehearsing. Just one audience member forces you to make eye contact and look for audience feedback. It also simulates a bit of the pressure you may feel with a real audience. You can also get valuable feedback by asking “How was my pace? Did I go too fast?”
• Make it as close to the real thing as possible . If you’ll be using a presentation remote to advance your slides, then rehearse with one. If you’ll be moving around in the “real presentation”, then do so as you rehearse. If you can rehearse in the room where you’ll be presenting, do so. The more closely you can mimic the real thing, the better your time estimate will be.
• Make it a dress rehearsal . If I’m planning to wear a suit when presenting, I like to rehearse in one. For me, the act of dressing up creates the same nervous energy and tends to give me more accurate timing.

Rehearsing in this way allows you to accurately time your presentation under close-to-real circumstances. If you go over time while rehearsing, you’ve got to cut material.

#4 — Start on Time

How many times have you seen a presenter ask for “just 5 more minutes” at the end of a one-hour presentation, despite having started ten minutes late?

Do everything in your power to start on time. Arrive early, sort out your technology, and make sure everything is set to go when your time starts. Don’t waste a moment.

Your exact start time isn’t always within your control. For example, I know of one company where “lunch-time seminars” always start at 12:15. If you are invited to speak in this forum, you’ve got to know that. A thorough discussion with the event organizer should reveal this.

#5 — Measure Your Progress and Adjust

For short speeches (say, under 15 minutes), you can probably just launch into it and hit your end time target within reason (assuming you have rehearsed it).

For longer presentations, however, you can use a more strategic approach:

• As you rehearse your content, note how long it takes for each “block” of your presentation. (Get someone to time you if necessary.)
• 12:05 – Start presentation
• 12:15 – Introduction and case study introduced
• 12:30 – Case study and lessons learned complete
• 12:50 – Live demonstration complete
• 12:58 – Q&A complete. Applause.
• Write down these targets and have them with you as you present, perhaps on a small notepad by your water. (I do it with red pen and big letters.)
• As you reach the end of each “block”, check the clock . If you are running behind, you can adjust your pace. For example, if you are starting the live demonstration at 12:35, then you know you are 5 minutes behind, and you’ll have to cut planned material to “catch up.”
• If necessary, recruit an assistant with a watch to help you monitor your intermediate targets.

Speaking over your allowed time is disrespectful and will annoy at least some people in your audience. It’s a privilege to have their attention, whether it’s for 5 minutes or 5 hours. Don’t abuse it! End on time — every time.

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We’ve all been there. The speaker speaks for far longer than anyone expects and as an audience member you just sit there thinking “when will this end?” I’ve seen it time after time at public speaking clubs in particular.

It’s worth reinforcing that when you are speaking in front of an audience, it will always take longer to cover the same material adequately. That extra time is necessary to let the message sink in with a real, live audience. Rehearsal time can be misleading, so don’t get caught out!

I would love to share this with clients. Your 5 minutes is not the same as mine, just make sure you finish on time. Great read!

this is great advise ur really smart dude keep doing you

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5 Tips to Stay On Time and Avoid Audience Wrath http://t.co/6es9Vmug — Presenting Away Dec 19th, 2012

Presentation timing: 5 tips to avoid audience wrath http://t.co/Dw4Je0rz — Diane Dec 21st, 2012

recommend reading for presenters at conferences http://t.co/LfnlikwXp6 — @tweetsimon Jul 7th, 2014

@VMart speaks the truth! 5 tips to keep yourself on time and your audience happy. http://t.co/SWeQFQEcDE #AFS145 https://t.co/bxbn7wDSjQ — @pseanmc Aug 19th, 2015

.@6minutes Andrew! I just read your article on speech timing, so great! Also giving it to my students to read ~ https://t.co/JzheERLxNz — @JacksonHoleRose Oct 25th, 2015

Presentation Timing: 5 Tips to Stay On Time and Avoid Audience Wrath https://t.co/qjXmwcjwZ4 by @6minutes — Sleiman Skaf (@SleimanSkaf) Apr 20th, 2016

#TuesdayTips Good tips by @6minutes about keeping your presentation within the allotted time. https://t.co/Rk2GtzReRv — PitchVantage (@pitchvantage) Jul 26th, 2016

There is nothing worse than when speakers go on and on and on . . . https://t.co/XZVnTmNvHO — @speakers4change Oct 5th, 2016

#DMCIT Might be of interest for the upcoming presentations. https://t.co/oeGhqqc5F8 — @Zeet66 Nov 1st, 2016

Of course, you don’t want to go way under time, but, in my opinion, it’s much better than going over time. I like… https://t.co/4FPFvPxB6R — @justineldees Oct 28th, 2018

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Manage Your Presentation Time Efficiently With These Pro Tips

• Public speaking

Having a time restriction for your presentation delivery is a common feature of most public speaking engagements or business events. You are usually allotted a time for speaking and a time for questions or an overall time slot for both. Keeping to this presentation time shows respect for your audience and ensures that you deliver an organized presentation that transmits a message. It’s also a sign of respect to the other speakers that come after you.

After a number of presentations, you have probably had instances of finishing earlier than expected or running over time, and that’s only natural. As you gain more experience, you get a better feeling of how to prepare your presentation better for the allotted time and how to deliver it most efficiently.

However, giving a good talk and staying on time is a coachable skill. With our team’s experience and our clients’ accounts, we’ve learned some essential elements you can keep in sight as a presenter.

Here are some tips to help you keep to time in your presentation delivery:

1. Frame your content

When planning your presentation, be realistic about what can be achieved in the allocated time. You cannot communicate the same amount of information in a presentation that you can in a report or a white paper.

Try to conceive the presentation more like a story than a dry document. People are wired to listen to stories, and metaphors. This type of narrative structures work best to engage people. They’re also easier to time block.

If you decide to frame the presentation as a story, the biggest decisions are figuring out where to start and where to end. One of the most common error in designing presentations is that they try to cover too much ground. If you try to cram in everything you know, you won’t have time to include key details, your talk will lack clarity and you’ll probably run overtime.

Also read:   5 Pro Tips For Giving Better Presentations

Organize your presentation starting from a few key ideas. Include specific case studies and examples. You might be tempted to take a broader approach to them but the more you focus your ideas and go deeper into the ones you’ve chosen, the more clear and easy to organize your presentation will be.

2. Build a layered presentation

Once you have a foundation to your presentation with the key story elements and your main ideas, you can take each section and expand it. This way, you’ll be able to give the same presentation in a longer time frame or in a shorter one, depending on the time you have.

For example, if you’re creating a presentation on Digital Marketing Trends, you can organize it to have an Introductory section, 5 Main trends, each with its own section, and a Conclusion. Every section can have 2-3 fundamental slides that can make a short version of your presentation. You can also choose to include 2-3 more slides per each section, with details, sub-trends or case studies, that can be included in the longer version of your presentation.

This way you can use the same document in two different events, with two different presentation time requirements.

3. Practice it several times

Even the most experienced presenter knows the importance of practicing your presentation. And not once, but several times. Even though you have created the content, unless you spend the necessary time speaking it out loud, to include details or body language elements and even audience interactions, you won’t know how long the presentation takes to deliver. You want to master it before presenting it to others, not only to fit in the allotted time but also to exude confidence and connect with the audience.

We’ve all heard of at least one presenter who got stuck or who didn’t know what slide was next. That’s a major no-no. Here are some things you need to time box when planning your presentation delivery:

Getting settled in front of your audience in order to prepare your visual aids, notes etc. before you start talking;Distributing handouts at the start/during/end of your talk;Developing points in more detail if it appears that your audience hasn’t understood an area of your talk;Accommodating any slight deviations from your script that you might make ‘off the cuff’;Responding  to questions whilst you’re speaking and after you’ve finished;Working  with your visual aids (change slides, annotate images etc.);Accommodating  any pauses whilst you review your notes / allow your audience time to think between main points.

Practice it in front of colleagues or friends. Try to replicate the actual delivery as closely as possible, don’t just read it several times or else you might not have a clear view of how much time it actually takes. It will also give you the chance to receive some constructive feedback.

4. Have someone to keep the time

We each have our own awareness of the passing of time but it’s usually not the same for everyone. Our perception of time is alo influenced by the specific situation we’re in at a certain moment. If you’re stressed, time might seem to slow down, whereas if you’re relaxed and engaged in a topic, you can easily think you have more time to present your ideas when, in fact, you don’t.

Also read:  Use These Presentation Apps To Rehearse Anywhere

Have someone in the organizing team of the event or someone on your team hold up a sign every 15 min or so to let you know how much time you have left. You can also use a regular clock or an app that you put in front of you. If you realize you’ll soon be running out of time, pause for a moment to review what you can realistically achieve in the last moments, without rushing forcibly through the rest of the content.

Make sure you also plan for some spare time. Unexpected delays in the beginning or unforeseen audience interactions might take some of the time you’ve budgeted for your actual delivery.

The single most important thing to remember is that, in time, you’ll develop your own rhythm. Which is both a good thing and a bad one if you don’t adapt. If you’re still building up the experience, it’s a good thing; you’ll soon become more aware of how much time you need both to prepare and to deliver your presentation.

If you’re a seasoned public speaker, you might think you know all of this already. But it’s important that you always try new things and adapt to the ever changing world of presentations and public speaking. We now have a multitude of tools, apps and different types of events that might still catch you unprepared if you skip some of the steps we’ve mentioned today. You know what they say: never stop learning.

If you’re looking to step up your public speaking game, check out these 10 easy steps to becoming a keynote speaker!

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The Art of Timing: Timing Your Presentation for Maximum Impact

April 16, 2023 / Blog

When delivering a presentation, timing is more than just keeping track of minutes on a clock.

Timing is an art that can greatly impact the effectiveness of your message and your audience’s engagement. The right timing can captivate your audience, reinforce key points, and leave a lasting impression. However, poor timing can result in disinterested listeners, missed opportunities, and a lackluster presentation.

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The science of timing.

Timing is not just an abstract concept but has real psychological and physiological impacts on the presenter and the audience. Understanding the science behind timing can help presenters make informed decisions on structuring their presentations for maximum impact.

Psychological Impact

Timing plays a significant role in audience engagement and retention.

Studies have shown that attention spans are limited, and listeners tend to lose interest if a presentation drags on or feels rushed. Moreover, your presentation’s timing can affect your audience’s cognitive load—the amount of mental effort required to process information.

Too long or fast-paced presentations can overwhelm the audience and reduce their ability to retain and comprehend the information.

Physiological Impact

Timing can also impact the physiological responses of both the presenter and the audience.

When a presenter is rushed or anxious due to poor timing, it can affect their vocal tone, body language, and overall delivery. On the other hand, a well-timed presentation can create a sense of rhythm and flow, enhancing the speaker’s confidence and stage presence.

Similarly, the audience’s physiological response, such as their heart rate, can be influenced by the timing of the presentation, affecting their level of engagement and emotional connection with the content.

Optimal Presentation Lengths

Research suggests that the ideal presentation length may vary depending on the context and audience.

TED talks, known for their engaging and impactful presentations, are typically limited to 18 minutes or less since shorter presentations align better with the limited attention spans of today’s audiences. However, longer presentations may be appropriate in specific settings, such as academic lectures or training sessions. 

Understanding the optimal presentation length for your audience and context can help you plan your timing accordingly.

Attention Spans

Attention spans vary depending on factors such as age, context, and level of interest. 

On average, studies have shown that the attention span of adults ranges from 10 to 20 minutes, while children’s attention span is even shorter. This highlights the importance of structuring your presentation with engaging content and well-timed transitions to maintain audience attention throughout your presentation.

Techniques for Timing Your Presentation Effectively

Timing your presentation requires more than being aware of the factors that can impact your pacing; it also involves utilizing specific techniques to ensure your delivery is smooth, engaging, and impactful. Here are some techniques to help you time your presentation effectively:

Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse

Practice makes perfect when it comes to timing your presentation. Rehearsing your presentation multiple times can help you get familiar with your content, delivery style, and timing.

Time yourself during rehearsals to ensure you stay within your allotted time, and make adjustments as needed. Practicing also helps you build confidence, which can positively impact your delivery and timing during the actual presentation.

Use a Timer or Stopwatch

Utilize a timer or stopwatch during rehearsals and the actual presentation to track of your time. Set specific time limits for each section or slide of your presentation and stick to them to help you stay on track and avoid running over time.

Pace Yourself

Pay attention to your speaking rate and pace yourself accordingly .

Avoid speaking too quickly or too slowly, as both can affect the timing and comprehension of your presentation. Vary your speaking speed to add emphasis, create pauses, and engage your audience.

Use Visual Cues

Use visual cues, such as notes or slides, to guide your timing during your presentation. 

Highlight key points, transitions, or cues for audience engagement to ensure you stay on track with your timing. However, be mindful not to rely too heavily on visual cues, as they may affect your connection with the audience.

Be Mindful of Time Signals

Keep an eye on any time signals provided by organizers or moderators during your presentation.

Time signals may include visual cues, such as time cards or hand signals, to indicate how much time you have left. Be attentive to these signals and adjust your pacing accordingly.

Practice Flexibility

Be prepared to adjust your timing on the spot if needed.

Unexpected situations may arise during your presentation that can affect your timing, such as technical issues, audience questions, or interruptions. Therefore, practice flexibility by having contingency plans, such as shortening or omitting certain content, to adapt to unexpected situations while maintaining effective timing.

Seek Feedback

Request feedback from a trusted colleague, mentor, or friend who can provide constructive feedback on your timing. They could identify areas where you can improve your pacing and suggest adjustments.

Mastering the art of timing is essential for delivering a presentation that captivates and resonates with your audience. Follow these strategies to ensure your presentation is well-timed for maximum impact, leading to a successful and memorable presentation experience.

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What Are Effective Presentation Skills (and How to Improve Them)

Presentation skills are essential for your personal and professional life. Learn about effective presentations and how to boost your presenting techniques.

At least seven out of 10 Americans agree that presentation skills are essential for a successful career [ 1 ]. Although it might be tempting to think that these are skills reserved for people interested in public speaking roles, they're critical in a diverse range of jobs. For example, you might need to brief your supervisor on research results.

Presentation skills are also essential in other scenarios, including working with a team and explaining your thought process, walking clients through project ideas and timelines, and highlighting your strengths and achievements to your manager during performance reviews.

Whatever the scenario, you have very little time to capture your audience’s attention and get your point across when presenting information—about three seconds, according to research [ 2 ]. Effective presentation skills help you get your point across and connect with the people you’re communicating with, which is why nearly every employer requires them.

Understanding what presentation skills are is only half the battle. Honing your presenting techniques is essential for mastering presentations of all kinds and in all settings.

What are presentation skills?

Presentation skills are the abilities and qualities necessary for creating and delivering a compelling presentation that effectively communicates information and ideas. They encompass what you say, how you structure it, and the materials you include to support what you say, such as slides, videos, or images.

You'll make presentations at various times in your life. Examples include:

Making speeches at a wedding, conference, or another event

Making a toast at a dinner or event

Explaining projects to a team 

Delivering results and findings to management teams

Teaching people specific methods or information

Proposing a vote at community group meetings

Pitching a new idea or business to potential partners or investors

Why are presentation skills important? 

Delivering effective presentations is critical in your professional and personal life. You’ll need to hone your presentation skills in various areas, such as when giving a speech, convincing your partner to make a substantial purchase, and talking to friends and family about an important situation.

No matter if you’re using them in a personal or professional setting, these are the skills that make it easier and more effective to convey your ideas, convince or persuade others, and experience success. A few of the benefits that often accompany improving your presentation skills include:

Enriched written and verbal communication skills

Enhanced confidence and self-image

Boosted critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities

Better motivational techniques

Increased leadership skills

Expanded time management, negotiation, and creativity

The better your presenting techniques, the more engaging your presentations will be. You could also have greater opportunities to make positive impacts in business and other areas of your life.

Effective presentation skills

Imagine yourself in the audience at a TED Talk or sitting with your coworkers at a big meeting held by your employer. What would you be looking for in how they deliver their message? What would make you feel engaged?

These are a few questions to ask yourself as you review this list of some of the most effective presentation skills.

Verbal communication

How you use language and deliver messages play essential roles in how your audience will receive your presentation. Speak clearly and confidently, projecting your voice enough to ensure everyone can hear. Think before you speak, pausing when necessary and tailoring the way you talk to resonate with your particular audience.

Body language

Body language combines various critical elements, including posture, gestures, eye contact, expressions, and position in front of the audience. Body language is one of the elements that can instantly transform a presentation that would otherwise be dull into one that's dynamic and interesting.

Voice projection

The ability to project your voice improves your presentation by allowing your audience to hear what you're saying. It also increases your confidence to help settle any lingering nerves while also making your message more engaging. To project your voice, stand comfortably with your shoulders back. Take deep breaths to power your speaking voice and ensure you enunciate every syllable you speak.

How you present yourself plays a role in your body language and ability to project your voice. It also sets the tone for the presentation. Avoid slouching or looking overly tense. Instead, remain open, upright, and adaptable while taking the formality of the occasion into account.

Storytelling

Incorporating storytelling into a presentation is an effective strategy used by many powerful public speakers. It has the power to bring your subject to life and pique the audience’s curiosity. Don’t be afraid to tell a personal story, slowly building up suspense or adding a dramatic moment. And, of course, be sure to end with a positive takeaway to drive your point home.

Active listening

Active listening is a valuable skill all on its own. When you understand and thoughtfully respond to what you hear—whether it's in a conversation or during a presentation—you’ll likely deepen your personal relationships and actively engage audiences during a presentation. As part of your presentation skill set, it helps catch and maintain the audience’s attention, helping them remain focused while minimizing passive response, ensuring the message is delivered correctly, and encouraging a call to action.

Stage presence

During a presentation, projecting confidence can help keep your audience engaged. Stage presence can help you connect with your audience and encourage them to want to watch you. To improve your presence, try amping up your normal demeanor by infusing it with a bit of enthusiasm. Project confidence and keep your information interesting.

Watch your audience as you’re presenting. If you’re holding their attention, it likely means you’re connecting well with them.

Self-awareness

Monitoring your own emotions and reactions will allow you to react well in various situations. It helps you remain personable throughout your presentation and handle feedback well. Self-awareness can help soothe nervousness during presentations, allowing you to perform more effectively.

Writing skills

Writing is a form of presentation. Sharp writing skills can help you master your presentation’s outline to ensure you stay on message and remain clear about your objectives from the beginning until the end. It’s also helpful to have strong writing abilities for creating compelling slides and other visual aids.

Understanding an audience

When you understand your audience's needs and interests, you can design your presentation around them. In turn, you'll deliver maximum value to them and enhance your ability to make your message easy to understand.

Learn more about presentation skills from industry experts at SAP:

How to improve presentation skills

There’s an art to public speaking. Just like any other type of art, this is one that requires practice. Improving your presentation skills will help reduce miscommunications, enhance your time management capabilities, and boost your leadership skills. Here are some ways you can improve these skills:

Work on self-confidence.

When you’re confident, you naturally speak more clearly and with more authority. Taking the time to prepare your presentation with a strong opening and compelling visual aids can help you feel more confident. Other ways to improve your self-confidence include practicing positive self-talk, surrounding yourself with positive people, and avoiding comparing yourself (or your presentation) to others.

Develop strategies for overcoming fear.

Many people are nervous or fearful before giving a presentation. A bad memory of a past performance or insufficient self-confidence can contribute to fear and anxiety. Having a few go-to strategies like deep breathing, practicing your presentation, and grounding can help you transform that fear into extra energy to put into your stage presence.

Learn grounding techniques.

Grounding is any type of technique that helps you steer your focus away from distressing thoughts and keeps you connected with your present self. To ground yourself, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and imagine you’re a large, mature tree with roots extending deep into the earth—like the tree, you can become unshakable.

Learn how to use presentation tools.

Visual aids and other technical support can transform an otherwise good presentation into a wow-worthy one. A few popular presentation tools include:

Canva: Provides easy-to-design templates you can customize

Powtoon: Animation software that makes video creation fast and easy

PowerPoint: Microsoft's iconic program popular for dynamic marketing and sales presentations

Practice breathing techniques.

Breathing techniques can help quell anxiety, making it easier to shake off pre-presentation jitters and nerves. It also helps relax your muscles and get more oxygen to your brain.  For some pre-presentation calmness, you can take deep breaths, slowly inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.

While presenting, breathe in through your mouth with the back of your tongue relaxed so your audience doesn't hear a gasping sound. Speak on your exhalation, maintaining a smooth voice.

Gain experience.

The more you practice, the better you’ll become. The more you doanything, the more comfortable you’ll feel engaging in that activity. Presentations are no different. Repeatedly practicing your own presentation also offers the opportunity to get feedback from other people and tweak your style and content as needed.

Tips to help you ace your presentation

Your presentation isn’t about you; it’s about the material you’re presenting. Sometimes, reminding yourself of this ahead of taking center stage can help take you out of your head, allowing you to connect effectively with your audience. The following are some of the many actions you can take on the day of your presentation.

Arrive early.

Since you may have a bit of presentation-related anxiety, it’s important to avoid adding travel stress. Give yourself an abundance of time to arrive at your destination, and take into account heavy traffic and other unforeseen events. By arriving early, you also give yourself time to meet with any on-site technicians, test your equipment, and connect with people ahead of the presentation.

Become familiar with the layout of the room.

Arriving early also gives you time to assess the room and figure out where you want to stand. Experiment with the acoustics to determine how loudly you need to project your voice, and test your equipment to make sure everything connects and appears properly with the available setup. This is an excellent opportunity to work out any last-minute concerns and move around to familiarize yourself with the setting for improved stage presence.

Listen to presenters ahead of you.

When you watch others present, you'll get a feel for the room's acoustics and lighting. You can also listen for any data that’s relevant to your presentation and revisit it during your presentation—this can make the presentation more interactive and engaging.

Use note cards.

Writing yourself a script could provide you with more comfort. To prevent sounding too robotic or disengaged, only include talking points in your note cards in case you get off track. Using note cards can help keep your presentation organized while sounding more authentic to your audience.

Learn to deliver clear and confident presentations with Dynamic Public Speaking from the University of Washington. Build confidence, develop new delivery techniques, and practice strategies for crafting compelling presentations for different purposes, occasions, and audiences.

Article sources

Forbes. “ New Survey: 70% Say Presentation Skills are Critical for Career Success , https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2014/09/25/new-survey-70-percent-say-presentation-skills-critical-for-career-success/?sh=619f3ff78890.” Accessed December 7, 2022.

Beautiful.ai. “ 15 Presentation and Public Speaking Stats You Need to Know , https://www.beautiful.ai/blog/15-presentation-and-public-speaking-stats-you-need-to-know. Accessed December 7, 2022.

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Timing Tips for Successful Presentations

Would you consider a presentation successful if the speaker went beyond the allotted time? It may have been a really good presentation, but because of the delay, you were late for some other important appointment. Remember, for the speaker to go over the allowed time is a big no-no.

In this article, DeckRobot examines the importance of finishing your presentation on time and gives tips for staying within your time constraints.

Know your time

The first thing to do is to determine how long your presentation is going to run . Consider that a 10-minute presentation needs to be prepared differently than a 30-minute one. No surprise that longer presentations require longer preparation. If you don’t prepare properly, then there is a risk of running out of things to say or show.

Know your talking time

If you are familiar with presenting basics then you probably know that your talking time is not the same as your presentation time. For instance, if your presentation is about 30 minutes, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to speak for 30 minutes sharp. Depending on the nature of your presentation, you may need to allocate 10 minutes for a Q&A session. Thus, check with the presentation organizers and see how many minutes should be allotted for questions.

The number of slides

Determining the right amount of slides is a bit difficult. According to Guy Kawasaki , you should follow the 10/20/30 rule – 10 slides, 20 minutes, 30-point font. And this technique is one of the best, but truly it depends on the nature of your presentation. However, it shouldn’t technically matter how many slides you use as long as you make everything fit within your allotted time.

Time for your slides

The best timing tip for successful presentations is to figure out how many minutes you’re going to spend on each slide. You don’t need to spend a uniform number of minutes on each slide. Some slides may only take you a few seconds, others may take several minutes. As you go through each slide take note of how long each one is going to take. Use your phone’s stopwatch app for this. Tap on the ‘lap’ button once you finish a slide. The idea is to have each lap correspond to one slide, so you can figure out how long each slide takes.

One trick to make sure you’re timing your slides properly is by delivering your presentation as you would on presentation day – by doing it verbally! This means practicing your entire speech and actually saying it out loud. If you just say the words in your head, then you could mistime your presentation. We do read faster in our minds. Don’t forget about pauses. Every pause counts. In addition to helping you rest for a bit, you can also use pauses to emphasize certain points.

Speaking over your allowed time is disrespectful and will annoy at least some people in your audience. It’s a privilege to have their attention, whether it’s for 5 minutes or 5 hours. Your task as a presenter is not to abuse it! Following a strict timing schedule during rehearsal and your actual presentation are necessary steps to being a successful speaker. You’ll not only position yourself as an expert presenter but also as someone who respects people’s time.

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How to keep to time during your presentation

by Olivia Mitchell | 33 comments

Photo credit: zoutedrop

Do you regularly go over time when you’re delivering a presentation? If a time limit has been set for your presentation, then it’s your responsibility to finish it within that time. Consider it as part of the contract between you and your audience.

Here are some tips to help you keep to time:

1. Decide on your “talking time”

You can’t keep to time unless you know beforehand how long you should be talking. Your “talking time” is different than the total time you’ve been given for your presentation for two reasons:

• You need to allow time for questions. This may be decided by the meeting organizer. If not, as a rule of thumb I would allow 20-25% of your presentation time for questions.
• Generally, live  presentations take longer than the rehearsal.  This is because of a combination of factors. You might start a couple of minutes late, you might take longer to make a point, and there may be other interruptions that delay you.

So if your presentation time is one hour, your talking time will be 40 minutes (15 minutes for questions and 5 minutes for interruptions and delays).

2. Find out how long it takes to deliver your material

This is a prerequisite to being able to keep to time. If you don’t know long your talk takes how can you hope to meet the time limit. Many presenters are very bad at judging how long it will take to deliver something. Seriously bad. On our courses, we ask participants to prepare a five minute talk. One time, a participant talked for 23 minutes! When we asked how long it was she thought that she had been talking for about seven minutes.

Time yourself early on in your planning process. This will save you time and agony. If you leave timing your presentation till the end of your planning process you’re likely to find that you’ve prepared too much material which will mean you have to edit your presentation . And editing is can be agonizing when you’ve grown attached to your material.

3. Write a timed schedule for your presentation

When you do a final rehearsal , note down the time that each segment takes and then take that information to prepare a timed schedule. So say your presentation started at 3pm your schedule would look like this:

3 pm Opening 3.05 Part 1 3.15 Part 2 3.25 Part 3 3.35 Closing 3.40 Stop talking

That means that during the live presentation, you’ll be able to easily tell whether you’re keeping to time. Note that it’s not enough to know that each part takes 10 minutes. In the presentation itself you won’t have the head space available to calculate whether you’re ahead or behind.

4. Write assertions so that you don’t waffle

Waffling is one of the things that can make a live presentation go longer than the rehearsal. Here’s what can happen: you make your point but the audience looks blank. So you elaborate on it some more, and then some more… and before you know it you’re waffling. The antidote to this is proper planning. During you’re planning, write each point as a full sentence (not a bullet-point) which expresses what you want to get across. You may later reduce this to a keyword or phrase in your notes but you’ll have done the hard thinking required.  It’s much better to do your thinking before, rather than during, the presentation. For more on this see How to avoid waffling .

5. Have a clock or timekeeper

You can’t manage your time unless you can see the time. And you can’t rely on every meeting or conference room having a clock. Have a small, but easily readable, travel clock that you can put on the lectern or even in front of you on the stage. Make sure you can read it at  a distance without your glasses on. There are remotes that also have a countdown timer and that will buzz you at 5 minutes and 2 minutes before the end of your presentation.

6. Start on time

Many presentations go over time simply because they started late. Lisa Braithwaite recently wrote about this issue in her post: You never have as much time as you want . Often that’s because the presenter or meeting organizer has decided to wait for late-comers. Like Lisa, if I’m in control then I’ll start on time. I don’t see why people who have made the effort to be on time should be penalized by having to wait for people who are late.

You may be concerned that people who are late will miss out on crucial information. So don’t start with crucial material. Instead open with a relevant and engaging story which leads into your first main point. The stragglers will come in while you’re telling your story.

7. Be ready to adapt

Despite all your advance preparations you may still run out of time. The solution is not simply to talk faster! Work out ahead of time what segment you will drop if this should happen. Make a note of the first slide number after the dropped segment. By keying in the number of that slide and then pressing ‘Enter’ you will jump straight to that slide. This is much more professional than clicking through your slides. Your audience need never know that you had to edit on the fly.

Go well with keeping to time in your next presentation! If you have any other tips that have helped you keep to time share them in the comments.

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33 Comments

Excellent post as always. I am going to read further what you’ve written about assertions and waffling (I love these descriptive words, by the way). I’m curious: do you always speak with notes, and do you recommend this? When I do a presentation supported with Keynote or PPT slides, I don’t use notes. I figure if I know my material well, I don’t need them. So far, this method has served me well. (However, I do print out 6 slides per page with the slide numbers, in case I need to flip back to a particular slide, using the method you’ve described.)

I just made your post this week’s compulsory reading for my students 🙂

What I like to do to keep a check on myself is printing out my slide thumbnails all on one page. I make a screenshot from the lightbox view in Keynote or slider sorter view in PPT (which keeps the slide numbers) and then I mark certain slides with the anticipated time in large and friendly red numbers: 10:45 hs. 11:15 hs

As you go along, check real time vs. planned time.

This works really well with longer talks or workshops.

After the talk I can immediately make any corrections necessary and see where I planned poorly or where I can tighten things a bit. It is also a great help for »next time.«

With shorter talks keep a large *analog* antique pocket watch nearby. It is like a large checkered handkerchief: it is so obvious is does not bother anyone. I find I still understand analog watch faces faster than the timer in presenter’s view.

Putting your anticipated times on your screenshot printout is a great idea.

I can relate to your preference for the analog watch. Delivering a presentation is such a full-on activity that everything else should be super-easy for you.

Thanks for your appreciation. I do always have notes within reach. I don’t normally look at them, but every so often I’ll have a mind blank where I go to myself “was there another point I wanted to make here.”. I’ll stop talking, look at my notes, find the point I wanted to make, look up again, find someone to talk to and start talking. I also do what you do with the printout of my slides. I find this useful because it means I can also see what slide is coming next and introduce it, rather than simply clicking and then talking. More about this here . Olivia

I can see how it would be useful to add the notes, in case of brain freeze!

Also, I usually do put time stamps on the slide printouts, so I know how I’m doing for time at major junctures of the presentation (example: when I’m playing an audio clip — so I can check the time while the audience watches). I usually just take off my watch and put it somewhere where I can see it, when there’s no clock in the room.

Great post. Going over the allotted time is annoying to the audience, the organisers and other speakers. I have found for me, if I plan to leave some time slack in my presentation it helps in keeping to time , i.e. if I have 30 minute slot I plan to deliver a 25 minute speech etc. It helps to keep me on time. If I finish early the time can always be utilised – a longer break, questions etc.

Yes, nobody ever minds a presentation ending early!

Good advice, as always – and knowing what to cut in advance is absolutely critical!

You mention a way of skipping slides – for people using Keynote there’s a better way, don’t forget. The menu option allows you to see different slides on your laptop without them showing on your screen and deciding where to go next – if you want to. That way you can edit on the fly with even more dignity and (importantly) the transitions are protected in a way that they’re sometimes not if you do ‘jumping’ in PowerPoint.

I get that Keynote is better in every respect!

I keep using Powerpoint to be the same as 99.98% of my clients.

Thanks for this thorough discussion of staying on time, Olivia! And thanks for the link to my recent post.

My suggestion for keeping track of the time is to use a regular kitchen countdown timer. Because of this: “…you won’t have the head space available to calculate whether you’re ahead or behind…” I find it harder to keep track of my time when looking at a clock, especially if we’ve started late. If I have a countdown timer, I know exactly how much time is left without having to do “clock subtraction” on the fly.

But I do also like to use approximate clock times on my notes, as you mentioned in #3. It does give a general idea of where I should be at a given time.

…..Hi Lisa… at risk of sounding like a stuck record about this… 🙂 “Get a Mac”. Keynote has this kind of function built in!

PS: Do you think Mr Jobs would give me commission? 😉

Haha Simon! Yes, you should get a commission for that.

That’s a great idea if you want to stand in front of your computer the whole time. My timer is usually on a table where I’m also keeping my props, handouts, water, etc., because who knows where the laptop is going to end up!

Good point about the laptop not always being in front of you. I make sure mine is. I take a 50M VGA cable with me in case the event organisers want the laptop to be somewhere near their projector – that way I can pretty much ensure having enough cable to keep everyone happy! 🙂

Mind you, 50M VGA cable isn’t a light thing to carry!

You Apple fanboy :-).

Good point about the countdown time being easier. Given Anke’s point it’s all about finding out what works best for you in the heat of the presentation.

great post! Two comments: 1) 25% for interaction in my opinion is no longer sufficiant. Attendants nowadays want to be involved and strive for a shared outcome, so interaction is key. I would suggest to take at least 50%. The real great speakers shorten their story to the lenght of a teaser and are willing to rely on the fact, that they will be able to deliver the rest of their content in response to questions and discussion. 2) take into account that when you try your speech at home, you might talk faster than on stage. That is because nobody is really listening and you allready know the stuff. I often write text for voice-overs and have to add at least 10% to be on the safe side.

It’s interesting that you suggest devoting 50% of the presentation time to audience interaction. I tend to agree with you for my own presentations, but I know that not everyone is ready for that, so for this particular post I stuck to the more conventional 25%. In other posts, I have encouraged people to consider taking questions throughout their presentation rather than making the audience wait till the end.

Good point to about talking faster and your experience with voice-overs. Of course, some people talk even faster during their live presentation because they just want to get it over and done with! So it can be quite individual.

Important post Olivia – going over time is one of the top annoyances for audiences, and it is so easy to avoid!

It is really important to schedule in time for questions, too. In any type of presentation, this is the point at which you can really understand what your audience wants, and justify your views to them. This opportunity should never be underestimated!

Thanks again for a great post.

Hi Jessica I agree with you about the importance of questions. We should also examine the convention of leaving questions till the end of a presentation. Olivia

Great post, as usual.

Among the technics I am using to respect my time, their is “hierarchical structure” and their is a printout plan of my presentation (most of the time, a mind map.)

On my plan, their is the timing of my presentation, and I am using A big iPod as a timer (their is a stopwatch built in).

This way, it is easy to know where I should be at any given moment and to adjust myself.

I wrote a post about this : How to respect allowed time. I explain what is the “hierarchical structure” technic. http://presentability.com/2010/01/29/how-to-respect-allowed-time/

For the questions: it depends of the situation. You have to be strategic. My preference is to have good interaction with the audience by accepting question anytime. I usually don’t have a dedicated question period at the end.

Denis Francois Gravel

Hi Denis That’s a useful post laying out your method for planning a presentation and keeping to time.

I arrive a little belatedly, but still wanted to thank you for the useful points and comments.

My ideal route is to have a time-keeper; at larger international events I find that the event organisers tend to have someone dedicated to this task; provided that you have timed your presentation reasonably well it shouldn’t be a shock when you get the 15 minute board (or whatever).

One very useful tip that’s related to time-keeping that I learned ten minutes before speaking at an event in Brazil; if you’re being ‘live translated’ you need to know how the translated language compares in terms of word density to your own; Latin languages are about a third longer to say the same thing. Fortunately I was able to adapt my presentation as I went, but it’s not an oversight I’ll ever make again!

On the back of reading your post I went to the App Store and downloaded ‘pClock’ for 59p (I have no affiliation to the product): it gives you a large countdown timer that changes colour at pre-specified timing points (it can also give a vibration or sound reminder too).

As for Keynote, I’ve heard it’s very good but I too use PowerPoint and provided that you don’t let it dictate your presentation format or style it’s a capable tool. It’s undoubtedly tarnished by association with the masses of people who, were they to have had access to it, would have made dreary presentations in Keynote too!

Prezi (www.prezi.com) looks really interesting; if I ever have the time to investigate it I could be tempted to switch to that because I think it could deliver an entirely different experience.

Philip Graves

I am sure that only professional help will solve this issue. For me, for example, examples are very useful, learn this here now https://writinguniverse.com/free-essay-examples/metaphor/ It is very convenient because you can get more information and it leads to new ideas and saves a lot of time.

Hi Philip Thank you very much for adding the benefits of your experience, especially, on the issue of being interpreted. I agree that latin languages use more words, but I wonder whether that actually makes the time longer. My mother is a simultaneous interpreter (English-French) – I’ll ask her. But it doesn’t make sense to me because otherwise the interpreter would constantly be falling behind. And a competent simultaneous interpreter is just that – simultaneous. Olivia

Hi Olivia – a couple of people who’ve had the duty of simultaneously translating me complain that I’m particularly hard to translate live because there is almost no redundancy in my speech and no filler words… they told me they typically use these times to catch up.

(That was into Japanese though, so many things are very different to French or (other?) Latin languages.)

Hello! If you are being interpreted try and talk to the interpreters beforehand. Have a script ready for them (this can be sent days beforehand through the event organiser). Even just a few notes give us a chance to adapt to your vocabulary and mode of thinking. We typically try and follow your trail of thoughts so it helps a great deal.

I would also recommend using less metaphors than usual. But more importantly as already suggested by Simon make a short pause between your sentences and this will give time for interpreters to catch up with you.

Just had a skype call with my mother (Florence above). She added some more useful thoughts.

Don’t slow down your rate of talking, just wait a beat between sentences. Different languages have different ways of ordering words within a sentence, so if you slow down or pause within a sentence, the interpreter may not have enough words to be able to carry on interpreting.

You don’t have to wait for the interpreter to finish interpreting before starting your next sentence. They’re trained to listen and to speak at the same time.

My experience is that unless you have extremely good simultaneous translation (like you get at big international meetings like the UN) you do need to insert a significantly longer pause between sentences – particularly sentences with technical content – than you would normally to let the translation catch up a bit. This is particularly the case if you are speaking English as our bigger vocabulary often makes things easier to say with fewer words. Agree with your translator before hand a signal for “slow down” to make sure she or he isn’t getting swamped by your speed of delivery (it is particualrly important to keep looking for this signal if the translators’ booth isn’t in your normal line of sight) and give them a copy of your slides and any notes so they can check for unfamiliar words or technical vocabulary ahead of time. Provided your audience are using earphones you don’t however need to wait until the translator has finished a sentence before starting the next. If your slides are in the wrong language for some of your audience don’t forget to talk through the slide – “this graphic shows average weekly family spending on xxxx in US dollars on the vertical axis against age of children on the horizontal axis, blue dots mean zzzzzz” and so on.

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This article on the importance of keeping to time during presentations is a true gem.

However, the journey of mastering presentation skills is not without its challenges. The pressure to perform and the fear of public speaking can take a toll on our mental well-being. It’s important to address these concerns and find support along the way.

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My experience is that unless you have extremely good simultaneous translation (like you get at big

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11 Steps to Help You Keep Time During Your Presentation

Anushka kala.

• Body Language & Delivery

Some researchers say that the attention span of the human mind is only about 8 seconds. Even if we assume this to be a more pessimistic approach, there still exists a huge challenge faced by every presenter, in keeping their audience enraptured.

A key concept that successful orators and presenters use is the dictum of the ABC in effective communication: Accuracy, Brevity , and Clarity. These are bound by one common factor– time, or as we like to call it, the muslin minute .

This mantra ensures that the underlying principle of effective communication is adhered to, and forms the backbone of any good presentation.

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Here’s why keeping time is so important, in any presentation:

Importance of Keeping Time :

1. prioritize your audience:.

Let’s face it, as a presenter, one unfortunately does not have the luxury to speak for hours together, with no time restriction.

While it is important to get the message across, it is also essential to do so, while respecting the audience’s and/or organiser’s time.

Ever so often, there may be multiple speakers presenting one after the other, which makes adhering to the given time limit even more necessary.

Additionally, the audience too would have multiple commitments to get to, post your presentation, and thus, considering these factors is pivotal.

2. Limited Attention- A Tension:

The fact of the matter is that no matter how interesting the subject may be, the human mind is easily distracted, resulting in a loss of attention.

For a presenter, this poses as a challenge, as the main goal is to ensure that the subject being discussed is thoroughly understood and retained.

Hence, following the time limit and preparing your material concisely, and in accordance to the same, will help in making your presentation effective in nature.

3. More Information:

Yes, you read that right. One may ask how keeping time will help propagate more information.

An important point to be kept in mind is the fact that presentations aren’t merely about reading the slides of a PowerPoint presentation, but also depend majorly on any form of discussion (usually Q&A) where queries are addressed and doubts are cleared, so as to ensure an in-depth understanding of the subject.

Thus, presenters must allocate enough time for an interactive session with their audience, in addition to the ‘talking time’ to skim through and explain the presentation itself.

Now having understood the importance of following and respecting the time limit, let’s now move on to understanding how to do so.

How to Time Your Presentation:

1. what’s the time :.

The first step is to simply ask and know what your time limit is. Always note it down in case you forget.

If no time limit is specified, try consciously packaging your material in a succinct manner, so as to respect your audience’s time.

Regularly follow-up with the organizers, in case of any changes.

2. Know it All:

Know what you have to say.

If you’ve been given a subject or are asked to present a topic of your choice, it is important to be absolutely well-versed with the required concepts, what it entails, and the sub-topics you would want to cover within the given duration.

If your knowledge is inadequate on your end, it could result in a lot of wastage of time– after all, your goal of communicating efficiently with your audience is obstructed.

You must also know how to work your way around the technology you use. While it does make life simpler, it could also end up wasting time, if you don’t know how to use it well.

Don’t worry, we’ve got your back. Keep reading this article to find out some tips, shortcuts and tricks that can enhance your presentation.

3. Ration your Duration:

Once you’ve made note of your time limit and have an idea of the concepts you wish to cover, it is crucial for you to begin scheduling your information and placing them in your slides accordingly.

Structure your presentation in accordance to the given time, and allocate a certain duration per slide/ concept. This will give you a blueprint of your presentation, and ensure its smooth sailing.

Related Article: Effective Speech Transitions: How To Make Your Speech Flow

4. Time Yourself:

Keep timing and recording yourself while practicing.

This practice helps you recognize areas you could cut, need be, as well as gives you an idea on how the presentation would sound to your audience.

There are so many more benefits to this, and is something one must most definitely inculcate. Read more about this here .

5. Write Your Speech:

Write each and every word of your speech. Don’t take shortcuts through bullet points and summaries.

While it is not essential to memorise your entire speech, it is scientifically proven that writing helps you process, analyse and retain information much better, which is necessary when it comes to public speaking.

This exercise ensures that you’re more well-acquainted with your speech and subject, and leaves lesser room for error, thus saving time.

Additionally, if you practice by merely referring to bullet points, chances are you might spend more time beating around the bush while presenting, resulting in time-waste.

6. Watch it:

During your final presentation, do ensure that you have an accurate source of time with you–a wristwatch, clock, smartphone, or even a trusted aide who could signal it for you.

Make sure this source is near you, and in your line of sight, so that you can adhere to it precisely.

7. The Ritual of Being Punctual:

Be on time. Reach your venue at least 10 minutes before the scheduled time.

Very often, presenters themselves are late, and hence, find themselves in a position where they’re scrambling for time. This may result in the impact of your presentation going downhill.

Plus, this will most definitely cut into the time of the other speakers present.

Punctuality is a sign that you respect the time of your fellow speakers, organizers and most importantly, listeners. This goes a long way.

8. Adapt and React:

The element of uncertainty always exists. You could still find yourself running out of time. Or, the organizers might ask you to speed your presentation due to a venue being booked for a limited time, other delays and/or technical issues.

Nevertheless, there must exist a Plan B. You must immediately be able to adapt to the situation and eliminate the needful.

Yes, your material may be concise, but you must always have a fair idea of what can be eliminated in case a situation like this arises. Consider your audience and approach it from their perspective.

You must be quick on your feet. Don’t let your nerves get the better of you. With adequate prior preparation, one will seamlessly be able to adapt to the situation.

9. The Filler Killer:

We often use filler words such as Um, Well, and Like in our day-to-day conversations.

However, while giving a presentation in a limited timeframe, these filler words may actually end up wasting time and cause you to exceed your given limit. After all, these words are meaningless.

We often use these words due to lack of preparation, nerves or just sheer habit.

Learn how to eliminate its usage through this helpful article.

10. Handy Handouts:

The experience of an effective PowerPoint presentation is incomplete without handouts.

Handouts are a tangible and printed form of information handed over to your audience.

As a presenter, you may feel restricted, in terms of addressing all essential points for a subject. This is where handouts come in handy.

All required information can be printed on your handout, and these help in creating a lasting impression and impact on your audience.

Here’s all you need to know about presentation handouts.

11. Don’t Stress to Impress:

We get it, public speaking and giving presentations is nerve-wracking. But, we’ve got your back.

Nerves result in the wastage of a lot of time. No matter what the preparation is, your efforts might go in vain due to nerves.

Relax! That’s what you have to do when you’re up next. You can even harness your nervous and vulnerable state of mind, into a powerful tool.

Read this article, in order to do so.

Ideal Length of a Presentation

Speeches and presentations are subjective in nature. There isn’t any universal duration set for your presentation.

This depends on the kind of meeting being held, as well as, your audience.

To help you get a fair idea, here are some examples of the types of speeches and their ideal duration:

• TED Talks : A talk can be no longer than 18 minutes, as it is considered to be just the right span of time to hold one’s attention and create a serious impact.
• Business Pitch: Should range between 10-18 minutes, but not exceed this limit. It is done so to prevent saturation of information and loss of interest.
• Ceremonial Speeches: Should range between 5-10 minutes. These include weddings, graduations, birthdays, and even funerals.
• Informative Speaking : Ideal time considered is 10 minutes. Here, the speaker disseminates important information.
• Persuasive Speaking : Duration between 2-7 minutes. Here, a speaker tries to convince their audience to agree with their viewpoint.

Again, there is nothing set in stone in terms of time, for these presentations. They wary in nature, size and context.

In some scenarios, one could probably be more flexible with their time; for example– a wedding toast, which isn’t necessarily bound by a restrictive timeframe.

Whereas, in more formal environments such as a business pitch, the 18 minute time limit is adhered to.

Best Time of the Day to Give a Presentation

Yes, that is a thing. If you have the flexibility to schedule your presentation, you should most definitely aim to take the morning slot around 10 AM.

Why? This is because your audience will be fresh, with higher levels of concentration and short-term memory.

10 AM isn’t too early in the day, where your audience might doze off.

If a slot is taken after that, around afternoon, it may coincide with lunch time (which, let’s admit, is very important) and result in your audience being more distracted and restless due to the same.

Post-lunch, too, becomes relatively riskier, as productivity levels do go down in the afternoons, especially after a heavy meal. A large number of people feel tired after a heavy meal, and concentration levels dip.

Of course, in the end, choosing your time depends on your knowledge of your audience. It depends on who they are, what they do, and their working hours.

So do keep these factors in mind while scheduling your next presentation!

Putting Power in your Point: Tips & Tricks

Now, keeping time isn’t necessarily limited to just your speech. The presentation you make must also be accurate and clear.

Here are a few hacks you could use to up your PowerPoint game.

1. Simplicity’s the Key:

KISS . Keep it simple, stupid!

If you want to save time while presenting, avoid using ‘fancy’ words or complex explanations; you’re probably going to end up explaining those more than actually presenting, leading to a waste of time. If there’s a simpler route, always go for that.

Limit the number of words per line, and throughout your presentation. Just about 6-8 words per line, and keep a close eye on the number of slides.

2. Display Matter that Matters:

Make it a point to present only essential information. The explanation is to be done by the speaker.

Hence, just put in the required keywords in bullet points, and explain them accordingly.

Quite often, presenters make large bullet points with the whole text, and end up reading those verbatim instead. This must be avoided.

Follow the 6 x 6 rule for bullet points , which states no more than 6 words per point, and no more than 6 points per slide.

3. Limit your Slides:

Ensure that you don’t have too many slides, which may result in exceeding the time limit.

Time your presentation accordingly, with reference to the one slide per minute rule.

4. ‘Builds’ Could Knock you Down :

Build slides are those slides that gradually show you the bullet points so present, as the mouse is clicked.

They are used to add variety, but ever so often, they end up slowing down the presentation.

Avoid using builds repetitively, and use them only where necessary and/or to make a point.

5. Learn to Navigate:

In the course of the presentation, you may be asked to go back and forth your slides, for purposes of reference.

For example, if at Slide 14, you wish to cover a concept so explained on Slide 5, you may end up wasting time going through each of those previous 9 slides. Remember, every second counts.

There are various methods to ensure you reach your desired slide, with the simple click of a button. Read this.

Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 Rule :

It’s pretty simple:

10 Slides — the optimal number 20 Minutes — the optimal duration 30 pts. — minimum font size.

According to Kawasaki, 10 is the adequate number of slides that the human mind can fully interpret and retain. It’s up to the speaker on how he wants to structure his presentation, but the message should be conveyed within those 10 slides.

20 minutes is the time you should allocate for your presentation. Even if you are given a whole 60 minutes for the same, aim to finish in 20 and allocate the remaining 40 minutes to an interactive question/answer session.

30 pts. should be the minimum size of the font you choose. Nothing smaller than that. The idea behind this is that the smaller the text, the more information is put on the slide. This may be counterproductive to the fact that PowerPoint Presentations are meant to be concise and to-the-point. The explaining is to be done by you.

In Conclusion

Keeping your thoughts, on the dot, may seem like a task, at first. But, now you know, it surely isn’t.

All it requires is prioritization from the presenter’s end. Keep the needs and interests of your audience in mind and respect their time.

Keep time, and don’t let time keep you.

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Mastering the Clock: 9 Time Management Tips for your Presentations

Guests and fish may stink after 3 days, but presentations start to stink already when they go over by more than 1 minute. If you want to be an impactful speaker and leave your audience wanting to hear more from you, you must make them feel appreciated. The most fundamental form of this is respecting the time frame they are expecting. These 9 time management tips will help you be a better speaker.

1. Know your time limit

This may seem obvious, but you need to know how much time you have and the absolute hard limit in case something goes wrong. Don’t accept the “around X minutes” as an answer. You need to work and plan your presentation to an exact period of time.

On the day of the presentation, please make sure to confirm with the organizer in case there are some schedule changes. If there was, you should also inform your audience of such changes. Be respectful.

2. Practice with a timer or Virtual Orator time limit setting on

Managing the presentation time is as vital as any other part of rehearsals. You need to practice it as well.

You can use a timer, a clock, or, of course, Virtual Orator. We have a couple of features that are of great help in your training.

3. Take time to prepare your message

Prepare your message carefully and as clearly as you can, and stick to it. Most of the audience will be sitting there looking at you blankly. This scares many speakers, and they start to improvise. They tend to rearrange the speech in the heat of the moment, leading to extra time spent.

Avoid this mistake by taking the time to prepare a great message. Just go to the presentation with the certainty that you have a good message. Then, deliver it in the best way possible. Keep it concise and organized.

4. Schedule ahead

When preparing a speech, you must prepare for everything, even failure. After preparing your message, divide it into introduction, 3 ideas (avoid more than 3), Q&A, and conclusion. Decide how much time you intend to spare with each of them, which helps you keep track of time.

It is tough to know if 30 minutes have passed, but you can have a more accurate idea of if 3 or 5 minutes have passed. By breaking your presentation into these parts you can maintain a feel for your timing.

Virtual Orator keeps track of how much time you spent on each slide, while you practice. This is a good way to have an idea on how much time has passed when you reach slide number X and were you can skip if you are going long.

5. Plan to cut!

Having an impeccable schedule of what you will say and for how long is amazing work, but things happen. There are interruptions or sudden interest in specific information or lots of questions. So many things can happen, and they are all normal, respectable, and not to fear – IF you have a plan in advance on what you can cut.

It is essential to listen to the audience and know what they want to hear, but you know there are essential points that can’t be left out. So plan ahead what’s vital, what can be cut in case of need, and how to do it smoothly (no one needs to know). If you have enough time, you can prepare different versions, but be sure to rehearse them all.

Again, don’t try to rearrange your speech or improve your message at the heat of the moment. Prepare, rehearse and make as many versions of your speech as you need to go on that stage confident and ready for everything.

6. Provide a detailed hand out

No matter how good you are, your audience will not memorize more than 3 or 4 main ideas. So you must focus on what’s more important and forget the details. Yet, this doesn’t mean that your audience can’t have them.

Think of your job as a speaker as a way to ignite that spark of curiosity in them. Prepare a detailed pdf or share a QR code that links to all the information somewhere online. All details, graphics and stats – everything you’d like to say to them, you can put into the hand out. Give it to them so they can read and study at their own speed in the comfort of their homes or office.

This way, you can focus on what it’s crucial and still give them all information. Trying to “say everything” is one of the main reasons speakers can’t keep up with the time.

8. Track your time

This is a tricky one. Looking at your watch constantly may give a bad impression, but you need to have an idea of how much time you have left. Some rooms have large clocks on the wall, making it easier to look without being noticed, but this is not always the case.

If you’re in this situation, try to lay the watch on the table or lectern. If you take this choice, rehearse this way. You can also flip the clock to the inside of your wrist, and with enough practice, you can peek at it more discretely than usual.

9. Meet them!

Meeting your audience and giving them time to talk to you and ask questions is good to help you keep the actual presentation on track.

So, are there a lot of questions? That’s great. It shows they felt your presentation was interesting and want to know more. Let them know the time is over, and make yourself available to talk after the event. It can be in person, or you can give them an email or even a phone number, if you’re comfortable with it. Make yourself approachable and make them feel comfortable to come to you.

The time is YOUR problem, not theirs.

Your audience signs up for a specific time, and you must respect it. The speaker’s job is to prepare and anticipate any issue that could disrupt the presentation and make them lose track of time.

Follow these tips to help you in this challenging task, and avoid mentioning time to your audience. You want them to be delighted with your presentation, not to be thinking about if it will be too long.

Cátia Isabel Silva

Cátia is a psychologist who is passionate about helping children develop and train social skills.

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Presentation Time Calculator

PT Time Controller

보다 정확하게 측정하고 싶다면, Customize를 이용하세요.

1. If you scroll right or left, it will calculate PT time according to corresponding speed. 2. You can consider your speech speed and the interval of your PPT pages .

140 WPM (Words Per Minute)

* 매우 천천히 설명하는 발표는 330 CPM까지도 내려갑니다.

1. Read your script for 20 seconds using below stopwatch. 2. Enter the script as much as you just read and it will calculate PT time about total script. 3. If you have PPT, enter the number of PPT pages, the interval of PPT pages and the time to view materials.

2021.03.18. Modified