How do you avoid running out of time during your presentation?

I often apply the "power of 3" principle to my speaking content planning. That is, The overall speech will have 3 broad components (e.g., a "hook" segment; body segment; and a call-to-action segment), and each component is built using no more than 3 concepts.

As speakers, time(or the lack of it) is probably a critical element that we have to contend with. And that is also one crucial factor that impacts planning. Especially the amount of time we have to deliver the content of our speech. Give and take 30 seconds at the beginning and at the end (the intro and conclusion) of your speech, everything else in between depends on how much time you have to ‘squeeze’ the amount of content you have. So give equal portions of time per content or you might consider giving the more important content a little more time.

Something I stick to the 10-second rule i.e. 10 slides and the audience should be able to fully understand it in 10 seconds or less. I start with story/pic based on type of attendees. This creates emotional connection. Practice each slide and pretend that if there are no slide/tech glitches you can still talk. Reserve Q&A only at the end. I like to stick with 30-45 mins presenting and 15 minutes of Q&A. Letting people know in advance about structure. It all depends on type of deliverables and topics. Customize as per audience. Asking the event coordinator helps, I usually ask for previous videos to see the type of audience & presentation.

Running out time—the bane of many speakers. Focus on realistic time frames, which means building more time in for the beginning and intro. Pay attention to time traps hidden in transitions. Your slide deck? It is already too long. Go in and look for 1-4 slides you can cut or combine. Then go back and cut 1 or 2 more slides. Same can be applied to your speech. Less is more but achieving simplicity in your speech requires rigor.

The first thing to do is to schedule your presentation into segments with specific duration for delivery. One thing I've learnt over the years is that a good speech or presentation is one completed within the allotted time.

The good thing about practicing with the constraints of time is that it gives you a good sense of how long or short your speech is. This ensures that you’re in control of your speech and that you’re able to adjust your speech accordingly as you deliver it. You’ll be able to cut short your speech on the go if you’re running out of time or you’ll be able to elaborate more if you still can afford the time to do so.

In addition to practicing delivery, I think it is important to allow flexibility every time you deliver that speech. In other words, your timing or the exact way you delivery your words (even if you have them memorized verbatim) will have a life of its own once you utter them aloud. Allow yourself to self-correct or add additional information on the fly. Practice this flexibility. You don't want to sound like a robot simply repeating a script.

Look at your speech like a tree which requires pruning. Seek out and eliminate modifiers or adverbs. Listen for repetitive phrases and say bye (repetition has a place for emphasis but often soaks up time instead). Practice out loud with a slower cadence to get a sense of how the speech stretches. Often our intros are too long. Bye bye a credential or two. Bye bye unnecessary platitudes. Use a 80% formula. You have 30 minutes to talk? Practice for 24 minutes. Remember audiences rarely get angry if you end a bit early. Trim trim trim. Leave more On the cutting room floor.

The presenter may wish to use a watch, a clock, or a cue card to keep track of time. On the other hand use summaries, and questions to guide your audience through your presentation, avoid repetition, and instead engage your audience.

When preparing a presentation, I always recommend to prepare 3 versions of your presentation - the full storyline - the executive summary - the elevator pitch This way, you'll learn to jump from the longest to the shortest delivery in case time is running short for any reason (questions, delay,...)

Great stage actors are able to incorporate miscues into the act as if it had been planned in the first place. I remember seeing a play in which the carpet kept coming up and the actor was portraying someone who was already upset about the subject matter and instead of trying to ignore the carpet, he stomped it down as if that's what the character would have done in real life. It was brilliant!

Approaching your speech using a modular approach helps. Intro and ending: has a connective tissue or running thread Middle pieces (aim for 3): expand on your initial idea If you are running out of time or someone before you went overtime (more likely to happen than you think), by having an intro which connects to your conclusion, sometimes you can cut out 1 middle piece and as long as you speak without alerting the audience (?“I’ve run out of time, so I’m going to have to jump ahead…”) no one will be the wiser and your speech will still have a closed loop feel.

Certainly practice with a clock to get used to it. 10 seconds can feel like a long time or nothing at all depending on what you are trying to convey. If you can practice making the same 10 minute point in 5 minutes, 3 minutes and 1 minute, you will be prepared if you get out of sync with your planned timing.

Big fan of using some combo of my iPhone (stopwatch) and setting a 5 to 10 minute time left alarm on my Apple Watch (silent alarm of course). No Apple Watch? Consider having an event organizer or colleague in the crowd give you a hand signal at a predetermined time—my favourite timekeeper trick.

Break out the timing of each section of your presentation. Then add a buffer , have a synopsis slide to go over high points during that time remind the audience all Q&A is at the end . When Q&A begins run all of your synopsis slides as a guide for grouping questions into specific sections. This will keep timing on track, also giving you a an idea of repetitive questions over time that if necessary that material can be built into the body of the presentation.

Limit visual aids. Otherwise, they take over your speech. Only use them when necessary and only for a moment. Continue bringing the focus back to you, the speaker.

Cut cut cut those slides. ?????? Even if you have mostly images on the slide, each slide still presents an opportunity for your mind to expand and talk at length. Especially watch out when creating a more dynamic slide—multiple animations or pictures on 1 slide may give you the impression your deck is tight but you’ve only hidden more opportunities to go long.

Feedback is critical to growth as a speaker. I always reach out to those I know who were in the audience and ask for their candid input... this allows me to contemplate their comments and use them to improve how I speak, my pacing, my visual aids, and even intangibles I hadn't considered before. It's also important to thank anyone who provides input.

Be prepared to pivot and adapt. Sometimes you can put together what you feel is the “perfect” presentation and still lose your audience. Pay attention. If you see people straying, be ready to pivot and adapt. Sometimes injecting a conversational tone and posture, along with sharing a real live experience relating to what you are presenting, will draw people back in.

I plan for a MUCH longer Question & Answer at the end. Nobody but me knows I plan for this. If problems of any kind, I have a typical, brief Q & A. If all goes well, the audience and I explore related issues they care about. If off the wall concern, I make the question into a topic related to what I think is a relevant, related concern. I thank every person with a question. And if appropriate, get to mention material I had cut out to shorten my talk. I also force myself shorten my talk enough that what I emphasize has a prayer of being remembered the next day. Cutting out stuff from a talk is not pleasant, but I know now a long empathic, science finding filled Q & A really does get my audience and me to become a team.

This type of AI driven collaboration is interesting but, as a communicator, public speaking professional, and educator, I worry that it takes the opportunities away from journalists and others who use written content to share their ideas. I would much prefer to contribute to a project like this with a human at the helm organizing it.

Lately I have noticed that when you keep 20% of your time at the end of your presentation for contingencies, you are always never going to run out of time. But again, your preparation depends hugely on the time allotted for your presentation. Whether it is a 5-minute quick talk or a 30-minute presentation. Also, when you know that you have prepared for 15 minutes instead of the 20 minutes allocation, you can mention to your audience that you will speak for 15 and that way you have subconsciously won your audience.