Timeboxes
How much time should you invest when creating a presentation? Winston Churchill is said to have invested one hour preparing for every minute that he delivered a prepared speech. Winston's rule of thumb still holds true. If you are going to prepare, craft and rehearse a seven minute speech, then seven hours is a reasonable amount of time to set aside for preparation.
You can also invest too much time when crafting a presentation. I am currently preparing a presentation on South Africa that includes PowerPoint slides, to co-present with a friend at his Rotary club. My research on Flickr.com revealed hundreds of possible photos of South Africa that are candidates for inclusion in this presentation. I have so much to share with this audience about South Africa, the history, current situation, why my wife and I left with 6 suitcases, $400 and a dream to come to the USA back in 2001,
Every photo brought back memories and I soon realized that I could easily invest 40 or more hours just in creating the PowerPoint slides. This is without even talking about the rehearsal for the presentation.
The way to avoid getting into time pits, is to place a box around the activity. For example, this Rotary club speech is a 20 minute speech. Using Winston's rule of thumb above, I should invest about 20 hours in total for preparation. From experience, I know that co-presenting always takes more time to rehearse than if I presented solo and allowing for an additional five hours, the total preparation should not exceed 25 to 30 hours.
As a rough estimate then I should invest fewer than ten hours in selecting photos for this slideshow. The best way to stick to this limit and place the appropriate value on my time is to timebox the various preparatory activities. No more than 10 hours to select photos, no more than 5 hours to create the PowerPoint slides, no more than 5 hours to create the script, which leaves no more than 10 hours to rehearse with my co-presenter.
Although we all want to give the best presentation that we can, every single time, we need to keep this in perspective. As Alan Weiss says "Your presentation is not going to change world history". (In fact, I consider my presentation to be an outstanding success if the Rotarians can remember what I spoke about after the bar closes.)
I am sorry to say that I see this all too often in new Toastmasters. New Toastmasters want to write the perfect speech, and invest 30 or more hours in a single 5-7 minute speech that is given once to a Toastmasters club. This is a poor investment of your time. Your time is better managed when you put an upper limit on the amount of time you will invest in an activity. Then stick to your time limit, and stop to reassess your progress when the time is up. Don't invest limitless time into speech creation - it is dysfunctional.
So, keep your presentation in perspective as well. Put a box around your time investment for your next speech or presentation, then get up and deliver.
You can also invest too much time when crafting a presentation. I am currently preparing a presentation on South Africa that includes PowerPoint slides, to co-present with a friend at his Rotary club. My research on Flickr.com revealed hundreds of possible photos of South Africa that are candidates for inclusion in this presentation. I have so much to share with this audience about South Africa, the history, current situation, why my wife and I left with 6 suitcases, $400 and a dream to come to the USA back in 2001,
Every photo brought back memories and I soon realized that I could easily invest 40 or more hours just in creating the PowerPoint slides. This is without even talking about the rehearsal for the presentation.
The way to avoid getting into time pits, is to place a box around the activity. For example, this Rotary club speech is a 20 minute speech. Using Winston's rule of thumb above, I should invest about 20 hours in total for preparation. From experience, I know that co-presenting always takes more time to rehearse than if I presented solo and allowing for an additional five hours, the total preparation should not exceed 25 to 30 hours.
As a rough estimate then I should invest fewer than ten hours in selecting photos for this slideshow. The best way to stick to this limit and place the appropriate value on my time is to timebox the various preparatory activities. No more than 10 hours to select photos, no more than 5 hours to create the PowerPoint slides, no more than 5 hours to create the script, which leaves no more than 10 hours to rehearse with my co-presenter.
Although we all want to give the best presentation that we can, every single time, we need to keep this in perspective. As Alan Weiss says "Your presentation is not going to change world history". (In fact, I consider my presentation to be an outstanding success if the Rotarians can remember what I spoke about after the bar closes.)
I am sorry to say that I see this all too often in new Toastmasters. New Toastmasters want to write the perfect speech, and invest 30 or more hours in a single 5-7 minute speech that is given once to a Toastmasters club. This is a poor investment of your time. Your time is better managed when you put an upper limit on the amount of time you will invest in an activity. Then stick to your time limit, and stop to reassess your progress when the time is up. Don't invest limitless time into speech creation - it is dysfunctional.
So, keep your presentation in perspective as well. Put a box around your time investment for your next speech or presentation, then get up and deliver.
Labels: Presentation Tips
posted by Wayne Botha @ 6:01 PM
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