Timing Yourself Honestly
Alright. We know why the talk runs long, and we've killed some backstory. Now we're going to find out exactly how long it actually is, with a real timer, not a guess.
Guessing is how people end up standing at the front going three minutes past when they meant to stop. Nobody plans that. It just happens because they never timed it once, out loud, start to finish, before the real thing.
So that's today. Time yourself. Honestly.
Why "reading it in your head" doesn't count
You cannot time a talk by reading your bullet points silently and guessing how long that'd take out loud. I don't know why, but silent-reading you is always faster than speaking you. Every single time.
You have to say the words. Out loud. Same speed you'd actually use in the room, not the fast run-through you do when you're just checking you remember it.
If you catch yourself rushing during your practice runs because you're getting bored of practicing, slow back down and match the pace you'd actually use for the real audience. Otherwise your timer's lying to you.
The steps
1. Get a timer you can see or hear without stopping. Phone works fine. Set it and start it the second you say your first word.
2. Stand up. Actually stand, don't sit at the table shuffling papers. Standing changes your breathing and your pace a little, and that's exactly what'll happen on the real day, so practice it that way.
3. Talk from your bullet points, not a script. We already covered why reading word for word makes you sound like a robot. I'm not going to re-litigate that today, but the same problem shows up here too. If you write the whole thing out and read it for your timing run, you're timing robot-you, not real-you, and the two talk at different speeds.
I learned this one the hard way, actually. Early on I wrote a whole lesson out word for word, figured that was the safe way to make sure I hit every point. Stood up and read it straight off the page. A kid in the back, maybe fourteen, just says "you sound like a robot." Flat out, no meanness in it, just an observation. He wasn't wrong. I sounded like I was reading a part list. I never read straight off a script again after that. Bullet points, say it in my own words, every time.
4. Say the whole thing, start to finish, without stopping to fix anything. This is the part people cheat on. You get to your weak transition, you wince, you stop and go "let me try that again." Don't. Keep going, even if it's rough. You need the real number, and the real number includes your stumbles, because you'll stumble a little on the real day too.
5. Stop the timer. Write the number down. Not "about six minutes." The actual number. 6:40. 7:15. Whatever it is.
What to do with the number
If your slot is five minutes and you ran seven, you've got two minutes to cut. Go back to your bullets and ask, sentence by sentence: is this earning its spot? If it's not doing real work, it goes. That's the whole trick we've been building toward the last couple lessons, and this is where it actually gets used, not just talked about.
If you ran under your time, don't panic and start padding it back up with filler. Under time is fine. Under time is actually good. A talk that's tight and finishes early is way better than one that runs long and gets the stink-eye from whoever's running the meeting after you.
A word on nerves and this exercise
Doing this timing run out loud, alone in your kitchen or your car, feels dumb. I get it. Talking to nobody with a stopwatch running is not a natural thing to do.
Do it anyway. This is where I'll say the thing I believe most in this whole class: nerves aren't really the enemy, being unprepared is. A big chunk of what makes people panic at the front of the room is not actually knowing, in their body, how their talk feels and how long it takes. Time yourself honestly a couple times before the real day and a lot of that fear just quietly goes away on its own. Not all of it. Enough.
A caution, not a big one
If you're timing yourself late at night trying to get one more practice run in before bed, don't let "I'll just cut it down tomorrow" become "I never actually time it again." Alot of people do the timing run once, get a scary number, and avoid doing it again because it stung. Do it again after you cut. That's how you know the cutting worked.
Before next time
Time yourself once this week, out loud, standing up, real bullet points. Write down the actual number, even if it's embarrassing. We'll use it next lesson.