When you’re allotted a specific amount of time for your presentation, one of the most useful techniques you can employ is to start to break down your presentation into sections of time.

Why?

It becomes far less overwhelming and it lets you realize how little you can do…And, in a good way, it forces you to cut the fat.

Oddly, a 45 minute window becomes much more manageable once you see that you actually don’t have that much time. Once you add on a few minutes for your FIRST moment (your opener) and a few for your FINAL moment (your close); once you divide the body of your content into a few sections which each may need a variety of communication styles (stories, examples, statistics, analogies, etc) you will realize that you don’t have as much time as you think.

Watch the video to get a better sense for what I’m talking about…and apply the 10% rule: always shave off 10% of your time (i.e. 6 minutes off of a 60 min slot) because
 
1. your time may get cut
2. you may get started late due to a myriad of issues
3. you may think of something great to add
4. you may experience a technical snafu
5. it’s always nice to end a tad early

Give it a try; and let me know what you think!