This is for the lovers of spreadsheets, the organizers, the time keepers, the detail-oriented storytellers who love to have things just so. Not to mention, this workflow is instrumental in structuring presentations in a way that’s been shown, time and time again, to be compelling — in a three act story structure.

The first time I stepped on a professional stage, I went so far overtime, the organizers practically yanked me off with a cartoon cane. I used to be terrible at time management, and not only when it came to speaking engagements. I was late for everything.

One day, a colleague of mine really tore into me when I arrived late for a meeting. He was rightfully ticked off that I had kept him waiting, and said I needed to realize it wasn’t just an inconvenience. It was a symbol of respect — or a lack thereof. He was sick and tired of my pattern.

This was just the jolt I needed.

Since that day, I’ve made a bigger effort. At first, I wasn’t easy at all, since I had a lot of bad habits to break. It wasn’t just about being more punctual; I had to teach myself how to predict the timing of things better.

I was yet another victim of the Planning Fallacy.

I adopted calendar systems, to-do lists, spreadsheets, timers… I needed an organization system just to keep my organization systems organized.

But with practice, things got a little easier. I eventually found myself shedding some of the systems that proved nonessential, and started to predict things better. I went from being a chronic procrastinator to getting started on things excessively early.

Of course, the irony is that I’m writing this article instead of working on my intended tasks for the day. But who’s perfect anyway?

In a couple of weeks, I’m hosting a full-day storytelling workshop in Washington, D.C. My primary contact for this engagement is the kind of person who knows that January and April both start on a Wednesday this year. Yeah. Let’s just say, attention to detail and time management are top of mind.

So, as I’ve been preparing the content for this workshop, I’ve also been employing some timing techniques that have been extremely useful for past events.

Over the years, I’ve been asked quite a few times how I structure the schedule of a presentation. Really, there’s one specific tool that’s been invaluable to me, that I think you’ll find helpful too.

This tool, or shall we call it a timing workflow, allows me to time the beginning and ending of a workshop, account for unknown variables, and maybe most importantly, it allows me to structure the story arc of the day in a way that adheres to the story structure I teach about.

It lets me practice what I preach.

Now, before I get into the details, let me just say that this is relevant to all kinds of things, not just speaking engagements. But I most frequently use this for conference gigs and workshops, so here we go:

Step 1: Estimate, then tally the estimates

I estimate the duration I’ll spend on each slide. For the workshop I’m preparing, I currently have 177 slides, so the first step is to give each of them an approximate time value. If I think I’ll only talk for thirty seconds, I round up to a minute for that slide, while others may have values of six minutes or more depending on how deep I plan to get.
Then I tally the values to determine an estimated length per section. I have my day divided into discrete chapters, so it’s easy for me to delineate what starts where. For example, my “Intro and Foundations” section adds up to 65 minutes, so I write that down.
I also tally the sections themselves, including exercises and breaks. This gives me a preliminary total for the workshop.
Then I review the preliminary total and make sure it doesn’t exceed the total time allotted. For this workshop, I have eight hours with a one hour non-working lunch break, so if I’m overtime in my estimates, I’d better trim some content. The likelihood that I’ve simply overestimated durations is less likely than having too much stuff to say. Not to mention, it’s better to be under-time than over-time, since it’s easier to add content in real time than to try to rush a presentation. Trust me.

Step 2: Determine discussion buffer

So far, the estimates have been strictly about me and what I want to say. Now it’s time to estimate how long questions and class discussion will take up. And don’t worry, you don’t have to be a mind reader to do this. Just remember that Parkinson’s law is on your side. "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” In other words, the duration of class discussion is up to the educator.
My workshop’s sections tally to 7h 30m, but I have eight hours to fill. Doing some quick math, I find that I have an average of six minutes per section for class discussion. From past experience, this feels totally adequate. On the big day, if I start to get the sense that there are a lot more questions about to come my way than we can fit in six minutes, it’s usually because people are getting excited to learn more and are jumping ahead in the workshop. This puts a smile on my face and I reassure the group that we’ll get to that in a little bit. Suspense only makes a story more compelling, after all. :)

Step 3: Distribute discussion buffer

Now we can add a row into each chapter of the day to account for this buffer. Our tally at the bottom of the spreadsheet should now equal eight hours.

Step 4: Determine start times for each section

There’s a handy little “duration” formula in most spreadsheet programs that lets you add minutes or hours to a time. This function helps me determine start times for each part of the day, which will help me keep the room on track when we’re in the throes of the workshop.
If the day starts at 9:00 AM and the first section (with discussion buffer) is 71 minutes long, that means my next chapter should be starting at 10:11 AM. Likewise, if that chapter (with discussion buffer) is 36 minutes long, the following exercise should be starting at 10:47 AM.
In this specific example, where Column A represents durations and Column D represents start times, the formula for cell D2 would be D1 + DURATION of A1 minutes. And so on.

Step 5: Rework critical timing

Once I added discussion buffers and determined section start times, I realized lunch was getting pushed a little late. To avoid rumbling bellies, I knew I’d have to move lunch up a bit… but where to put it? Switching it with Chapter 3 only gives us a five-minute difference.* But moving it up another 30 minutes would separate the exercise from the rest of Chapter 2’s content, which would damage the experience. Time to look at some other options…
Is six minutes of discussion buffer really needed in every section? Do the exercises need to be a full thirty minutes? It’s a cost-benefit analysis we’re doing here, balancing biological needs with educational and experiential ones. Knowing that I’ve done similar exercises in fifteen minute blocks in the past, I recognize that 30 minutes is a luxury (albeit a valuable one, since participants will have time to go deeper). In the end, I know that trimming an exercise down by five minutes will have a much smaller impact than if I significantly reduce class discussion time. In fact, the effect will be completely unnoticeable. I make some additional minor adjustments to discussion buffer and move some content from Chapter 1 to later that day. Nothing lost, just rebalanced.

Step 6: Enter section times into Keynote

Whether Keynote, PowerPoint, or Google Slides is your jam, now’s the time to enter section start times into the presenter notes section. Or if you don’t think you’ll have “next slide view” or “extended desktop” capabilities, I suppose you can just bring you handy dandy spreadsheet. This way you can keep yourself and the room on track, and keep the guesswork to a minimum. A sense of control tends to help presenters with feelings of nervousness as well.

Great stories have an attention-grabbing beginning, an emotionally engaging middle, and a memorable ending. They have a character with a question, a journey to find answers, and a resolution that leaves you feeling inspired and ready for action. This is what I want our educational events to be. This timing workflow is an important part of creating that structure.

All that said, when I started writing this, I thought it’d be a paragraph or two with an accompanying screen grab. 1500 words later, I’ve fallen victim to the Planning Fallacy yet again!

But who’s perfect anyway?

–Amina

PS: Email me if you’d like me to send you a pre-filled Numbers file with this setup.

*I cordially invite you to join me for a workshop someday, where you’ll find out why Chapter 3 is short — but sweet. ;)

How to Perfectly Time a Presentation