I find that the longer a speech is, the harder it is get the timing right, unless you practice over and over. Ad-libbing or using a sparse outline tend to let you put in more detail, more words, more stuff than what you wanted to.

I used to set a vibrating alarm on my cell phone for 5 minutes before I wanted to be off. The downside of that strategy was that I would find I was way behind and had to think on my feet how to get done.

If you’re using presentation graphics, sometimes you can put a timer or clock on the secondary display on your laptop…a quick peek and you can pace yourself.

But the right thing to do is practice more…now if only I could walk the talk.