I had a question the other day from someone who runs training courses in different places and struggles with keeping to time. It had been a difficult day, they had misplaced various important items and then their session run long which meant that they were not able to complete the content of the course.
There is no one right answer to a question like this, everyone is different and so my first recommendation is to try out a variety of approaches and see what works for you. Also it is unlikely to work 100% of the time, for example you might decide to have a timer near your computer and set that for the duration of the session. Every now and then you are likely to forget to set it. What is your backup or fall back position if that happens?
My specific suggestions to this person were:
1. Try putting a visual timer in their eyeline. I have a lovely big Time timer. You set the timer and the red area gets visibly smaller as time passes but a standard easy to read clock or digital clock would also be suitable. You might be thinking that an on screen timer would work. You could try that too.
2. If they use a smart watch to set a timer on that. NB: it is really easy to go down a rabbit hole of looking for the best timer app etc. Just use the one on the watch to start with. have mine set to silent and so I am the only one who knows it has gone off so if I think a group needs some extra time on something I can let them carry on. It is interesting to see how people react when they hear an alarm go off and are looking forward to a tea break.
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3. Add timings to the notes in your slides application so that you can check that you are running to time.
4. Ask for help fro the participants to keep to time, this can be useful if you have a group which is talking a lot or asking for lots of additional information. Make time very visible to them, for example put the timings for exercises on slides.
Backup/fallback ideas
- Firstly don’t be hard on yourself if you forget. Once you realise take a few moments to get clear on how long you have left.
- If you start the session and you realise that you have not set up your timer. You could do it straight way, during an exercise or at the next break and calculate the time remaining.
- You could have a checklist which you run through when setting up for the session. Make sure you use it every time otherwise you are likely to still forget from time to time.
- If you have added the timings to your slide notes, they should still be there. You will need to have an idea when you started.
What do you do to keep track of time?
