How did you teach yourself to "slow down" your speech when presenting?

July 26, 2012 9:28 AM

How did you teach yourself to "slow down" your speech when presenting?

I frequently do presentations as part of my job, whether it roundtable or in front of a crowd. I would say I am average, or even a little less than average, amounts of nervous in these situations as opposed to the people I know.

As a comparator, I am significantly less nervous than when I perform at open mics. I feel about the same amount of nervous as when I start a running race and am a little worried about how comparatively fast I will be.

The consistent feedback I get is that people like my passion, my energy, but that I really speed through my material. I've heard myself on radio and I do seem a lot faster than I think I am. I typically present very information-heavy topics (economics and community measurement) and I think I would be a more effective speaker if I could take it down a notch.

There are lots of resources out there on tricks and mantras you can use. The issue with me is:

a) I am an extremely high-energy person...so this isn't a case of a personality anomaly. It's an extension of the fact that I typically fidget, can always find five more miles in the tank for a run, that type of thing. I type fast. I think fast. I also speak fast as a result.

b) I have low-level ADD (un-medicated because I've never performed poorly as a result...maybe instead of a 95% I got 85% in school, but that's it), and I think part of the reason I am this way is because historically, if I didn't get my idea out fast, I forgot it.

c) I have tried thinking about talking slowly. Perhaps it's just my perception, but I don't actually get any slower.

So I look to the hive mind; what helped you maintain a brisk pace in your speech instead of a sprint?

posted by Rodrigo Lamaitre to work & money (24 answers total)

I used to teach debate and pace is VERY important.

Practice reciting poems out loud in the pace that you think is appropriate. If you can corral someone to listen to you and to give you signals as you speak, great. You might want to record yourself.

Once you get the pace both in speaking and in hearing yourself speaking, practice, practice, practice.

I too speak very quickly, but with dilligent practice, I'm able to present at an appropriate rate.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 9:31 AM on July 26, 2012

Practice your pronunciation. You don't want to sound like some kind of text-to-speech automaton, but if you focus on saying each word correctly, you'll naturally slow down (as well as be generally clearer, of course).
posted by mkultra at 9:44 AM on July 26, 2012

i find one thing that helps me slow down is to focus on my enunciation. not over-enunciating, but just thinking about it. it helps bypass the OH GOD MUST SAY ALL THE WORDS RIGHT NOW flood.
posted by rmd1023 at 9:44 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

- Rehearse your talks in front of an audience, even just one person or your dog or cat. It will give you a better sense of where you need to pause or slow something down if you feel like someone is listening. The advantage of a human is that you can see when they're confused or overwhelmed, and figure out where and how to slow down so they can process what you're saying.

- cut out the fat. Do you really need to say EVERYTHING you're planning to say? How do you typically prepare - with a memorized outline that you flow off of, or what? People can't really do much with too many ideas or information at once, it's better to have a handful of strong ideas than a whole lot of soft ones. If you like to speak extemporaneously from an outline or talking points, watch out for getting too excited when you start going off the script. I find that this happens a lot, just because it feels conversational and fun.

- Think about everything you're going to say before you say it. It will feel awkward and tortoise-slow at first but even a quick half-second to arrange a sentence or choose a word before you say it will slow you down, and probably improve the content of your talks, to boot.

- Do people think you talk too fast in a conversation? If so, work on that, too, and your overall pace of thinking/speaking will slow down.
posted by peachfuzz at 9:45 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

I used to have this problem too, and it's a question of speaking at a rate that at first will seem to you ridiculously slowly and sticking with it, not allowing yourself to speed up. Note also that pausing frequently makes fast speech seem slower, i.e. don't compound the error of speaking too quickly for people to understand with saying too much for them to take in without pausing. Recording yourself speaking at a number of rates is a great way to get a sense of the 'right' rate.

Good luck!
posted by StephenF at 9:46 AM on July 26, 2012

You should make sure that this is about speaking more slowly and not about packing too much information into a presentation. I'm like you, a pretty energetic speaker and I can speak extemporaneously about things. But when I'm giving a talk on a topic I often try to cram as much in there as possible and I think I can sometimes leave people in the dust by covering too much too quickly.

I've tried to break down my presentations into thesis points and trying to only have one "point" for every 5-10 minutes of talking. So an hour presentation has an intro, five points with support and a wrap up and restatement. It's hard because for me I'm really wanting to include tons of extra information, little details, fun anecdotes, but that winds up with me speaking faster to cover the material and the whole thing feeling rushed. Similarly if you're on the radio, having key sentences that get your major points across that you're familiar and comfortable with so that you don't do the "oh and another thing" top of the head stuff is usually helpful. Not because you can't do it, your brain I'm sure makes this sort of thing easy, but because then you wind up with the "more info speedier talking" thing.

And as far as slowing down. I don't know if you use notes for your talks but I literally put more space after my main points in my notes just as a visual reminder "hey take a breath here" I also do a weird 1-2-3-4 thing when I'm trying to make sure I see the whole audience where I take a pause and try to look at four different places in the audience before bringing up my next point. You don't have to be dramatic but giving little pauses to help let things sink in is rarely a bad idea.

And other than that, rehearsing helped me feel good about my transitions and good about my timing and good about my overall pace which I feel is helpful. I'm definitely one of those "eh I don't need to rehearse" people but talks that I rehearse go better and I think are better modulated, if that makes sense, than ones where I just have a note that says "Talk about this topic in this space"
posted by jessamyn at 9:49 AM on July 26, 2012 [4 favorites]

Practice your presentation beforehand. With a tape recorder and a stop watch. Make notes for places to pause or ask questions or request questions. The. Practice it in front of a person or two. Preferably someone who is invested in your success and won't doze off midway through and the. Say 'yah, yah, of course, that was great!' you want someone who will tell you to slow down.

Make sure not to elide one word into another. Replace gonna with going to, wanna with want to, etc.

Breathe. Deep real breaths, rather than tiny little gasps. Breathe like you need it, because you do.

Focus on your posture. If you're remembering to check your back and shoulders, that will slow you down a little.

Eye contact. It helps too, but only if you're comfortable with that.

Finally, the two big reasons people get to talking too quickly are 1. Super excited!about!the!topic! And 2. Not entirely comfortable with the material, so if I zoom through it I won't let any more leak out of my brain, and also they won't have a chance to interrupt me and call bullshit. These are subconscious reactions to public speaking experiences. Practice helps them both.
posted by tulip-socks at 9:51 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

all good suggestions, but I'll just add that, if nothing else, pausing either between sentences or after paragraphs/concepts can allow people's brains to "catch up" and be ready for the next deluge...
posted by acm at 10:01 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

I also tend to speak too fast when I present. What has slowed me down significantly is presenting and talking to people who aren't native English speakers. With the people I work with day-to-day, I noticed how much better our conversations flowed when I spoke in chunks and much slower than I normally do. I've gotten much better at presenting slowly as a result.

It also helped to be learning a second language at the same time--I started speaking my English the way I wanted to hear my target language from others.
posted by chiefthe at 10:06 AM on July 26, 2012

Practice really is key for this. One thing that has helped me a lot is to consciously insert (what will seem like unnatural) brief pauses into your speech whenever you basically come to an equivalent of a comma, a period, or an em-dash in your sentence. It breaks up your sentences into chunks that the listeners' minds are trained to process easier, so the information is absorbed better -- and forces you to slow down your speech, which prevents you from building up momentum and speaking too quickly.
posted by Pontius Pilate at 10:06 AM on July 26, 2012

I write "SLOW DOWN!!" in all caps on my notes, and every time I see it, it gives me a chance to check my speed.

I also listen to audiobooks a lot, and I found that either the readers or the audio engineers insert a double-long pause at the end of every sentence. I just figured this out after listening to a book that made the pause longer than usual and drove. me. nuts. Now I can't not hear the pause in other audiobooks, but it doesn't bother me once I get into the story.
posted by telophase at 10:12 AM on July 26, 2012

I've always felt like when I slow down I end up sounding bored. Concentrating on my speed seems to zap a lot of the passion and excitement from my performance. A big part of me wants to just tell people to listen faster¹ - so I basically do that. I always warn people that I talk really fast because I'm excited, and if they need me to repeat or slow down to let me know. This wouldn't work on the radio, but for lectures and stuff it works well.

¹As Lil' Wayne says in Weezy Baby, I ain't talkin fast, you just listening too slow.
posted by k8lin at 10:17 AM on July 26, 2012

acm: all good suggestions, but I'll just add that, if nothing else, pausing either between sentences or after paragraphs/concepts can allow people's brains to "catch up" and be ready for the next deluge...

Yes.

Presidential candidates

often do this.


(look left and right at all of your audience)


They find it helps

drive their point across.
posted by IAmBroom at 10:24 AM on July 26, 2012

I'm a speech therapist so I help people work on this quite a lot (though they normally have problems with their speech or voice that require them to slow down). Things that work for some people:
* Pause at each natural pause point. Slowing down your speech is really hard but pausing more is easier and seems to help listeners nearly as much
* Sip water when you finish making a point. It slows you down and gives your audience thinking time
* Try speaking slower. This will likely make your speech sound quite monotone. Therefore try adding extra emphasis on your important words. Try reading as if you're reading to very young children and then tone it down a bit for your adult audience.
* Since you are speaking on quite technical topics, can you make your sentences shorter so that your audience have less to absorb in each little chunk?

You'll notice that half these tips are about you and half are about making it easier for your listener (and therefore reducing the effect of your fast speech).

You should also consider the effect of your general mood and presentation on how people feel about how you are saying. Fast and enthusiastic is good! But if you overdo it then frantic and too fast to absorb will leave your audience feeling bad and unlikely to leave with a good impression.

A friend with permission to be mean and nagging can be very helpful feedback. Get them to stop you every time you get too fast.
posted by kadia_a at 10:36 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Oh, and if you can access UK BBC Radio 4, record someone reading the news and then read along with them. It will seem ridiculously slow at first but once you get the rhythm it's a great pace.
posted by kadia_a at 10:43 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Instead of thinking about speaking slowly, think about speaking with clear diction. It's a good thing to do anyway, and you really can't speak too fast when you are hitting all of your Ps, Bs, Ts, Ds, etc. carefully.
posted by snorkmaiden at 10:48 AM on July 26, 2012

I too had to work on the issue of speaking quickly, as I felt energetic and enthusiastic and bright and bursting with things to say. I tried various mechanical tricks (practicing speaking with a metronome, taking breaths at each comma, etc.), but they just felt irritating to me. I, like k8lin, just wished my audience would listen faster.

Things changed for me when I finally realized dealing with a slow audience or a fast mouth were not my problems. I had an empathy problem. I wasn't taking the perspective of my listeners, and it was their interests I was supposed to be serving, not mine.

The trick to slowing my speech had little to do with self-monitoring, and a lot to do with monitoring my audience. I learned to concentrate on cues that my listeners were understanding each point I made before I moved on to the next point. I made my presentations more interactive, which slowed the pace, helped keep people engaged, and gave me more opportunities to ensure that I was communicating effectively.

Really, it seems to me, good public speaking depends upon being a good listener, which is something I had to learn to do.
posted by DrMew at 10:54 AM on July 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

One thing that really helped me in becoming a better speaker was continually reminding myself that despite the fact that I knew my material cold, the listener was only ever going to hear this once.

I'd remind myself before I launched in - This is the only time they will hear this. They are only ever going to hear this once.

I still have to do it periodically to remind myself of all of the things that everyone else has talked about - clear diction, breath control, pacing, but this was my phrase to click everything into place.
posted by msamye at 10:54 AM on July 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

Try using a metronome as an external focus. It's steady rhythm will let you start at the right speed and stay there. Even if you can only use one while practicing it can help.
posted by zinon at 10:59 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

I focus on enunciating the syllables and the way my mouth is moving to shape the words, making sure I'm speaking slowly enough and clearly enough.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 11:45 AM on July 26, 2012

The one thing that helped me most was practice - using a mirror or recording will help a lot. You get used to how it feels when you're on pace and start to notice if you're rushing.

Building in pauses is standard - use it for eye-contact and human moments (that smile you've wanted to share, that sort of thing) to keep pace and bring your audience back in for the next lap.

Perhaps a bit esoteric and can be distracting for some, but it worked for me: I give my speeches/presentations a beat in my head and let my gestures punctuate that beat, helping me stay within time. It really stands out to me when my words and gestures begin to un-synch.

Watching the people to see if you're engaging them or just talking at them is likely to help a lot, because people get really specifically distant, worried, or frustrated expressions when they aren't happy with the flow.

On preview: most of this is nthing things from above, for good reason.
posted by batmonkey at 11:46 AM on July 26, 2012

Two things helped me - focusing on enunciating the final consonant in each word, and varying tone of voice to emphasize every second or third word. If you have kids and read to them at bedtime, practice then.
posted by crazycanuck at 12:42 PM on July 26, 2012

Ok, so, 3 things. But first, some context.

I am a lot like you - I type and think really, really fast. Like, I can type almost as fast as I can talk. My notes from meetings (when I'm not presenting) are so copious that I kind of get a reputation for being the guy who remembers everything. I don't remember everything, I have a horrible memory, being fast at notes and documenting everything is how I off-set that.

I get a lot of feedback that I go way too fast in presentations. Here's what's helped:

1) What Jessamyn said. I still try to pack too much into any one slide. Make more slides and less points on each. Then figure out what slides can really be cut. Focus on your core messages and make sure that you're not trying to touch on everything in a presentation. Details should be followed up on in a written report, which the overachieving assholes we all work with can spend their evening reading instead of playing with their kids. You need to get the key messages through to leaders.

2) This is #2, but for me it is probably #1 in terms of importance. I have a staff member who works for me that I try to have in as many of my presentations as possible. She one time subtly motioned for me to slow WAAAAAY down in the middle of one of my presentations - no one else noticed it but me. Thing is, I present almost exclusively in English, but my audiences are not always English-as-a-first-language listeners, so they need even more time than your average Joe. This staff member comes from a similar background and although her English is great, she gets it. She is my bell-weather - if I have her there, I have a person in the room actively regulating my speed. This is PRICELESS. For the meetings I can't have her physically in, I try to imagine she is there. I haven't written this specific activity into her performance appraisal but I probably should.

3) Stop at the end of every slide and/or 2-3 minutes and ask if there are any questions. DO NOT fear the 10-20 second pause thereafter. Give people time to stare at the slide and think of a question, in case they weren't prepared to speak. Use the time to review whether you covered everything sufficiently (YOU DID! YOU DID!) and more importantly prepare for the next points (KEEP THEM SHORT! SLOW DOWN!). It can be so, so, so hard to encourage the dialogue, especially with an unfamiliar audience, but I've found that with time I can get it going with almost every audience. Once you have the dialogue you are golden. They are participating rather than zoning out on your presentation. This is the ultimate goal. In my personal perspective, no presentation should ever hold questions until the end.

Good on you for realizing the change you need. With a little extra effort and all the advice you are getting here, I think you can really change, but you can always do better. Or at least I know I can.
posted by allkindsoftime at 4:21 PM on July 26, 2012

I used to work in a museum, giving the same(ish) speech fifty times a day. I could easily fly through the material, so I had to focus on the rhythm of my words. A small drawl helped me keep my pace slow, as did focusing on changing pitch of what I was saying (i.e. using a bit of a radio voice.)

You probably don't have to go full-drawl (I imagine that possibly awkward in a professional setting,) but it helped me focus on the syllables instead of the words themselves, if that makes any sense.
posted by Turkey Glue at 7:10 AM on July 27, 2012