⏰The Quest #95: 10 Strategies for Staying on Time (even when you fall way behind)

Greetings from Barcelona.☀️

🙌Many thanks for reading The Quest, your weekly round-up of tips and insights to help you design and lead exceptional virtual sessions that your group members will love.❤️


Everything started well.

I kicked off the session right at 5:00 pm. I started with a warm welcome. Then moved on to a fun connection activity. I shared the session aim. I was finding my facilitation flow 🌊.

Then I realized I hadn’t checked the time.

I glanced over at my outline. And then looked at the clock.

Where I was supposed to be in my schedule –> 5:27.

Where I was –> 5:39.

😳

What happened?

I didn’t plan for the latecomers. So the welcome took 8 mins instead of 5.

I forgot to include 2 minutes to explain the warm-up activity. So it took 5 minutes instead of 3.

The group discussion after the breakout group was so good I let it roll for 15 minutes instead of 8.

Total delay: 3+2+7 = 12 mins.

Like a runaway train, time was quickly slipping out of my grasp.

I had to take drastic measures.

Looking at the rest of the outline, I realized I had underestimated the time in every section of my session. I needed to start cutting activities if I was going to get this runaway train back on track. But which ones? Everything felt mission-critical. I had no buffer.

I realized that I had a bad habit of underestimating time.

It starts with overpacking the agenda. Which means that I have to rush through planned activities. Or cut them altogether. The worst part? I often cut the most precious session time of all – the group discussion and breakouts.🤦

Keeping track of time is one of the biggest challenges of virtual facilitators.

Time management is a skill of exceptional facilitation. When you track time well your sessions feel less rushed. You are less stressed. And you give your group a better experience.

🤔So how do you stay on time and remain flexible to the needs of the group?

That’s our Quest for this week🔎

👉Planning “Extreme Buffers”

👉10 Strategies for Staying on Time (even when you fall behind)

👉Zoom Countdown Timer

Let’s jump right in!


💡Planning “Extreme Buffers”

A 1-minute video from the facilitation workshop YouTube channel AJ&Smart with Time Management tips for facilitators.

As someone who struggles to stay on time, I needed someone to tell me straight up: “PLAN EXTREME BUFFERS!!!”.

My biggest takeaways👇

  • The best way to stay on time is to assume you will not stay on time. Activities will inevitably run over time.
  • Plan extreme buffers. If you think an exercise is going to take 30 minutes plan for 45 – 60 mins.
  • Don’t pack your workshops. You’ll feel stressed and so will your group members.

video preview


⏰10 Strategies for Staying on Time (even when you fall behind)

A Twitter thread I published with strategies for keeping your session on track.

How do you keep your sessions on track? I’d love to hear from you. Join the conversation on Twitter – or hit reply to this email.

twitter profile avatar Gwyn WansbroughTwitter Logo @gwynwans ⏰Staying on time can be one of the most stressful things when you lead virtual sessions. It doesn’t have to be. Here are 10 easy strategies for staying on time (even when you fall behind). 🧵👇 October 17th 2022 0 Retweets 0 Likes

TL;DR 10 Strategies for Staying on time👇

1/ ⌚Start on time

2/ ✂️Cut your content

3/ ⏰Include buffer time

4/ 🤦Assume you will fall behind

5/ ⏲️Make time visible

6/ ⏱️Make time explicit

7/ ✋Interrupt when you need to

8/ 💬Prioritize engagement

9/ ⌛End on time

10/ 🔎Do a “time post-mortem”


⚒️Zoom Countdown Timer

It’s hard to stay on time when time isn’t visible. I discovered (today!) that you can download timer apps from the Zoom Marketplace that you can embed in your zoom screen.

I like the BlueSkyApp timer that gives you a meeting timer, agenda timer & clock countdown.

Thanks to Quest readers (and BF crew🙌) Pam D. and Lilian W. for helping me to discover and test the timer!


💡Quote of the Week

“Time isn’t the main thing. It’s the only thing.”

Miles Davis, American Jazz Legend


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Creatively yours,

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