Audience Attention

Maximising Attention Span With A Kitchen Timer Approach™

4 Min Read

What is the optimal attention span that your interested audience is willing to listen to you?

How long does it take to lose your audience attention before they start tuning out?

According to cognitive scientists, the range of 10 to 18 minutes is the maximum attention span.

As your brain absorbs new information, it consumes a huge amount of glucose, oxygen and blood, with millions of neurons firing and burning energy, eventually leading to fatigue and exhaustion after the 18th minute mark.

This 18-minute rule has also reminded me of risotto cooking, a famous Italian rice dish cooked in a broth to a creamy consistency.

I have learnt from American Celebrity Chef, Emeril Bagasse, that the biggest tip for making a perfect risotto is to only cook it for 18 minutes.

Nothing more than that.

How Can We Apply To Presentation Design?

The idea is simple.

You should start planning your presentation into 18-minute chunks and make your 30-minute presentation into three phases:

1) Introduce yourself: 2 – 3 minutes.

2) Present your main idea or message: < 18 minutes.

3) Giving your audience a chance to ask questions: 5 minutes.

Just like cooking the risotto, you will need a kitchen timer to assist in the perfect timing of cooking this amazing dish.

Similarly, you can use the kitchen timer approach to ensure that you keep your interested audience wide-awake by not crossing the optimal 18-minute attention span.

Use this kitchen timer approach in your next presentation and see how your audience give you their 100% focused attention span to the max.

The 2 Step “Kitchen Timer Approach”
For A Perfect Presentation Pitch

Incorporating the 18-minute rule into your presentation would require two simple steps:

Step 1: Plan your speech.

Step 2: Use a timer.

Let me jump right in…

Step 1: Plan your speech

The first step is to determine the number of words for your 18-minute presentation speech.

If you are speaking at an average pace of 150 words per minute (WPM), an 18-minute presentation would translate to about 2,340 words.

There is no hard and fast rule here.

The actual number of minutes you will take is also dependent on your speed of speaking.

For example, in a 18-minute TED talk, presentation expert Nancy Duarte shares practical lessons on how to make a powerful call-to-action during presentation using 3,884 words.

That’s about 216 words per minute. She is a fast speaker.

Steve Jobs gave one of the most popular commencement address of our time at Stanford University and he did it in 15 minutes, using 2,270 words.

That’s about 151 words per minute. The pace of his speech is comfortable.

The table below provides an indication of the number for words based on the presentation time.

This brings us to the step 2.

Step 2: Use a kitchen timer

Interruptions and delays can happen during your presentation.

For example, you might start a couple of minutes late waiting for your audience or you might take longer to emphasize a certain point.

And, you can’t manage time unless you can see the time. The presentation venue might not have a clock and looking at your watch during your presentation can be distracting.

That’s why a kitchen timer comes into play.

Here is what I do for timekeeping.

Over at Microsoft PowerPoint/Apple Keynote, you can set it to show the presenter’s view and display the timer, during your presentation.

Presenter View in PowerPoint

Are You Ready to Give It a Shot?

I hope I have helped you ease your worry on how long your presentation should be.

And, stop worrying about how many words should your presentation speech be.

Start incorporating breaks right around the 18-minute mark.

You can introduce a short exercise, an activity that engages the audience, or simply changing the way you present the information with a short video or getting your audience to participate that helps to illustrate your message.

Ready to try it out?

Leave a quick comment below to let me know how this approach has helped you.