Do you struggle to find time to practice your speech with your packed schedule? The idea of grinding through your speech over and over for 30, 60, or 90 minutes at a stretch can make anyone turn into a master procrastinator. Practice is absolutely essential for delivering a good talk, but you don’t need to dedicate big swaths of time to it. A much more effective strategy is to find short chunks of time throughout the day where you can run through smaller bite-sized pieces of your presentation. In this Two Minute Tip, I take you through my “sneaky practice” strategy – a way to get in more practice time than you thought possible…no matter how jammed your schedule may be!
*If you prefer to read rather than watch, scroll down for the full transcript.
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TRANSCRIPT
Who has the time to practice their speech? Guess what – YOU DO, and I’ve got a no-excuses way to make that practice happen.
I’m Lauren Sergy with another Two Minute speaking Tip. If you want to give a great speech or killer presentation, you MUST practice. I know you know this…but there’s a problem: You. Are. Busy. Your day is packed with work, meetings, and commitments. I completely get it – it’s hard to carve out time to practice your talk.
So here’s a way to bust through the “busy” excuse and supercharge your practice sessions all in one go: with Sneaky Practice.
Sneaky Practice involves sneaking in shot bursts of practice while you’re doing something else, like washing the dishes, taking a shower, or walking the dog. Just pick a chunk of your presentation and run through it a few times while doing that other thing.
Here’s the key: Make sure you do this out loud – practicing “in your head” doesn’t count. If you feel self-conscious, pop in some headphones so it looks like you’re on a call, or simply mutter to yourself under your breath. This is messy and you will make mistakes – remember, you’ll be a little distracted with your other task and probably won’t be able to read from elaborate speaker notes (which is actually a hidden benefit of Sneaky Practice). Making mistakes is fine – just keep going over that chunk of your talk. This is about repetition, not perfection.
All these little 5, 10, 15 minute bursts of practice add up. Once you start looking for these chunks of practice time, you’ll find them everywhere. On the sidelines at your kid’s soccer practice? Run through a piece of your talk. Stuck in a traffic jam? Sneak in some practice! I even practice on flights – I just let my seatmates know why I’m muttering to myself so they don’t get too wierded out.
Do Sneaky Practice a few times a day, and you’ll discover that you can get in a lot practice without the stress of finding and grinding through big, multi-hour cram sessions.
If you found this tip helpful, then by all means subscribe to my channel, ring the bell for notifications, then head over to laurensergy.com and sign up for more great resources and videos to help you level up your speaking game. Now get out there and make your next talk your best one yet!
