Timing is critical to successfully communicating in the formal - public speaking - arena. Too many executives abuse the privilege of the listener's ear. Even though they can often get away with it because their audiences often work for them and have to listen, they do it at their peril. Here's why:

• Meet the audience's expectation. It's not how much material you have, it's what time do you have to deliver it. If you go beyond their expectation, people will begin looking at their watch - either overtly or covertly - for they will know you are long. And get distracted. Perhaps annoyed. Even if you are interesting.
• Keep the audience's attention. The attention span of an adult is 8 seconds. (The attention span of a child is 6 seconds BTW.) That doesn't mean that you can only keep their attention for 8 seconds - it means means we can lose them in 8 seconds. But the longer you go, the more difficult it becomes - keep time on your side.
• Honor people's time. Everyone's busy, and unconsciously we resent it when someone uses our time beyond what we expect. Even if a speaker is good, it's not as if the listener has nothing else to do with their time but sit and listen to them.

Other Timing Factors:

• Rehearsal time is shorter than real time. A good rule of thumb is that your rehearsal time will be about 75% of your actual speaking time. We tend to add things when we are live, and actually speed up our pace in rehearsing. Our mind does it to us, and this is even when we are experienced at speaking and rehearsing.
• We go long at the start, rush the end. I'm not sure why, but even the experienced do this. I think it may be because unconsciously we aren't sure we'll have all the content to fill all that time, and we are slow getting started. So we run out of time, leaving our best material to be rushed. Start off with a bang, not a whimper - hit the ground running.
• Use a clock, but don't look at your watch. There is a famous incident when George Bush Sr.  was debating Bill Clinton and losing badly, and twice he looked at his watch. I doubt if he wanted to know the time, he just wanted it to be done - and he communicated that fact to the nationwide television audience. Whenever you look at your watch, the listener wants to look at his or her watch too - why distract them. Be sure to have a timepiece - I always use a large faced digital clock (not analog - you want to immediately grasp the numbers) that you can place on the lectern or table next to your notes or computer. Or take off your watch and put it where you can see it. Or use the clock in the back of the hall or meeting room if it's there. But be sure to stay on time - only you need to know when you are checking your time.
• Timing in humor. I know many have looked up this post to see how to use timing in your humor. I'd tell you but I'm not funny.

What are your timing tips and methods - or questions?