Short and Fast is the New Trend

The world is becoming faster (I am hoping this is true and it is not just that I am getting older and slower) and people are wanting to do things in less and less time. Part of this is also enhanced due to things like Twitter (140 characters certainly limits things).

I'm wondering if quotations are getting shorter because of the 140 character limitation.

Harvard Business Review is doing an interesting cutup of books and taking books and cutting them into a series of short, what they call 10 minute reads.

I wonder if it will catch on.

I know I enjoyed "The Skinny On" series.

I know my favourite ab workout is Blackjack by Taylor Beech that takes only 10 minutes (and guarantees days of soreness). Less time - more pain. Efficiency at its best.

I read "15 Minutes including Q and A - A plan to Save the World from Lousy Presentations" by Joey Asher. Long title but short book. At 105 pages but a small format, it is likely shorter than my Time Management Book even though that is only 80 pages.

Asher is a speaking coach so should know a bit about public speaking. He even makes the point that short is good. He suggests that a good speech is 15 minutes including Q and A (hence the title) The book starts with a chapter on the 7 minute speech.

I liked the chapter on "find your Authentic voice". I have always found presentations do not work well if someone else prepares them for me.

It is packed full of great ideas like "hook them in the first 30 seconds", "leave them with some questions to answer", "deliver your speech with intensity".

Even though it is a short book, I liked that it had "key takeaways" at the end of each chapter.

Short book but it covers just about everything I could think of on doing good presentations.