Time Management

For the handful of readers who may not know, this weekend I am in Vegas with my dad, stepmom, and my sister. I'm telling you this so it is more acceptable for me to admit to drunken phone-blogging at noon PST.

I am not the most organized person in the world, but I really strive to be better than I am. I struggle with sending reminder e-mails and writing out lesson plans, but timing is something I pride myself on. 

If it's a show or a class or even a mildly important meeting that I'm running, I can figure it out down to the minute. I can figure whether people are going to run late, what things to cut to account for the late-comers, and how to drop the hammer and end whatever I'm doing at precisely the moment we're aiming for. I don't know for sure where this skill came from aside from valuing my own time. I wear a watch and check it nigh constantly. As a server, I am quick to clock out before my hourly tips drop below $10/hr. As an improviser or student or actor, I get angry when rehearsal or class runs over the time alotted.

I think the biggest mistake people make when estimating how long something will take is that they are far too optimistic about the timing of things. I have generally noticed that when inexperienced directors run a short form improv show, it runs short. Hell, anybody who is inexperienced will typically run short in any kind of presentation. If they're well studied and have a lot of information to get across, then they have a chance of running too long, but that is a much easier thing to plan contingencies for.

My tips on timing boil down to being honest with yourself about how long an activity takes and never sharing that with your audience. They don't need to know that you expect a game to last four minutes, they are just there to see you and be mystified by your bizarre ability to bend the seconds to your will. Yes, they want to be entertained, but entertainment is primarily an enjoyable way to kill time between obligations. They want to feel like their 90 minutes watching you is only 30 minutes and they want to feel like they got a great return on the investment of their time. As an audience member I want to make my memories count and nothing makes that tougher than a poorly timed and organized show. 

No short form game should last more than four minutes and no long form should run longer than thirty. No lesson in an improv or theatre class needs to consist of over five minutes of you speaking in a row. If any of the above run hot and everybody wants more, give them more and cut from the back end of your show or class. Always plan to have two or three things run short so you can finish big and make people want to come back next time. Cut things mercilessly if you see them die with no chance of resurrection. Never over run a show by more than five minutes and never over run a rehearsal or a class without permission from the performers or students. If you think you may go over time or under it, you are right. Trust your experience and instincts to guide your sweeps and be as bold and brash as you need to be.

And last but not least, I personally prefer a bad show that ends exactly on time as opposed to a good show that ends 30 minutes early or 30 minutes late. I can people watch for a random amount of time and imagine a good show for free, if you're charging me to watch the least you can do is time your show properly.