Timeboxing a workshop with a shared timer

In a room you can see when people are done writing, when energy is dropping, when a discussion has gone round twice. On a call you cannot. A clear, visible limit gives everyone the same signal: how long this part takes, and how much of it is left.

• Plan the agenda in timeboxes, not topics: "7 minutes of silent writing, 15 of reading out", so the total adds up to the time you have.
• Keep them short. Five to ten minutes for individual work, fifteen to twenty for a discussion, and a break at least every hour.
• Leave slack. Keep ten minutes unplanned in a two-hour session. You will need them.

Start a timer from the board's Facilitate menu: 1, 3, 5 or 10 minutes. Everyone on the board sees the same countdown in the dock, whether they joined as an editor or a viewer, and it carries on if someone reloads the page.

• Pause when a question needs an answer before people can carry on, and Resume when it has one.
• +1 min gives the group one more minute. If you find yourself pressing it three times, the timebox was wrong — say so and plan the next one longer.
• At zero the dock reads Time's up, with a short buzz for anyone watching. The timer stays there until you stop it, so nobody misses that time is over.

Ask the room, don't decide for it: "Do we need five more minutes, or is this enough to move on?" Agreeing to extend is fine. Extending silently teaches people that the timer does not mean anything.