Practical tips to help you stop saying ummm

1. Take the chance to breathe. So Instead of saying umm when you pause, try taking a breath instead.

2. Don’t be afraid of silences. Force yourself to accept that silence is normal. The silence will always seem longer when you’re in the spotlight so prepare yourself mentally for this beforehand. Confident people actually use silence to keep the audience engaged; how? because when you stop talking, people who are looking down or ‘drifting’ look up to see why you’ve stopped talking.

3. Limit distractions. Try not to think about other things going on around you. The more you concentrate on just speaking, the less umms you’ll use.

4. Don’t put your hands in your pockets. Studies have found that when your arms and hands are constrained, the amount of umms you use goes up. This is because you can’t use your hands to help you convey your message and that can make you look more hesitant in getting your message across.

5. Prepare rigorously. When you’re giving a speech or presentation that can be planned beforehand, feeling properly prepared really will reduce the number of umms you use. Watch our Preparation Series for more tips on this.

6. Tell a story. Umm’s tend naturally to vanish once you get involved in telling a story as your words tend to flow more naturally. So try to relax and be conversational when you speak.

7. Combat your nerves. Watch our Video on overcoming nerves for more tips on this.

8. Keep your sentences simple and short. The longer the sentence, the more likely you are to use umms to fill gaps.

9. Talk face-to-face if you can. It’s true that the use of ‘filler’ words goes up when you’re talking on the phone because you don’t have body language and facial expressions at your disposal. That means you struggle more in choosing the right words to convey what you mean.