Have something to say. Something that you WANT to say. If you don't have that, cancel the talk.
So you want to say something. Say it.
Don't start your 20 minute talk by spending two minutes going over an outline of it, saying that you'll first present the problem, then review past work, then blah, blah, blah. I HOPE that the thing you want to say isn't "I've spent a lot of time organizing my talk like this..."
Don't start your talk with a funny anecdote about the driver of the taxi you took from the airport. I hope that THAT isn't what you want to talk about either.
Do start by describing the problem you're solving (you are solving some sort of problem, I assume...?). But only to the point where the audience can grasp what you're trying to do. Review past work only if the focus of your work is something like "I fixed the problem that the XYZ algorithm unnecessarily recomputes A...". You can mention how past work relates to yours at the end of the talk. It will make more sense then.
Get as quickly as you can to WHAT YOU ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED. I hope that's what you want to talk about.
So you want to say something. Say it.
Don't start your 20 minute talk by spending two minutes going over an outline of it, saying that you'll first present the problem, then review past work, then blah, blah, blah. I HOPE that the thing you want to say isn't "I've spent a lot of time organizing my talk like this..."
Don't start your talk with a funny anecdote about the driver of the taxi you took from the airport. I hope that THAT isn't what you want to talk about either.
Do start by describing the problem you're solving (you are solving some sort of problem, I assume...?). But only to the point where the audience can grasp what you're trying to do. Review past work only if the focus of your work is something like "I fixed the problem that the XYZ algorithm unnecessarily recomputes A...". You can mention how past work relates to yours at the end of the talk. It will make more sense then.
Get as quickly as you can to WHAT YOU ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED. I hope that's what you want to talk about.