Why do we say? We need time. How can we reduce? Give ourselves more time. Now doing so smoothly, that's the challenge. And I think the literature on stuttering is some of the most helpful for helping us in reducing ums. Now when I say that I do want to be very clear, stuttering and ums are different. Stuttering is a fluency disorder. It can have many different causes. It can be linguistic, it can be cognitive, it can be motor. Stuttering often has part word or single syllable repetitions and most ums don't. But the advice for stutterers is usually helpful for us, especially those techniques that give us time. So the techniques I want to talk about here are just a couple of small things you can be doing In that moment when you start to notice more ums to start to pop up. These are quick fixes in that moment. So what are these? First, have some go-to phrases. I have a bunch of short fillers that buy me time. I'm so used to these fillers now, they almost serve the exact same function for me as. So what are these? Stuff like, what I mean by that, or that is to say, these are buffer sentences, okay? They show up when I need a second. Moreover, they're content neutral. They don't add to or detract from the ideas. That is to say, that can be dropped in with no impact. Now we can't go to this well too often, but these little sentences can buy you essential time. So that's one. Second, slow down and lengthen your vowels. Obviously, going slower will help you with stuttering and stuff like planning errors. I don't think the whole speech should be at a slower rate. But recognizing ums and [SOUND] downshifting is probably a pretty good idea. So if you start to notice more ums popping up, go ahead and slow down. You can prolong the vowels so that you have more time. Now this is a short fix. You don't want the entire speech to sound like you're moving through molasses. Third, you can use continuous phonation. So instead of just lengthening the vowels in the words, you can fill in the gaps between phrases with continuous voicing. So you continue to make sound. Again, you can't do the entire speech in the singing matter, but it can give you a few moments to gather yourself. In all of these moments, be aware of your facial expressions. Fluent speech typically appears free of conscious or our physical or mental effort. So I usually think it's fine to sort of close your eyes on those moments as you need to focus, but practice that face, right? You want it to be contemplative, but not straight. Those are some immediate interventions. Now, if we take a step back, at a broader level, I think there's some common things that you can be doing to reduce ums overall. What's the first one here? Practice, okay? Is it really obvious, but I gotta say it. You won't have to strain nearly as much from the necessary word if you have a greater familiarity with the flow of your speech. What else? Try habit reversal training. So this is largely a matter of being aware of your ums. Now I personally don't go too much in for counting ums, but I do think you should record yourself and watch the video. As you're watching it, where do your ums cluster? What are you doing at those points that you think gives rise to those ums? Knowing that is pretty helpful. There's one more technique and it's a little more experimental. Metronomes. So years ago, I read an article about using metronomes to decrease ums. This is a technique that's often used with stutterers. The idea is the metronome shifts your focus to how you're speaking, not what you're saying. So I tried it out. And I was kind of blown away. It's not like you are speaking to the beat of the metronome, it's just a regular sound that kind of shifts your attention. So I did this. So set up a metronome and practiced a speech with the metronome. No ums. I didn't have a single one. Awesome I know, well, that's kind of fascinating. So I cranked up the metronome, men, it was going crazy and I am really doing a fast speech. Very, very few ums. So I was shocked. I was really shocked. So if you have significant problems with ums, you might try practicing your speech with a metronome. Why go through all of this? Ums are the weeds in the garden of speech. They're natural, but they're not desired. And you could go crazy trying to eliminate each and every one of them. But with a little bit of effort, you can minimize their impact. [MUSIC]