Life hacks for presentations, I know what you’re thinking, what information could we possibly provide you with that you don’t know already right? Well here’s the dilemma, many people already know how to present and the tactics to use, but very few actually do it whilst presenting and end up in a panic. And so enter us, your savors! We’re here to give you the best 7 life hacks for presentations, you might learn something new or we might just help you remember to do something, like breath in deeply to calm down.
1. 10-20-30 Rule
If you haven’t heard of this already, this presentation structure was thought up by Guy Kawasaki after listening to many presentations himself. This rule states that a powerpoint slide presentation should have no more than 10 slides, last no longer than 20 minutes and have no text less than 30 point font. The aim of the rule is to help keep your information concise and simple so your audience can understand your point in a short space of time.
2. Don’t Read
Although it sounds obvious enough, many of us take notes and reading material up with us when we are presenting just in case our minds go blank. However, most of the time what happens is we end up reading directly from the piece of paper or worse off we end up reading from the slide itself. Unfortunately, this will cut down your interaction with your audience. Instead, prepare a speech with cues for each slide so you can engage with your audience better. Your speech should explore points on the slide, not the other way round.
3. Powerpoint templates
It’s easy to get lost in the construction of a powerpoint presentation. It’s enough having to try and remember what to put into the presentation let alone put it together. If you do find yourself faced with this problem, there’re tools like PoweredTemplate that can help lighten the load. You won’t have to worry about how to put your presentation together as online templates can offer a wide range of backgrounds and structures to support any type of presentation. This will give you more time to piece together other aspects of your presentation.
4. “That’s a Good Question”
One of the most feared parts of a presentation is the end, the Q&A. Many individuals fear this portion of the presentation because there is no way we can prepare for the questions that come from the audience. Responses such as “That’s a Good Question” and “I’m glad you asked me,” will give you a few seconds to collate your thoughts and formulate your answer. Your audience won’t know your buying yourself some time to think and there will be no awkward pauses or um’s and ah’s as you think.
5. Data Visualisation
Visuals can lift your presentation and can help make it more engaging for your audience. What you have to remember is everyone takes in information differently. Some will be able to digest text easily whereas others will be able to digest visual content such as graphs better. Using SmartArt a new type of graphical tool included in the latest versions of Word can help organize presentation art. You can use it to create charts, a decision tree, a pyramid or matrix structure, illustrate steps in a process, or display events in a timeline.
6. Don’t Plan Gestures
Any gestures you use need to be an extension of your message and a way to convey it. Planned gestures look false because they don’t match your natural body language which your audience will notice. Instead, be as natural as possible, this will make you feel calmer and a bit more relaxed.
7. 20-20 Rule
Just like the 10/20/30 rule above, another suggested rule for slideshows is the 20-20 rule. This rule states that you should have twenty slides in your presentation each lasting exactly twenty seconds. Compared to the first rule, if you follow this rule you will be done in as little as under 5 minutes which is great if you have a very short presentation slot, giving you some time for a short Q&A.
