Do you have any lesser known tips for holding a presentation while being anxious af?

5 comments

1. Find a song with a beat to follow to don’t speak too fast or too slow

2. I like to just have fun with it, make it entertaining for yourself this way it’s more enjoyable and takes your mind off the audience

3. If in school…

   Volunteer to go 1st.

   You set the bar

4. Try to shift the mental focus during both the preparation and the presentation itself from being too much about yourself and managing your anxiety, and toward the task of imparting something of some value or importance to the audience. The idea is to replace a mindset of “i just have to get through this” with “i’m going to make sure these people learn a few things that they didn’t know before”, so you have a sense of mission.

5. If you’re going off of a power point slide and don’t want to practice using your voice I like to write things down. So for each slide I’ll literally write what I’m going to say and go through the entire presentation. Then I’ll do it again later on. You’re not following a script so you can’t be wrong unless you accidentally forget to include information. Even include little … in writing as you think through what you’re saying. This’ll give you a mental frame work of how you can go about the presentation.
   If you wear glasses take them off so peoples faces look blurry.
   If you drive you can practice in the car while driving but to make things dumber impersonate someone like Obama or Trump just for shits.
   It all depends on why youre anxious, are you anxious because of social anxiety, are you anxious because you don’t know if you’ll present well or something else. I encourage you to understand the reason and then formulate things that might help reduce the anxiety.