Presentation Anxiety

When presenting to peers, I find myself talking too fast and skipping over important information that I wanted to talk about as I panicked with the pressure of remembering what I wanted to say, and I end up avoiding it completely.

To help myself I looked at what techniques or stages in which to prepare myself for presenting. I found three points that could help me with my problem of presenting to a group of peers;

1. Exercise - interestingly getting the blood flowing can help through how it can make you feel positive, which could help with confidence for presenting to peers. I feel that this confidence can help me when talking especially if I forget what I wanted to say, I can then improvise with confidence.

2. Rehearse - I normally try to memorise what I want to say during the powerpoint in the attempt of not forgetting what I want to say, however it normally ends up to built up stress which results in myself talking fast or skipping a slide as I have completely forgotten what I wanted to say. Rehearsing however could help me solve this problem, as it can build confidence and reduce stress the more that you go through what you want to say. It gives you the change to improvise whilst presenting which works better than memorising my presentation as it creates pressure.

3. Appreciation - I need to keep in mind that the audience is listening, I need to keep them engaged, get them involved, whether it is making them laugh or agreeing with their opinion on the subject of the presentation. "If your audience knows you want to add value to their life, you will immediately feel a sense of ease because it will define your purpose and role in the presentation environment" (1)

For my next presentations I need to ensure that I approach the presentation day calmly, purposely doing something that I know will make me feel calm and prepared for talking to peers.




(1) http://blog.slideshare.net/2013/11/18/how-to-combat-presentation-anxiety/index.html