We all know it, the enormous time pressure that accompanies the modern working world. From the reception desk to the executive suite, the demands continue to increase. Time is thus becoming an extremely rare commodity that must be used and deployed as efficiently as possible. When, in addition to the daily workload, the next presentation is due, stress is usually pre-programmed. In addition to the preparation of the content, the preparation of the presentation (according to studies, this takes an average of eight valuable hours per month!*) can become an unpleasant time-consuming task. To help you make this process as efficient as possible, we have put together a few helpful tips and tricks for you.
TIP #1: Never start with the slides
Yes, you read that correctly. When you start your next presentation, creating slides is a no-no for now. Because just as a writer doesn't immediately hit the keys to start a new novel, you shouldn't immediately get started with your slides either, but first think about the structure and content of your presentation. If you skip this step to save time, you are guaranteed to lose it later with tedious adaptations that you could have avoided through good planning.
TIP #2: Define a core message
In order to create an unforgettable presentation and inspire people, you need a compass for your presentation - a clear idea of where the journey should go. Therefore, the very first thing you should ask yourself is what you want to convey and what thought you definitely want your audience to take away with them. This will not only make your presentation much clearer, you will also save a lot of time when creating your presentation concept or slides - because from now on you only have to check if your ideas or slides support your core message. If this is not the case, delete the point or slide.
In the search for your core message, the little word "why" can support you. Learn how here!
TIP #3: Develop a structure
Once you have defined your core message, you can start structuring your presentation. Apple legend and presentation genius Steve Jobs always used pen and paper to sketch out a storyboard for this purpose, which outlines the flow of the presentation (e.g.: Welcome, outlook on the next 20 minutes, introduction to the topic, main part, conclusion with "call-to-action", Q&A session, farewell). In the course of this, he developed a story from an initial idea or task, which consequently served as a guideline for the presentation implementation and ultimately also always led to the presentation goal in a spectacular manner.
Here are more insights into Steve Jobs' legendary presentation techniques!
Time saver: Before you start creating your slides based on your storyboard, be sure to check which existing slides or content you can reuse or only need to adapt minimally.
TIP #4: Identify the optimal visual support
Not only the content, but also the type of slide design should be determined in advance. Generally speaking, overloaded slides with text clutter and lots of graphics are an absolute no-go. So that you can present your core message accurately on a few, reduced slides, you should ask yourself which visual means best support your message. Is it a diagram, an image, a video, a product gallery, a 3D visualization, or a very complex technical animation with arrows and labels? Looking at your storyboard can help you determine the right media.
To make slide design easier for you, we have compiled the most important dos & don'ts for exceptional slides and the best tips for the right font selection for you.
TIP #5: Familiarize yourself with your software
No matter which tool you use to create your presentation, you should definitely take a closer look at it. Otherwise, you will not only waste a lot of time looking for certain functions, but also strain your nerves.
If you are looking for a professional and time-efficient presentation software, then of course we can highly recommend our tool. While you waste more than 40% of your preparation time formatting and adapting slides with well-known presentation tools, our tool makes it easy to adapt them with just a few mouse clicks. Moreover, searching for templates, images and documents with common software eats up about 30% of your time resources. Precious time that you also save with our innovative search options. On top of that, we don't give the general corporate design error rate of 70% a chance!* Because we want you to be able to concentrate on the really important things - your content.
Register here for our webinars! We will be happy to help you increase your productivity stress-free with presono.
In addition, you can find out about all the presono functions in our knowledge database.
We wish you great success in creating your next presentation!
*Source reference: „Die große PowerPoint Studie“ – GfK, Juni 2014 via Online-Befragung mit strukturiertem Fragebogen per CAWI