The Presentation Jitters

Well, class, we did it. We’ve survived our first presentation (apart from the three who had to wait until next week. If you’re reading this, good luck). It was no easy feat. Everyone walked into class that day with the jitters. I felt oddly comforted, knowing we all shared the nervousness and fear of messing up. I even went so far as to come to the Hive an hour early, all so I could have an empty room to practice in. We all performed amazingly, though. Our fears never materialized; how relieving that is! Now that the fear fogging my mind has faded, I want to reflect on what made this project feel intimidating.

The most obvious factor was time. Only twenty seconds per slide seemed almost impossible at first. How could I share all my information with the audience in such a short length? After we had our practice presentation, it seemed like too much time. Then, when I started practicing for my presentation, I had too little time again. What a weird oscillation between one perception and the next. It all stems from how I can’t gauge time within my head. Twenty seconds seems like too much when you have only three or so facts to share. Once you have a whole array of information for one slide, you start racing against the clock. It’s tough to find that information to time golden ratio. There are a few hypothetical solutions to these scenarios. When you don’t have enough to say until the slide changes, you could dip into your next slides’ notes. And when you have too much to say, you could keep going and use up future “dead air” time, if there was any.

The way I practiced also influenced my performance. On my first few attempts, I sat in a private room late at night. I put my computer on my lap and spoke along with the slides. During this practice session, I felt rushed and unable to say what I wanted. I truncated my notes a bit, but I still had moments where I froze, wasting precious seconds. The day after, I went to the Hive and practiced while standing up. I performed much better than yesterday. 

If I’m to guess why I did better, I think it’s because of two things. The first thing is the timing. It was around 9 PM when I first practiced. By my next practice, I had a full night’s sleep to process. It was also 11 AM, which neuroscientists say is when the brain functions best. The second thing is how I practiced. Experts say that moving around helps improve cognitive function. So, sitting around might have caused the pauses I mentioned earlier. Standing up and moving around let the blood and thoughts flow freely. 

So, I’m sure we’ll feel more confident and comfortable next time we have to present like this. Now, we have more precedents to help us predict how much can fit in 20 seconds. Don’t forget to double-check if it does fit, though. We can’t always gauge it perfectly. And if you’re practicing late at night and feel you’re performing poorly, remember that you’ll probably do better tomorrow morning. Finally, if your mind isn’t moving as fast as your slides, move around to get the brain juices flowing. Funny how much of it psychological, huh?