Prepare a presentation, broken into 7 small steps
Presentations attract perfectionism: it's tempting to spend hours on fonts and transitions before you even know what you want to say.
Start with the message, then the outline, and only then the slides. Design last, and keep it simple.
Start here · under 2 minutes
Write the one sentence you want people to remember.
Under two minutes. Everything else supports this sentence.
The rest of the steps
- Step 2:
Write one line for each slide on paper.
Usually 6 to 10 slides. Title, problem, points, ending.
- Step 3:
Build plain slides with just the titles.
Use a simple template. No design work yet.
- Step 4:
Add one image, chart or number per slide.
Fewer words on screen; the words are what you say.
- Step 5:
Write speaker notes in bullet points.
Not a script. Bullets keep you natural.
- Step 6:
Rehearse once out loud, with a timer.
Cut anything that runs over. It almost always runs over.
- Step 7:
Export a PDF backup.
Store it on your phone and in email in case the projector disagrees.
Why this one stalls
Opening the slide software invites polishing instead of thinking, and the hard part, deciding the message, gets pushed back.
If you get stuck
Present it to a friend or your phone camera for two minutes. Saying it out loud shows you quickly what's clear and what's not.
What “done” looks like
Slides finished, rehearsed once, and a backup saved.
These steps follow the same rules as the method in our task breakdown guide: the first step is physical and takes under two minutes, and every step after it is something you can see yourself doing. Got a head full of other things too? Start with a brain dump.