How to calm your nerves before a presentation

Presentation nerves are stage fright at work, and they happen to people who present every week as well as to people dreading their first one: a dry mouth, a heart you can hear, notes that won't keep still. You probably won't get rid of them completely, and you don't have to. The aim is to calm your nerves before a presentation enough that they don't run it.

Why you get nervous before a presentation

The racing heart, shaky hands and dry mouth of stage fright are adrenaline. Your body has decided this is important and is getting you ready for it. That feels a lot like danger, which is why it's unpleasant, but it's the same system that makes you sharper and more alert.

Some people find it helps to name the feeling differently. Physically, nervous and excited are very close, and telling yourself "I'm excited about this" can make the same racing heart feel more useful. It doesn't work for everyone, but it costs nothing to try.

What makes nerves worse is uncertainty: not knowing how the opening will come out, whether the clicker works, what happens if someone asks a hard question. Most of what follows is about removing those unknowns.

The week before the presentation

• Rehearse out loud. You only find the awkward sentences and the bits that run long by speaking them, so reading the slides through in your head doesn't count. Stand up when you do it, and click through the slides as you go.
• Time yourself. Many people are surprised by how far over they run. If you're over, cut a section rather than planning to talk faster.
• Record one run and watch it back. It's uncomfortable, and it shows you things you can't feel from the inside, like how often you look at the screen or how fast you go when you're unsure of a section.
• Give the opening the most practice. Know your first three sentences well enough that they come out even if your mind goes blank, and know your last line just as well. The middle can stay looser.

Think about questions too. Write down the five you'd least like to be asked and say your answers out loud. You'll probably only get one of them, but you'll walk in knowing you've already had the hard conversation once.

If you can, see the room beforehand, or at least check the tech: the screen, the clicker, whether you'll have a microphone. It's one less unknown on the day.

The hour before

• Go for a walk or take the stairs. Moving uses up some of the adrenaline instead of sitting with it.
• Breathe out for longer than you breathe in, a few times over. It calms your body down, and you can do it at your desk without anyone noticing.
• Warm up your voice by humming for a minute or saying your opening lines quietly somewhere private. Your voice is often the first thing to tighten when you're nervous, and a few minutes of use loosens it.
• Run through your opening rather than the whole deck. Rereading every slide for the fiftieth time tends to stir the nerves up. Going over your first minute reminds you that you know how to start.
• Have water nearby, and get there early enough that you aren't rushing in.

The first minute

This is where nerves usually peak, and they tend to ease once you're properly under way. So give yourself a calm start.

Stand, get your notes or clicker in hand and look at someone. Pause for a beat before you speak. Then say your first sentence more slowly than feels natural. Nerves speed most people up, and the first sentence sets the pace for everything after it. If rushing is your habit, how to speak slower when you're nervous has drills that help.

If it goes wrong in the middle

If you lose your place, stop, look at your slide or notes and find it. A silence of a few seconds feels enormous to you and ordinary to the room. If you go completely blank, summarise what you've just covered; saying it again often brings the next point back.

If your voice starts to shake, slow down and speak to the back of the room. If your hands shake, put the notes down or hold the clicker with both hands.

When it's more than nerves

Nerves before a presentation are normal. If presentation anxiety is stopping you from doing parts of your job, or is affecting your sleep or health in the days before, it's worth talking to your GP. There is good help available, and you don't have to manage it on your own.

For everyone else, rehearsing out loud until it feels familiar is the most reliable fix, even if it's the least exciting one. Our guide to practising a speech at home walks through a routine that works just as well for a work presentation.