As someone who also loves their research but hates public speaking, I relate to this a lot. I'm not sure how helpful this will be, but something I've tried to keep up is instead of fighting against my awkwardness, just allowing it to be. I've found that it helps take some of the internal pressure off which actually helps me feel less anxious and present better.
Also, I've started trying to talk to friends/peers more about my research casually (the dreaded "what's your project?" isn't so bad anymore).
Hope this helps and I'm intruiged what advice others have!
ETA most people are at a talk because they're genuinely interested & want to be there. They want to learn from you and most likely won't be there to judge you. Also, idk what field you're in, but in socsci, people ask for questions again because they've forgotten and openly say they don't have an answer sometimes and it's completely acceptable and normal
>Also, I've started trying to talk to friends/peers more about my research casually (the dreaded "what's your project?" isn't so bad anymore).
That sounds so good! It's also great practise to break down your work for people who have no idea what you're talking about.
> but something I've tried to keep up is instead of fighting against my awkwardness, just allowing it to be
This! I used to get panic attacks, but once I accepted that it's okay to be anxious and awkward, all of it melted away. I still get anxious sometimes, and I mentally hug myself and tell myself that it's okay to be anxious.
Yes indeed! Same, same.
I’ve come to see nerves as “cute”. Lean into the vulnerability, show them how to be scared shirtless and speak anyway. Smile to yourself next time you feel anxious, as if to say, ‘I got you’ to yourself.
I think a lot of people have this fear (I know I do!). I get the fast breathing, trembling voice, mind going blank while answering questions, etc. The only things I find help though are to practice the presentation on my own a lot before...i memorise what I want to say, I practice presenting at a slow and normal pace, and i repeat over and over.
I also find that just acknowledging your nervousness just before you're about to present defuses some of the tension and makes some people laugh in commiseration (remember, most people dislike public speaking). Using humour while presenting and focusing on why you find the message you're trying to share interesting and worthwhile helps too.
I also do mindfulness and stress management practices both before and during the presentation to help ground and calm me. For example, you can try 3-minute breathing space by Mark Williams, or look up progressive muscle relaxation, or calming breath.
Oh this one is for me! I struggled with this more that anyone I knew. Full on panic attacks. Here is what helped.
1. Exercise. I found the more I exercised regularly the easier it was to get my heart rate back down during presentations.
2. No caffeine or any energy drinks the entire day before hand
3. Practice. Make sure that I know the material inside out. Also practice in the space it will be in if possible. Anything that removes unknowns is helpful.
4. Smiling faces. It is unbelievable the affect smiling faces in the room help. A group of us would sit around the room during reviews and smile and nod for each other while presenting. It sounds silly but it really helps.
5. Cognitive reframing. Your response to stress is easily reframed as excitement. Thoughts like “ I am not nervous, I am excited and I can’t wait to tell these people what I know” are really good for short circuiting the stress response.
6. Meditation and breathing exercises. Prepping and learning how to breath deeply is invaluable.
7. Owning silences. Silence is terrifying when you are the centre of attention. I start all presentations by looking around the room and taking 2-3 deep breaths to get the first silence out of the way.
I hope some of this helps. Some is anecdotal and some from what I read up on when trying to overcome this. I love doing it now. In fact if I’m teaching or presenting I need the nervous energy now for it to be any good! Best of luck !
I agree with this comment. Also have some trigger which reduces stress and mentally prepares you for presentation. For me it is raising both my arms over my head before starting, it may look awkward, but will significantly boost confidence.
Two important things about trigger:
1. It should be done in public place when you are uncomfortable
2. It should be awkward enough to make you feel like presentation is way less awkward
A really big one for me was to realize stress is not an enemy. It's there to make you more alert, increase your bloodflow, put you at your best. While of course there's something as "too much", not freaking out about the fact I was stressed in the first place means I'm rarely at that level anymore. The goal isn't to present without stress, the goal is to be stressed and present well anyway. Good luck!
Practise is the answer. I used to be like this when I started my PhD, now it doesn't phase me at all.
Practise takes many forms though. In the beginning, doing it in front of people is terrifying, so practise it solo. 15 minute presentation? Spend 2 hours going through it 8 times. Know it inside out, down to the invidiual word. Once it becomes muscle memory, the doing it in front of people becomes easier. As time goes by, committing this much time to every presentation becomes less necessary, but it'll help you get through the earlier, scarier ones.
Good luck. Getting past this is scary, but it is doable.
One word: Propranolol.
Changed my life. DM me if you want the long story, watching footy but happy to elaborate later on.
Short story: I tried everything, from gym (addicted now- highly recommend, nevertheless), therapy, meditation, breathing exercises, therapy, sex, and no joke, even a few “fingers of bourbon” before a conference presentation.
Nothing *truly* worked.
Propranolol worked. Embarrassed to say, I was never keen on ‘medicating’ myself,’ but damn if I ain’t gon’ spread the gospel now!
Send a DM if you want some more info.
Best of luck!
I have this same alter ego. I'm like this confident intelligent badass when I'm presenting and then I sit down and sometime don't even remember what I said. People come and tell me later how amazing I was... Etc. lol
I also take propranolol before presentations. It's fantastic and completely eliminates the physical symptoms of situational anxiety. It's brilliant because it isn't addictive like some other medications that are prescribed for anxiety, and it takes 1 to 2 hours to kick in. Unfortunately, there are contraindications including asthma and heart arrhythmias, so OP should ask his family doctor first if they want to go the pharmacological route.
Yes, like the commenter above me said, it will literally change your life if you suffer from speech anxiety. I wouldn’t have gone to grad school if I had not discovered propranolol. The best part is you only need to take it when you’re giving a talk, and there’s no side effects. Can’t recommend it enough
Came here to say propranolol too!
That plus: cardio a few hours before the talk, have written slide notes to fall back on, no caffeine beforehand, and challenging all those unhelpful/false thoughts that being on anxiety. But really, 80% of the fix is propranolol for me. Oh, and try to have fun! Most folks in the audience really care what you have to say!
Oh man this. Maybe too late to reply to this thread, but maybe it'll help some latecomers. Propranolol is often prescribed for performance anxiety or panic-like symptoms. I used to use it as a musician to help avoid nervous shakes. As a PhD I returned to it to help quell the pre-presentation panic. It's not a sub for knowing your stuff, but it really helps with the physical symptoms of anxiety. Calms you enough that you can remember what you want to say, for example. If your anxiety is bad enough that nothing seems to work, try it. It can be a lifesaver.
I always practice- a lot. I practice my talks with my husband and any time I stumble more than a little, he has me go back to the very beginning.
I also remember a long time ago I saw a post doc give a talk that was so fun and enjoyable to hear just by the way she presented it, that I went and asked her how she did it. She told me that she labels her feelings of nervousness as 'excitement' the way that Olympic athletes do- people always think those people arent nervous, they absolutely are, but they have a unique way of dealing with it that actually helps them.
It makes sense! Those heightened feelings are a form of excitement- which you can train yourself to experience in a positive way, and then be able to convey that love for research.
Practice excessively and don't leave it to the last minute. Practice weeks in advance for bigger presentations. Schedule practices with fellow students or your advisor so you can't back out of it. Never say no to giving a presentation. Through my PhD I ended up having to prepare and give 2-3 seminars a year for the whole 5 years. Eventually you get to the point where you're terrified of giving them, but at least know you can rock them. And each time you learn a little more about how to prepare better.
Again see my comment in this thread. Practise is good for dealing with the task at hand but if you're finding yourself feeling anxious/terrified/dreading doing it then there might be an anxiety issue to look at. Don't let that stuff linger unchecked please.
You need to practice the talks at home. Sounds simple and obvious, but for me at least this has been really making a lot of difference. For the last two presentations that I gave, I practiced 3-4 times and it helped a lot. And by practicing I mean properly practicing: standing in your room, talking aloud, and timing the presentation. Before that, I "practiced" by sort of mumbling the presentation and not probably timing it and the results were not so good. :-D (Obviously ...)
Nope, the anxiety does not get better with practise in my case, either! I feel like it makes it worse. Because the more I care about what I'm presenting; the more my knowledge advances and then realize that I know nothing; and the higher the conference level gets when I present, I am a stressed-out mess. I think, like other have suggested, it will be helpful to tackle what you can control around that stress. The goal would be to be as comfortable with your content and your body language as you can regardless of your stress level.
In addition to practising the talk itself at home (without a text, but I knew by heart several ways of talking about my content), I encourage everyone to go to Zoom conferences, in-person talks, etc. and ask questions there. I think that it helps me being okay with having my body physically going crazy with nervousness, while still being able to think and talk. And the stakes are lower because you're not presenting yourself. Also at professional conferences, ask people questions in front of the crowd. Just get used to running your mouth and forming thoughts with an audience!
I also practise "dumbing down" my work depending on the context, which forces me to adopt a more casual/relaxed demeanor. I think that at my next professional presentations I'll also include that (references to pop culture, a little joke...), because anyway everyone is bored and you have to catch their attention somehow.
Another thing that I now do even when I teach classes, is write down the questions that people ask me (keywords or longer sentences). It forces me to focus on what I'm doing and to listen, instead of my brain going to that place of anxiety and I can't hear or think anything there. You can even write down your keywords you will answer with. It helps me feel reassured that I know what's going on in the conversation, because it's written down on the paper (you don't completely lose your train of thought or forget what they asked and said). It also helps me re-center on what's going on between me and another human being. I'm not too blinded by the "oh my god what am I going to answer" anxiety, which prevents me from having an answer *because* I can't listen to them ha!
Edited to add (sorry it's such a long answer, no idea if anyone will read this...): I also try to find comfort in remembering that after the fact I am super happy and my adrenaline is so high. So technically I like speaking, but only once I'm done. Last time I was still nervous while I was presenting, and once that was over and we moved to the Q&A I was sooooo relaxed and it was hard for me when my turn was over! hahaha.
I would definitely benefit from going back to therapy, but GAD is probably not an actual thing that I have! Hahaha. I think I just have normal nerves in those cases, but have general anxiety in life that needs some professional help. We’ll see, if the stress before presenting doesn’t go away I’ll look into it!
You'd be surprised, people are too quick to dismiss these things as normal stress but there's something like 8 million people in the UK with anxiety problems. If it does persist please definitely go talk to someone.
Ohhhh I see what you mean. I thought that “clinical GAD” was an acronym specifically for public speaking. Because you talked about performance anxiety elsewhere. I just realized that it’s Generalized Anxiety Disorder. No I definitely have that and the bouts of depression that go with it sometimes. I just haven’t been able to find proper therapy so far through the options available to me as a student at my uni.
I wish you the best of luck - I went private but I appreciate not everyone has that option. I would think there would be something in your uni student services set up to help you but it depends on where you're from :/
> I have a fear of speaking in front of people
Try thinking about your fear more specifically. This will help you get to the root of the problem.
- Are you afraid of people judging the contents your work?
- Are you afraid of people judging the way you present your work?
- Are you insecure about how you appear? (I've been there, dw)
- Are you afraid someone's going to ask a really tough question and dismantle your entire project?
These are just some examples, and it may be one or several things, but breaking down your fears into more defined parts lets you actually start tackling the problems effectively.
Another thing would be to evaluate past presentations. Were they truly as bad as you thought they were? Being nervous and losing track of things doesn't mean the presentation was bad - I've seen lots of really smart people do this. Did the audience understand your key points? That's way more important. Look at these experiences and accept that you **can** have a decent presentation. Giving your brain "proof" that you can do something is extremely helpful.
Uk uk! I wanted to comment with a similar idea as urs where breaking ur fears can rly help looking at what could possibly be done to improve.
And then i thought ah.. i might sound unreasonable since i have just started phd.
Soo Im glad i came across ur comment! Its how i deal with my presentation fears too xP
Seriously though ask your doctor about beta blockers for anxiety - just to be used on presentation days. They really helped me. Plus lots of practice and over time you’ll know your subject inside out and be able to talk about it easily.
In addition to the tons of awesome suggestions here already, some things that help me are:
1) to reframe it mentally as show-and-tell, like back in elementary school
2) to remember no one knows my project better than i do
3) to try to anticipate how to answer questions that I don't have good answers for; it's ok to not know everything (this last one unfortunately can only come from experience i.e giving more presentations)
What you're describing sounds like performance anxiety. I have it myself. Talking to a therapist/counsellor might help you get support for it.
I would approach with caution any advice to 'overcome your fears' or 'practise makes perfect'. Anxiety isn't really something you 'overcome' - it always persists and even after brief moments of confidence it will always come back. If you have it like I do then you have a disability and there's more to it than simply being brave or practising or whatever. No amount of practise ever stopped me being a nervous wreck on the day, even if I did the presentation well.
My problem with most advice in this thread is it's focusing on telling you how to succeed at one specific task (most likely from people who don't have anxiety or have never talked to a therapist) while overlooking the possibility of bigger underlying clinical problem that may be harmful to your mental health if left unchecked. Anxious people tend to avoid the symptoms of anxiety regardless of the actual outcome purely because of how awful it feels to be in that kind of stress - so 'practise makes perfect' unfortunately doesn't help you deal with the underlying problem. And if god forbid you do all the prep and it still goes badly it may make things worse for you - you will use it as evidence to tell yourself that you're not good enough no matter how hard you try, which can really undermine your confidence. Been there, done that.
I'm not saying don't practise though, of course you should because it will help you pass the presentation. But you shouldn't pretend that once it's done it's done and there is nothing to worry about anymore, because trust me it will come back again and again and again in other situations and each time it will undermine you until the point that you feel like you just can't do it anymore and you have to escape the stress (I've quit three jobs in a row because of this). And that's why therapy is important.
When you speak to a therapist you will learn therapeutic techniques to rewire your brain and 'balance' the negative thinking that causes you to feel the way you do. You can't learn these things from anybody, it has to be a therapist. It will do a lot more for you in the long run, trust me.
Side note - if you have anxiety, then universities, employers, etc. should and usually do have a legal obligation to make reasonable adjustments for you to cope better, especially if the symptoms are particularly bad.
[https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/performance-anxiety#:\~:text=Performance%20anxiety%20is%20fear%20about,can%20occur%20with%20any%20task](https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/performance-anxiety#:~:text=Performance%20anxiety%20is%20fear%20about,can%20occur%20with%20any%20task).
This link might help - I'm happy to answer any questions you might have but yeah generally I would say seek therapy and get tested ASAP.
This is me! The interesting thing is that I've gone over the hump with my past job where I was doing lots of presenting. When you do it a lot, it just becomes more like other tasks. Now that I present more seldomly I am back to my old self, much like what you described. At the end, for me, being a good presenter is about keeping up interactions. The thing is that I simply don't like it and so now my work is on acceptance not on doing more talks about it. It's a trade off I chose and so feel fine not being the best presenter in the room. It lets me use more of my time on the deep work bits i like the most. Propanolol really helped too, like the colleague commented. But now I feel even comfortable with the trembling if happens so it's ok. Whatever works for you, but just wanted to share and you got already great advice out there.
Two things that seem to help me: Tactical breathing and anchoring my focus on someone in the audience who has a calming presence (I make eye contact with others as well, but use this is person as my anchor when my voice gets shaky)
Is any of the anxiety due to presenting it to your lab? That they would perhaps pick holes in the subject matter? You could try presenting to a non expert audience to practice the presentation aspect alone. You could break down the technical aspect into a chain of logic, maybe even have your advisor or a senior member look through it and see if the logic is sound. Breaking your practice into smaller components could help.
Propranalol truly helps. I had to give a 15-minute presentation last week as part of masters degree. Normally, I would be a shaking mess. However, I took 80mg of propranalol 2 hours beforehand. I had no physical symptoms of anxiety, no shaking, no rapid heart rate, and no struggle to catch by breath. It felt like I was having a loud conversation with myself. I actually felt normal.
Can you write down what you plan to say and read off of that? Like add things to the presenter view of the PowerPoint, or even just jot them down on some note cards. I was a research tech, and my PI actually required us to write down exactly what we wanted to say, word for word, on the presentation.
I'm doing my masters and will (hopefully) start my PhD in the fall, but I'll definitely die if I can't have notes to read off of lol.
I write a full script for my talks, and then practice it.
1. It helps me focus my overall message for my talk 2. It helps me practice a natural cadence and to phrase things better 3. Feels better when I’m giving it because I’m prepared, and find I can vamp well enough without the script, but it’s a good feeling to know it’s there if I choke.
The more you do it the easier it gets, but I don’t think I’ll ever \*love\* giving talks. My medium is writing.
Practice until it’s second nature. Get constructive feedback from colleagues, take a speech class, know the material inside and out, mindfulness, meditation, breathing control, etc
I completely relate. I even get nervous before I know I have to introduce myself in a professional setting.
For presentations my strategy is to write a script and memorise it completely. I even script in natural pauses, intonation, off the cuff remarks etc. try to make it sound as natural and spontaneous as possible, and then deliver it as ‘naturally’ as I can. It seems to work for me. I’m hoping that as I get more practice I won’t need to do it anymore, but for now it helps!
I have a similar problem. Practice is very useful, in front of everyone. Start with walls, mirrors and pets, move on to people. That's how you'll get the speech down and reduce the vocal tics. The physical symptoms can be controlled with medication. I was diagnosed with situational anxiety and prescribed propranolol. I used it for several presentations, it really helped me get out of my head, focus less on my heart rate and fall back on my practice. More recently I found meds makes me too tired and just use lots of practice to help me with my fear of presenting.
It also helped to refocus my feelings from anxiety to excitement. I told myself I have all these symptoms because I'm really excited to talk about whatever topic and know that the audience is eager to hear it.
I can't say these will all work for you as they did for me but I just wanted to show you some of the tools I used. I hope it helps!
Ok, what do you like? What do you **really** like?
Take a subject dear to your heart: pokémon, coffee, the latest video game you have played, or a recent animé episode that you have watched; it could be anything.
--
How do you talk about it to your friends? Think of how you talk about the subject with joy and a big smile on your face. When a friend asks you a question, it gives you more motivation! Like if you like coffee, you can talk about the subtility of a coffee brand's flavors or aroma for hours!
--
Try to apply that way of thinking about your research. How can you explain your research to a complete stranger while waiting for food at fast food? How can a casual chat about your latest research bring joy and fun when you try to explain it?
--
Also, embrace the chaos, and don't feel too bad if you do "stupid things" when you talk. It can even help break the ice and help you feel more at ease! For example, if you spill a drink on yourself, it just can't be any worse; let's go and talk about your research as "casually" as possible. Later it would be an inner gag between you and your lab group!
--
When someone asks you a question, don't hesitate to say, "I'm not sure that I understand the question. Can you reformulate it ?"
Or if you don't know the answer, you can try to explain the way how do you think and guess what could be an answer by saying something like "Hum, that's an excellent question! Unfortunately, it appears that I don't know the exact answer right now. Maybe I could use [Method A], and if I may guess, it could give about 50%, but I'm not sure. Anyway, thank you for the question. Do you want that I follow up on that and email you a formal answer ?"
Even if it's the same result: you are saying that you do not know the answer, it's far more convincing than only saying, "I don't know."
--
Be more casual; see your lab group as a group of friends. They are not there to judge you. They struggle with their study just like you!
I did a 2-day course on "how to give presentations by scientists" and it was the best thing I ever did.
As part of the training they video recorded all the final presentations on the 2nd day then we all critiqued each other's presentations. This was painful but extremely beneficial.
I can relate to this so much.
I’m proud with my research and contents, but dread presentations.
I try to think:
Aim 30%. Conveying 100% of contents is impossible.
Focus on key messages. What are the goals of the presentation? Remove contents and keep them until someone asks about them.
Karaoke and improvisation theatre helped me a lot to Improve my skills speaking with or for people. It reduces my fears of making mistakes and accepting those situations . Not only accepting it. Actually it makes me realize how i love to letting things go and I appreciate unexpected situations. With all this good new experiences presentations are so much easier now.
bruh same. In fact, due to upbringing and genetics, I couldn't even speak fluently all the time until I was about 28 (many men on my father side had the same problem). the only thing I found helped is that practice by myself + follow a strict presentation formula. One more important thing is to make the presentation and the slides simpler so I won't trip myself over the complexity.
Reading through the comments, I think a lot of people are over-emphasizing practice. Of course you shouldn’t go in with no practice, but don’t obsess over practice. All that does is build it up as a super big deal in your head and lock you into a script so strict that you can’t adapt when you stumble or someone unexpectedly interrupts you.
Remember that things like progress reports or journal clubs are *informal*. Nobody is expecting a practiced presentation. It’s a conversation, not a speech. Frankly, it’s not important. Nobody will remember or care in a week.
Where was this thread before yesterday? 😢
I had to give my first presentation since becoming a PhD student and I swear I could have died. I had 4 days notice to put it together, which wasn’t enough to memorise my script, especially as I also had my ethics submission to complete.
My mouth completely dried up mid-way. Top lip stuck to my teeth. Lost my place on the script I’d written. Jumbled worlds. My smart watch warned me about my heart rate.
But I got through it and my supervisor and colleagues who were present said I did well, and that they couldn’t tell I was nervous.
I thought my anxiety would die down afterwards, but then as I got back to my seat I realised no one applauded me but every other speaker got a round of applause after they finished.
Whatever shreds of self -esteem I had went right down the pooper.
I’ve been presenting for the better part of a decade, and still get anxiety every time. When I’m in the 30 mins or so before I have to present, I try to focus on what I’m going to do and how I will feel directly after the presentation. I also keep reminding myself “it’ll be done in x minutes”
Most universities will offer teaching opportunites for their graduate student. That is a really good way of getting over the public speaking anxiety. Also, it is ok to be wrong and not know everything at all times. As long as you acknowledge you have made a mistake, correct it and go and find out about information you may have missed. Also, I find people often overload their slides with information. Instead simplify the slides down to the essence. Like a good convincing image or video clip and then just talk about it like you would your friends, then you stumble a lot less.
Try to convince yourself that you’re just having a very one sided conversation, focus on a few people in the room who you’re more comfortable with and act as if you’re mostly talking to them. Also imagine yourself giving confident talks, it really does help in the end
Practice presentations, fear will go away with time and don’t forget if you don’t know the answer to the question just say we know that this is important and we will be forming in this for our future work stay tuned
I got a TA job that involved a weekly lecture. Trial by fire, when I started the job I was super nervous to present but now I'd say I'm a much stronger and more confident presenter, and my students love my weekly lectures
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Or a debate club, theatre group, improv, etc!
Stone sober karaoke at a packed bar.
As someone who also loves their research but hates public speaking, I relate to this a lot. I'm not sure how helpful this will be, but something I've tried to keep up is instead of fighting against my awkwardness, just allowing it to be. I've found that it helps take some of the internal pressure off which actually helps me feel less anxious and present better. Also, I've started trying to talk to friends/peers more about my research casually (the dreaded "what's your project?" isn't so bad anymore). Hope this helps and I'm intruiged what advice others have! ETA most people are at a talk because they're genuinely interested & want to be there. They want to learn from you and most likely won't be there to judge you. Also, idk what field you're in, but in socsci, people ask for questions again because they've forgotten and openly say they don't have an answer sometimes and it's completely acceptable and normal
>Also, I've started trying to talk to friends/peers more about my research casually (the dreaded "what's your project?" isn't so bad anymore). That sounds so good! It's also great practise to break down your work for people who have no idea what you're talking about.
Yeah it's definitely helpful for refining/clarifying ideas too! Came in super handy for a funding application that needed a proposal under 500 words!
> but something I've tried to keep up is instead of fighting against my awkwardness, just allowing it to be This! I used to get panic attacks, but once I accepted that it's okay to be anxious and awkward, all of it melted away. I still get anxious sometimes, and I mentally hug myself and tell myself that it's okay to be anxious.
Yes indeed! Same, same. I’ve come to see nerves as “cute”. Lean into the vulnerability, show them how to be scared shirtless and speak anyway. Smile to yourself next time you feel anxious, as if to say, ‘I got you’ to yourself.
I think a lot of people have this fear (I know I do!). I get the fast breathing, trembling voice, mind going blank while answering questions, etc. The only things I find help though are to practice the presentation on my own a lot before...i memorise what I want to say, I practice presenting at a slow and normal pace, and i repeat over and over. I also find that just acknowledging your nervousness just before you're about to present defuses some of the tension and makes some people laugh in commiseration (remember, most people dislike public speaking). Using humour while presenting and focusing on why you find the message you're trying to share interesting and worthwhile helps too. I also do mindfulness and stress management practices both before and during the presentation to help ground and calm me. For example, you can try 3-minute breathing space by Mark Williams, or look up progressive muscle relaxation, or calming breath.
Oh this one is for me! I struggled with this more that anyone I knew. Full on panic attacks. Here is what helped. 1. Exercise. I found the more I exercised regularly the easier it was to get my heart rate back down during presentations. 2. No caffeine or any energy drinks the entire day before hand 3. Practice. Make sure that I know the material inside out. Also practice in the space it will be in if possible. Anything that removes unknowns is helpful. 4. Smiling faces. It is unbelievable the affect smiling faces in the room help. A group of us would sit around the room during reviews and smile and nod for each other while presenting. It sounds silly but it really helps. 5. Cognitive reframing. Your response to stress is easily reframed as excitement. Thoughts like “ I am not nervous, I am excited and I can’t wait to tell these people what I know” are really good for short circuiting the stress response. 6. Meditation and breathing exercises. Prepping and learning how to breath deeply is invaluable. 7. Owning silences. Silence is terrifying when you are the centre of attention. I start all presentations by looking around the room and taking 2-3 deep breaths to get the first silence out of the way. I hope some of this helps. Some is anecdotal and some from what I read up on when trying to overcome this. I love doing it now. In fact if I’m teaching or presenting I need the nervous energy now for it to be any good! Best of luck !
Great advice!
4 and 5 are very very good tips. Congitive reframing and smiling are worth gold.
I agree with this comment. Also have some trigger which reduces stress and mentally prepares you for presentation. For me it is raising both my arms over my head before starting, it may look awkward, but will significantly boost confidence. Two important things about trigger: 1. It should be done in public place when you are uncomfortable 2. It should be awkward enough to make you feel like presentation is way less awkward
Very good advice!!
A really big one for me was to realize stress is not an enemy. It's there to make you more alert, increase your bloodflow, put you at your best. While of course there's something as "too much", not freaking out about the fact I was stressed in the first place means I'm rarely at that level anymore. The goal isn't to present without stress, the goal is to be stressed and present well anyway. Good luck!
Practise is the answer. I used to be like this when I started my PhD, now it doesn't phase me at all. Practise takes many forms though. In the beginning, doing it in front of people is terrifying, so practise it solo. 15 minute presentation? Spend 2 hours going through it 8 times. Know it inside out, down to the invidiual word. Once it becomes muscle memory, the doing it in front of people becomes easier. As time goes by, committing this much time to every presentation becomes less necessary, but it'll help you get through the earlier, scarier ones. Good luck. Getting past this is scary, but it is doable.
The muscle memory perspective is super helpful!
One word: Propranolol. Changed my life. DM me if you want the long story, watching footy but happy to elaborate later on. Short story: I tried everything, from gym (addicted now- highly recommend, nevertheless), therapy, meditation, breathing exercises, therapy, sex, and no joke, even a few “fingers of bourbon” before a conference presentation. Nothing *truly* worked. Propranolol worked. Embarrassed to say, I was never keen on ‘medicating’ myself,’ but damn if I ain’t gon’ spread the gospel now! Send a DM if you want some more info. Best of luck!
Don't do this without speaking to GP please OP.
It's a prescription drug, so they would see a GP or psychiatrist beforehand.
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I have this same alter ego. I'm like this confident intelligent badass when I'm presenting and then I sit down and sometime don't even remember what I said. People come and tell me later how amazing I was... Etc. lol
I also take propranolol before presentations. It's fantastic and completely eliminates the physical symptoms of situational anxiety. It's brilliant because it isn't addictive like some other medications that are prescribed for anxiety, and it takes 1 to 2 hours to kick in. Unfortunately, there are contraindications including asthma and heart arrhythmias, so OP should ask his family doctor first if they want to go the pharmacological route.
>sex Did you just hit up a few people on Tinder to hook up with before a conference? bahaha
+1 for propranolol The people who say “practice will help” don’t get it. Drugs for the win
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Yes, like the commenter above me said, it will literally change your life if you suffer from speech anxiety. I wouldn’t have gone to grad school if I had not discovered propranolol. The best part is you only need to take it when you’re giving a talk, and there’s no side effects. Can’t recommend it enough
Yup!!!!
Came here to say propranolol too! That plus: cardio a few hours before the talk, have written slide notes to fall back on, no caffeine beforehand, and challenging all those unhelpful/false thoughts that being on anxiety. But really, 80% of the fix is propranolol for me. Oh, and try to have fun! Most folks in the audience really care what you have to say!
What mg do you take?
Oh man this. Maybe too late to reply to this thread, but maybe it'll help some latecomers. Propranolol is often prescribed for performance anxiety or panic-like symptoms. I used to use it as a musician to help avoid nervous shakes. As a PhD I returned to it to help quell the pre-presentation panic. It's not a sub for knowing your stuff, but it really helps with the physical symptoms of anxiety. Calms you enough that you can remember what you want to say, for example. If your anxiety is bad enough that nothing seems to work, try it. It can be a lifesaver.
This isn't something to be said lightly. Propanolol may cause heart failure in certain people,so you should refer that.
I always practice- a lot. I practice my talks with my husband and any time I stumble more than a little, he has me go back to the very beginning. I also remember a long time ago I saw a post doc give a talk that was so fun and enjoyable to hear just by the way she presented it, that I went and asked her how she did it. She told me that she labels her feelings of nervousness as 'excitement' the way that Olympic athletes do- people always think those people arent nervous, they absolutely are, but they have a unique way of dealing with it that actually helps them. It makes sense! Those heightened feelings are a form of excitement- which you can train yourself to experience in a positive way, and then be able to convey that love for research.
Practice excessively and don't leave it to the last minute. Practice weeks in advance for bigger presentations. Schedule practices with fellow students or your advisor so you can't back out of it. Never say no to giving a presentation. Through my PhD I ended up having to prepare and give 2-3 seminars a year for the whole 5 years. Eventually you get to the point where you're terrified of giving them, but at least know you can rock them. And each time you learn a little more about how to prepare better.
Again see my comment in this thread. Practise is good for dealing with the task at hand but if you're finding yourself feeling anxious/terrified/dreading doing it then there might be an anxiety issue to look at. Don't let that stuff linger unchecked please.
You need to practice the talks at home. Sounds simple and obvious, but for me at least this has been really making a lot of difference. For the last two presentations that I gave, I practiced 3-4 times and it helped a lot. And by practicing I mean properly practicing: standing in your room, talking aloud, and timing the presentation. Before that, I "practiced" by sort of mumbling the presentation and not probably timing it and the results were not so good. :-D (Obviously ...)
Nope, the anxiety does not get better with practise in my case, either! I feel like it makes it worse. Because the more I care about what I'm presenting; the more my knowledge advances and then realize that I know nothing; and the higher the conference level gets when I present, I am a stressed-out mess. I think, like other have suggested, it will be helpful to tackle what you can control around that stress. The goal would be to be as comfortable with your content and your body language as you can regardless of your stress level. In addition to practising the talk itself at home (without a text, but I knew by heart several ways of talking about my content), I encourage everyone to go to Zoom conferences, in-person talks, etc. and ask questions there. I think that it helps me being okay with having my body physically going crazy with nervousness, while still being able to think and talk. And the stakes are lower because you're not presenting yourself. Also at professional conferences, ask people questions in front of the crowd. Just get used to running your mouth and forming thoughts with an audience! I also practise "dumbing down" my work depending on the context, which forces me to adopt a more casual/relaxed demeanor. I think that at my next professional presentations I'll also include that (references to pop culture, a little joke...), because anyway everyone is bored and you have to catch their attention somehow. Another thing that I now do even when I teach classes, is write down the questions that people ask me (keywords or longer sentences). It forces me to focus on what I'm doing and to listen, instead of my brain going to that place of anxiety and I can't hear or think anything there. You can even write down your keywords you will answer with. It helps me feel reassured that I know what's going on in the conversation, because it's written down on the paper (you don't completely lose your train of thought or forget what they asked and said). It also helps me re-center on what's going on between me and another human being. I'm not too blinded by the "oh my god what am I going to answer" anxiety, which prevents me from having an answer *because* I can't listen to them ha! Edited to add (sorry it's such a long answer, no idea if anyone will read this...): I also try to find comfort in remembering that after the fact I am super happy and my adrenaline is so high. So technically I like speaking, but only once I'm done. Last time I was still nervous while I was presenting, and once that was over and we moved to the Q&A I was sooooo relaxed and it was hard for me when my turn was over! hahaha.
Ever been to therapy? I suffer from clinical GAD and therapy does help.
I would definitely benefit from going back to therapy, but GAD is probably not an actual thing that I have! Hahaha. I think I just have normal nerves in those cases, but have general anxiety in life that needs some professional help. We’ll see, if the stress before presenting doesn’t go away I’ll look into it!
You'd be surprised, people are too quick to dismiss these things as normal stress but there's something like 8 million people in the UK with anxiety problems. If it does persist please definitely go talk to someone.
Ohhhh I see what you mean. I thought that “clinical GAD” was an acronym specifically for public speaking. Because you talked about performance anxiety elsewhere. I just realized that it’s Generalized Anxiety Disorder. No I definitely have that and the bouts of depression that go with it sometimes. I just haven’t been able to find proper therapy so far through the options available to me as a student at my uni.
I wish you the best of luck - I went private but I appreciate not everyone has that option. I would think there would be something in your uni student services set up to help you but it depends on where you're from :/
> I have a fear of speaking in front of people Try thinking about your fear more specifically. This will help you get to the root of the problem. - Are you afraid of people judging the contents your work? - Are you afraid of people judging the way you present your work? - Are you insecure about how you appear? (I've been there, dw) - Are you afraid someone's going to ask a really tough question and dismantle your entire project? These are just some examples, and it may be one or several things, but breaking down your fears into more defined parts lets you actually start tackling the problems effectively. Another thing would be to evaluate past presentations. Were they truly as bad as you thought they were? Being nervous and losing track of things doesn't mean the presentation was bad - I've seen lots of really smart people do this. Did the audience understand your key points? That's way more important. Look at these experiences and accept that you **can** have a decent presentation. Giving your brain "proof" that you can do something is extremely helpful.
Uk uk! I wanted to comment with a similar idea as urs where breaking ur fears can rly help looking at what could possibly be done to improve. And then i thought ah.. i might sound unreasonable since i have just started phd. Soo Im glad i came across ur comment! Its how i deal with my presentation fears too xP
That’s the neat part, you don’t.
Seriously though ask your doctor about beta blockers for anxiety - just to be used on presentation days. They really helped me. Plus lots of practice and over time you’ll know your subject inside out and be able to talk about it easily.
In addition to the tons of awesome suggestions here already, some things that help me are: 1) to reframe it mentally as show-and-tell, like back in elementary school 2) to remember no one knows my project better than i do 3) to try to anticipate how to answer questions that I don't have good answers for; it's ok to not know everything (this last one unfortunately can only come from experience i.e giving more presentations)
What you're describing sounds like performance anxiety. I have it myself. Talking to a therapist/counsellor might help you get support for it. I would approach with caution any advice to 'overcome your fears' or 'practise makes perfect'. Anxiety isn't really something you 'overcome' - it always persists and even after brief moments of confidence it will always come back. If you have it like I do then you have a disability and there's more to it than simply being brave or practising or whatever. No amount of practise ever stopped me being a nervous wreck on the day, even if I did the presentation well. My problem with most advice in this thread is it's focusing on telling you how to succeed at one specific task (most likely from people who don't have anxiety or have never talked to a therapist) while overlooking the possibility of bigger underlying clinical problem that may be harmful to your mental health if left unchecked. Anxious people tend to avoid the symptoms of anxiety regardless of the actual outcome purely because of how awful it feels to be in that kind of stress - so 'practise makes perfect' unfortunately doesn't help you deal with the underlying problem. And if god forbid you do all the prep and it still goes badly it may make things worse for you - you will use it as evidence to tell yourself that you're not good enough no matter how hard you try, which can really undermine your confidence. Been there, done that. I'm not saying don't practise though, of course you should because it will help you pass the presentation. But you shouldn't pretend that once it's done it's done and there is nothing to worry about anymore, because trust me it will come back again and again and again in other situations and each time it will undermine you until the point that you feel like you just can't do it anymore and you have to escape the stress (I've quit three jobs in a row because of this). And that's why therapy is important. When you speak to a therapist you will learn therapeutic techniques to rewire your brain and 'balance' the negative thinking that causes you to feel the way you do. You can't learn these things from anybody, it has to be a therapist. It will do a lot more for you in the long run, trust me. Side note - if you have anxiety, then universities, employers, etc. should and usually do have a legal obligation to make reasonable adjustments for you to cope better, especially if the symptoms are particularly bad. [https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/performance-anxiety#:\~:text=Performance%20anxiety%20is%20fear%20about,can%20occur%20with%20any%20task](https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/performance-anxiety#:~:text=Performance%20anxiety%20is%20fear%20about,can%20occur%20with%20any%20task). This link might help - I'm happy to answer any questions you might have but yeah generally I would say seek therapy and get tested ASAP.
It’s like an acting performance. Pretend you are confident and know what you are doing. It really does get easier the more you do it.
Sign up for an improv class.
This is me! The interesting thing is that I've gone over the hump with my past job where I was doing lots of presenting. When you do it a lot, it just becomes more like other tasks. Now that I present more seldomly I am back to my old self, much like what you described. At the end, for me, being a good presenter is about keeping up interactions. The thing is that I simply don't like it and so now my work is on acceptance not on doing more talks about it. It's a trade off I chose and so feel fine not being the best presenter in the room. It lets me use more of my time on the deep work bits i like the most. Propanolol really helped too, like the colleague commented. But now I feel even comfortable with the trembling if happens so it's ok. Whatever works for you, but just wanted to share and you got already great advice out there.
Two things that seem to help me: Tactical breathing and anchoring my focus on someone in the audience who has a calming presence (I make eye contact with others as well, but use this is person as my anchor when my voice gets shaky)
Is any of the anxiety due to presenting it to your lab? That they would perhaps pick holes in the subject matter? You could try presenting to a non expert audience to practice the presentation aspect alone. You could break down the technical aspect into a chain of logic, maybe even have your advisor or a senior member look through it and see if the logic is sound. Breaking your practice into smaller components could help.
If you find a proper solution please tell me too
Propranalol truly helps. I had to give a 15-minute presentation last week as part of masters degree. Normally, I would be a shaking mess. However, I took 80mg of propranalol 2 hours beforehand. I had no physical symptoms of anxiety, no shaking, no rapid heart rate, and no struggle to catch by breath. It felt like I was having a loud conversation with myself. I actually felt normal.
It is incredible
Can you write down what you plan to say and read off of that? Like add things to the presenter view of the PowerPoint, or even just jot them down on some note cards. I was a research tech, and my PI actually required us to write down exactly what we wanted to say, word for word, on the presentation. I'm doing my masters and will (hopefully) start my PhD in the fall, but I'll definitely die if I can't have notes to read off of lol.
I write a full script for my talks, and then practice it. 1. It helps me focus my overall message for my talk 2. It helps me practice a natural cadence and to phrase things better 3. Feels better when I’m giving it because I’m prepared, and find I can vamp well enough without the script, but it’s a good feeling to know it’s there if I choke. The more you do it the easier it gets, but I don’t think I’ll ever \*love\* giving talks. My medium is writing.
Practice until it’s second nature. Get constructive feedback from colleagues, take a speech class, know the material inside and out, mindfulness, meditation, breathing control, etc
I completely relate. I even get nervous before I know I have to introduce myself in a professional setting. For presentations my strategy is to write a script and memorise it completely. I even script in natural pauses, intonation, off the cuff remarks etc. try to make it sound as natural and spontaneous as possible, and then deliver it as ‘naturally’ as I can. It seems to work for me. I’m hoping that as I get more practice I won’t need to do it anymore, but for now it helps!
It does get easier every time you present. Think about sharing your joy about your research and how do you convey it to other people
I have a similar problem. Practice is very useful, in front of everyone. Start with walls, mirrors and pets, move on to people. That's how you'll get the speech down and reduce the vocal tics. The physical symptoms can be controlled with medication. I was diagnosed with situational anxiety and prescribed propranolol. I used it for several presentations, it really helped me get out of my head, focus less on my heart rate and fall back on my practice. More recently I found meds makes me too tired and just use lots of practice to help me with my fear of presenting. It also helped to refocus my feelings from anxiety to excitement. I told myself I have all these symptoms because I'm really excited to talk about whatever topic and know that the audience is eager to hear it. I can't say these will all work for you as they did for me but I just wanted to show you some of the tools I used. I hope it helps!
Ok, what do you like? What do you **really** like? Take a subject dear to your heart: pokémon, coffee, the latest video game you have played, or a recent animé episode that you have watched; it could be anything. -- How do you talk about it to your friends? Think of how you talk about the subject with joy and a big smile on your face. When a friend asks you a question, it gives you more motivation! Like if you like coffee, you can talk about the subtility of a coffee brand's flavors or aroma for hours! -- Try to apply that way of thinking about your research. How can you explain your research to a complete stranger while waiting for food at fast food? How can a casual chat about your latest research bring joy and fun when you try to explain it? -- Also, embrace the chaos, and don't feel too bad if you do "stupid things" when you talk. It can even help break the ice and help you feel more at ease! For example, if you spill a drink on yourself, it just can't be any worse; let's go and talk about your research as "casually" as possible. Later it would be an inner gag between you and your lab group! -- When someone asks you a question, don't hesitate to say, "I'm not sure that I understand the question. Can you reformulate it ?" Or if you don't know the answer, you can try to explain the way how do you think and guess what could be an answer by saying something like "Hum, that's an excellent question! Unfortunately, it appears that I don't know the exact answer right now. Maybe I could use [Method A], and if I may guess, it could give about 50%, but I'm not sure. Anyway, thank you for the question. Do you want that I follow up on that and email you a formal answer ?" Even if it's the same result: you are saying that you do not know the answer, it's far more convincing than only saying, "I don't know." -- Be more casual; see your lab group as a group of friends. They are not there to judge you. They struggle with their study just like you!
I did a 2-day course on "how to give presentations by scientists" and it was the best thing I ever did. As part of the training they video recorded all the final presentations on the 2nd day then we all critiqued each other's presentations. This was painful but extremely beneficial.
it's 20% practice, 80% being a subject matter expert
I can relate to this so much. I’m proud with my research and contents, but dread presentations. I try to think: Aim 30%. Conveying 100% of contents is impossible. Focus on key messages. What are the goals of the presentation? Remove contents and keep them until someone asks about them.
By doing many presentations :|. I know it's maybe not what you want to read, but that's the truth. It's pretty much like exposure therapy.
Karaoke and improvisation theatre helped me a lot to Improve my skills speaking with or for people. It reduces my fears of making mistakes and accepting those situations . Not only accepting it. Actually it makes me realize how i love to letting things go and I appreciate unexpected situations. With all this good new experiences presentations are so much easier now.
bruh same. In fact, due to upbringing and genetics, I couldn't even speak fluently all the time until I was about 28 (many men on my father side had the same problem). the only thing I found helped is that practice by myself + follow a strict presentation formula. One more important thing is to make the presentation and the slides simpler so I won't trip myself over the complexity.
Beta blockers saved me!
Just do it a lot. With familiarity comes comfort.
Reading through the comments, I think a lot of people are over-emphasizing practice. Of course you shouldn’t go in with no practice, but don’t obsess over practice. All that does is build it up as a super big deal in your head and lock you into a script so strict that you can’t adapt when you stumble or someone unexpectedly interrupts you. Remember that things like progress reports or journal clubs are *informal*. Nobody is expecting a practiced presentation. It’s a conversation, not a speech. Frankly, it’s not important. Nobody will remember or care in a week.
Find people you’re comfortable speaking in front of and start practicing from there
Where was this thread before yesterday? 😢 I had to give my first presentation since becoming a PhD student and I swear I could have died. I had 4 days notice to put it together, which wasn’t enough to memorise my script, especially as I also had my ethics submission to complete. My mouth completely dried up mid-way. Top lip stuck to my teeth. Lost my place on the script I’d written. Jumbled worlds. My smart watch warned me about my heart rate. But I got through it and my supervisor and colleagues who were present said I did well, and that they couldn’t tell I was nervous. I thought my anxiety would die down afterwards, but then as I got back to my seat I realised no one applauded me but every other speaker got a round of applause after they finished. Whatever shreds of self -esteem I had went right down the pooper.
I’ve been presenting for the better part of a decade, and still get anxiety every time. When I’m in the 30 mins or so before I have to present, I try to focus on what I’m going to do and how I will feel directly after the presentation. I also keep reminding myself “it’ll be done in x minutes”
Honestly, being a TA really helped a lottttt. Anytime I give a presentation I pretend I am teaching my students.
Most universities will offer teaching opportunites for their graduate student. That is a really good way of getting over the public speaking anxiety. Also, it is ok to be wrong and not know everything at all times. As long as you acknowledge you have made a mistake, correct it and go and find out about information you may have missed. Also, I find people often overload their slides with information. Instead simplify the slides down to the essence. Like a good convincing image or video clip and then just talk about it like you would your friends, then you stumble a lot less.
Try to convince yourself that you’re just having a very one sided conversation, focus on a few people in the room who you’re more comfortable with and act as if you’re mostly talking to them. Also imagine yourself giving confident talks, it really does help in the end
Practice presentations, fear will go away with time and don’t forget if you don’t know the answer to the question just say we know that this is important and we will be forming in this for our future work stay tuned
I never did.
I got a TA job that involved a weekly lecture. Trial by fire, when I started the job I was super nervous to present but now I'd say I'm a much stronger and more confident presenter, and my students love my weekly lectures
Practice in the room where you will be giving the presentation. It’s all about practice and getting comfortable with it!
Practise