How to Outline a Kickass Presentation
Setting A Foundation for Presentation Success
Outlines for Presentations
Like any form of writing, when you’re drafting your presentation, you should start with an outline. Can you hear your middle school teachers haunting you yet? Hear us out.
When you write an outline, you write with purpose.
Throughout this blog, we’re going to be calling attention to the original outline that formed the bones of this blog.
As you read, you’ll notice that our entire blog, including this section, follows this outline:
1. Introduction: Outlines for Presentations
2. Why are outlines useful?
- a. Outlines help you store your ideas
- b. Outlines help you beat procrastination
- c. Outlines help you stay organized
- d. Outlines help you focus on what matters
3. The process of writing an outline
- a. Brainstorming.
- b. Organizing.
- c. Tweaking.
4. How to use your outline to guide your message.
5. Our outline challenge.
Why Outlines are Useful
Outlines help you store your ideas.
Instead of letting your ideas swim around in your brain and get lost within the vast crevasses of useless information (It’s not just you, we’ve got it, too.), write crap down!
Getting your thoughts out of your brain and onto paper is half the battle. The moment your blank page isn’t a blank page anymore is the moment you stop feeling intimidated by it.
Outlines help you beat procrastination.
Along the same lines, writing an outline before you pressure yourself to write the entire presentation makes starting to write far easier.
If you’re overwhelmed by the task of writing the content for your presentation, you’re less likely to start doing it.
On the other hand, if you’re confident that you can tackle one section at a time, then you’re that much closer to writing a completed presentation that you’re proud of and willing to share.
Are we telling you that outlines will help you write a killer presentation faster? We are.
Outlines help you stay organized.
When you write an outline, you write with your beginning, middle, and end in mind. This means that you know your purpose, and you won’t flit and float around losing track of your original point.
Once you start writing, you may decide you need to reorganize your message — but that’s child’s play compared to writing your message from scratch.
Outlines help you focus on what matters. (Hint: It’s not your word count)
There were always two kids in school, right? The ones who started writing with an outline and the ones who didn’t.
The students who started with an outline — whether it was on paper or in their head — had a clearer message. The ones who didn’t use an outline and said, “Nah, I’m gonna just B.S. this to reach the word count,” didn’t have as clear of a message.
And now that the real world has hit them, I’d bet they’re writing an outline now — especially if they’re in any kind of entrepreneurial or leadership position.
Your outline will help you reach the goals you’ve set for this presentation whether your goals are more sales, more connections, less confusion — whatever.
The Process of Writing an Outline
Brainstorm. Organize. Tweak.
Picture this. You’re reading so you can’t close your eyes, but if you could I would tell you to do so and to imagine this situation in your mind’s eye.
You sit down at your desktop to write the words for your presentation, and even though you know broadly what you’re going to say, you don’t know where to start.
Now, ditch the digital laptop for a moment and add a stack of note cards to your mental picture. (We’re about to throw an imaginative adult temper tantrum.)
Instead of picking up a pen at your desk, shove those cards onto the floor.
As you’re picking them up, you realize you keep getting ideas for the presentation, so you sit on the floor and start writing on the notecards.
Once you’ve brain dumped onto your cards, you notice they’re not in the correct order. At least, they’re not in a strategic order to make an impactful message.
But you’re on the floor, honey! Spread those cards out and reorganize them in a way that makes sense. (Beginning, middle, end. First, second, third. Etc.)
When you start filling your outline in you can always go back to teak the outline. In a digital world, we don’t know what a “second draft” is, but those of you that had to write your essays by hand, you know what I’m talking about.
Okay, you can mentally get up off the floor now. You’re ready to write.
Let Your Outline Guide Your Message
Here’s the thing about your outline. It’s past you, telling future you, what to write. All you’ve got to do now is play a little game of fill in the blanks.
Don’t worry about writing the perfect presentation draft.
You already have your structure. Just sit down and talk… or, rather, write.
Again, don’t worry about hitting a specific length goal or creating a seamless segue from one section to the next, that will come so much easier now that you have a structure set in place.
(Oh, as you’re writing and you have ideas about pictures or graphics you want to include in your presentation, make a note of those ideas, too!)
Challenge: Write the Outline
The next time you need to script an outline for an in-person or online presentation, start with an outline.
Because when you take it back to grade school and write a dang outline, you’ll not only make your teachers proud and your presentation designers happy, but you’ll also walk away from your desk with a clearer, more strategic message.
Once your outline’s set, you know where to find us.
We’re right inside Blush Cowork in Cary, NC, and we’re just a click away on all the socials below. If you need a second pair of eyes (or hands), we’ve got you.
