When you’re presenting, you already have a lot to think about.
You’re thinking about your content, how you’re going to deliver it, whether your audience is engaged, what slide is coming next and, if you’re presenting virtually, whether your technology is behaving itself.
The last thing you need is a notification pinging in the middle of it all.
Distractions don’t just affect the presenter. A notification, an unexpected noise or even something happening in the room can also pull your audience’s attention away from you too.
The good news is that many of these distractions can be prevented with a little preparation.
Distractions affect more than just your audience
Imagine you’re halfway through explaining an important point when your laptop makes a noise.
Your attention immediately shifts.
What was that? Was it an email? A message? Do I need to deal with it?
Even if you manage to carry on speaking, you’ve had to use some of your mental energy dealing with something that shouldn’t have been part of the presentation in the first place.
Your audience can experience the same thing.
If a notification appears on your screen or a phone starts vibrating on the table, their attention may move away from your message. And once their attention has shifted, you may have to work harder to bring it back.
This is particularly important when you’re presenting something complex or asking people to make a decision. You want as little competition for their attention as possible.
Start with the obvious distractions
Before you begin, take a couple of minutes to think about anything that could interrupt you.
If you’re presenting virtually, that might include:
- Email notifications
- Teams, Slack or other messaging notifications
- Calendar reminders
- App notifications
- Incoming calls
- Pop-ups or software updates
- Other browser tabs that could suddenly make a sound
Don’t just rely on putting your computer on silent. Close anything you don’t need for the presentation.
If you’re sharing your screen, this has another benefit: you reduce the chance of an unexpected notification or message appearing where your audience can see it.
It’s a small bit of preparation, but it removes one more thing you have to think about.
Don’t forget your phone
Your phone is an obvious source of distraction, but it’s surprisingly easy to forget about it.
You might have your phone sitting beside your laptop during a virtual presentation or on the table in front of you during an in-person meeting.
Even if it doesn’t ring, a screen lighting up with a notification can be enough to catch someone’s attention.
If you don’t need your phone, put it on silent or, better still, put it somewhere out of sight.
And if you do need it for your presentation, make sure you’ve switched off anything that could interrupt you.
Think about the room, too
Not every distraction is something you can control.
If you’re presenting in person, there may be people walking past a glass door, a noisy air-conditioning unit, someone arriving late or activity happening outside the room.
You can’t always eliminate these things, but you can think about them when you’re preparing.
For example, if you know there’s a busy corridor behind you, consider where you stand so your audience isn’t constantly looking over your shoulder.
If possible, choose a position where the focus naturally stays on you.
And if something unexpected does happen, don’t panic. Your audience is likely to notice the distraction too. Simply pause, allow it to pass and then continue.
Your own habits can be distracting too
It’s also worth thinking beyond technology.
Sometimes the distraction is actually something we’re doing ourselves.
Fidgeting with a pen, clicking a remote control, adjusting clothing, pacing unnecessarily or repeatedly touching your hair can all draw attention away from your message.
This doesn’t mean you need to stand completely still or avoid using gestures. Movement and gestures can be very effective when they’re purposeful.
The question to ask is:
Is this helping my message or competing with it?
If you’re repeatedly doing something without realising it, ask a colleague to look out for it during a practice run. You may be surprised by the habits you don’t notice yourself.
Give your audience fewer things to think about
Your audience is already processing what you’re saying.
They’re listening to your words, looking at your slides, thinking about how the information relates to them and perhaps considering what questions they want to ask.
That’s a lot of mental activity.
You don’t want to add unnecessary distractions into the mix.
This is one reason simple presentation design matters too. If your slide is crammed with text, there are animations appearing everywhere and you’re talking over the top of it, your audience has to work out where to look and what to focus on.
Ask yourself:
“What do I want my audience to be paying attention to right now?”
Then remove anything that competes with that.
Sometimes the best presentation technique is simply taking something away.
Build a distraction check into your preparation
Rather than trying to remember all of this five minutes before you present, make it part of your normal preparation routine.
Before you start, run through a quick mental checklist:
- Technology: Are notifications switched off? Are unnecessary apps closed?
- Environment: Is there anything in the room that could distract me or my audience?
- Phone: Do I need it? If not, is it out of sight?
- Materials: Do I have everything I need so I don’t have to search for something halfway through?
- Me: Am I doing anything that could distract from my message?
It only takes a couple of minutes, but it can make your presentation feel much more controlled.
You don’t have to eliminate every distraction
Of course, it’s impossible to control everything.
Someone might cough. A door might slam. Your screen might briefly freeze. Someone might walk into the room.
These things happen.
The aim isn’t to create a perfectly controlled environment where absolutely nothing goes wrong.
It’s to remove the distractions you can control so that, when something unexpected does happen, you have the mental space to deal with it.
And that’s an important part of presenting with confidence. You’re not trying to make everything perfect. You’re preparing well enough that the unexpected doesn’t completely throw you off.
In summary…
A distraction might only take a few seconds, but those few seconds can interrupt your concentration, break your audience’s focus and make you look less prepared than you actually are.
Before your next presentation, take a few minutes to remove anything that could compete for your attention or your audience’s.
Switch off the notifications. Close the unnecessary apps. Put your phone away. Think about the room. And consider whether any of your own habits are distracting from your message.
These are small changes, but they can help you stay focused, look more professional and give your audience the best chance of hearing what you actually came to say.
If you’d like to build more practical presentation skills like these into your team’s everyday communication, our Presentation Skills Group Programme provides practical tools and techniques to help your people present with greater confidence, clarity and impact.
