But never forget your human resources.  You cannot interview a website or book for clarification.  Humans can expand on an idea, give you more information, or give you that quirky perspective that just might give you the winning angle on a topic.

It may be totally supportive, in that the image is unobtrusive; seamlessly part of the message and the complete package – an incredibly effective combination.

Or you may choose to create an edge, a mystique.

Your body language, your facial expression and gestures, your clothes and your grooming all need to work towards the impact you choose to make.  They will contribute just as much as the content, the language and the structure.   And they will contribute as powerfully to the impact you choose to make as a person as they do to the impact you choose for your presentation to make.

How will you make them work together?

In my case they would be:

… home, family, my business, my involvement with public speaking group POWERtalk, and my work. Each has
its own paper, reading, writing, current projects, files and deadlines.

Yours may be completely different – maybe you are just dealing with an office. In that case you would narrow your focus to suit your needs and list, instead, the various operations involved.

Before you start, define just what it is that you need to organise and declutter, in your world of paper

Forget the other symptoms for a minute – the shaky knees, the dry mouth, the sweaty palms.

And that awful feeling that you want to run away? Good. You’ve heard of “fight or flight”? Good … because what you have is “flight”, the need to escape. And that is a symptom of your pumping adrenalin. You have a speech to make, so escaping is out of the question, so you might as well to turn it around and make use of the adrenalin.

Channel it so that you create excitement and enthusiasm. Use these in your presentation to speak quickly with enthusiasm, or hold attention with power pause. Use them to communicate passion for your subject.

And that channeling, that conversion of your nervousness to passion, combined with other techniques, will build an incredibly strong confidence.

Research will bring in much of what you need.

But for the material that will help to make or break your impact because it is not so academic, has more value than basic information, you need to go to your secret collection.

Particularly if you are speaking regularly, you need to develop the habit of collecting material on your subject areas – articles from magazines or the internet, quotes, sayings and anecdotes. 

You can keep these in a paper file of notes; or for the on-line material, save useful websites in your favourites file or a tagging system like del.icio.us.

Not only will it save you time in researching, it will provide the personal angle on your material. And if it appealed to you at the time you collected it, chances are that you will use it with enthusiasm. And if it appealed to you it should appeal to your audience if you use it well.

One way to decide is to look at the aspect of reporting.

Many meetings are simply that – a vehicle for presenting reports.  Can the outcomes of these presentations be achieved more efficiently and effectively in other ways?

If the  outcome is simply a piece of information changing hands, then consider a face-to-face or email handover.  This allows time for the recipient of the report to read the report and digest it.  It allows for private feedback.  It takes less time to do and to organise.

The outcome, however, may be to share the results with a team.  Yes it could be emailed.  Will everyone read it?

Do you want discussion of the report, and perhaps an evaluation of goals and performance?

Do you want a brain storming session to be triggered by the report.

Do you want the opportunity for presentation styles that could enhance the report?  Facial expressions and well-designed powerpoints can give more impact than a written document.

Are there other forms of comunication that can achieve the outcomes you want from your reporting?

So in order to decide  whether a meeting is absolutely necessary, consider the outcomes you want for your reporting, and whether a meeting is the best way to achieve those outcomes.

Who are you? How will you be remembered after this presentation?

You cannot be someone you are not, when you present, unless you are prepared to be a performer for the entire production. Insincerity will detract from your speech as quickly as a joke in bad taste. But you can present a side of yourself as the highlight – the side you want your audience to remember.

Define that image, right from the beginning and work to adapt it as you create your speech.

Is it because you have too much untidiness – untidy stacks of paper, magazine or files? Perhaps you need to declutter. Or is it because you cannot find things efficiently, and a better filing or storage system is what you need? Or maybe you are having difficulty with deadlines, appointments, paying accounts on time.

Answer these questions and you will have one of the bases for defining your outcomes, articulating the dream you have for the time when you are in control of your paper.

Often people don’t articulate what it is they fear, or where the fear comes from.

If you can do that, then you have something concrete you can tackle. This way of using logic is, I think, what is meant by the process called “cognitive therapy” – looking at the fear or the nerves, identifying their sources and logically dealing with them. So, for example, if you were teased at school about your public speaking, then you can look at why you were teased and decide, perhaps, that it was irrelevant to your skills and you can go ahead anyway and develop the skills further. Or, if you were teased because you did not have the skills, then try to remember what you were being teased for, and work methodically on those skills. (If an adult methodical approach doesn’t work then use a childhood emotion and improve your skill just to spite your tormentors!!)