Everyone has been there before, on a 9 a.m. zoom call, Monday morning meeting, and basically sleeping through it.
On the other side, it has definitely been your turn to present to your team before for which there are two kinds of people: the overachievers, and the underestimaters.
If you underestimated the amount of work you need to put into your presentation, or consistently find it had to follow meetings, make some changes to your work life to better impress your team.
A consistent lack of interest in your job is a sign that you need to make a change, but if you are wanting to reclaim your work mode motivation, start by coming to impress in meetings and presentations.
Learn to get ahead on your work, do the background research and anticipate your team's next move.
Get Ahead On Your Presentation Or Work
Whether you have a meeting every week with your team, or you have a presentation coming up, get ahead.
Saving that work for the last minute will cause 2 things: last-minute cramping (and possibly sloppy work) and the repeated habit of showing up unprepared.
Even if you aren't the one presenting or leading the conversation, get more out of your meeting by being active. Know what the meeting is going to cover, and come prepared with your own questions or ideas of how the topics should be executed. This will make you a more active person on the team, and help you to do your work better by having more information about the workflow.
If it is your turn to present, get started on the presentation as soon as possible. That might look like taking time away from your work-life balance just for this week. You don't need to be putting in many hours, but plan ahead to get the presentation ready beforehand, and when it is a good productive time for you.
Once you have gotten ahead on planning, you can go above and beyond to impress. Do the background research on your teams work to be a standout in the meeting.
Do The Background Research
If your colleague is presenting on a new topic or direction, take some time to look into the idea so that you can better understand it before the meeting.
Going into a meeting blindly puts you in the position to take everything your co-worker says to be true. While you should trust your co-workers, it is also important to bring your perspective to the topic to add diverse complexity.
For your own presentation, doing thorough background research is essential for several reasons. One, you don't want any surprises later if this idea is pursued by your team and results in some form of backlash. Research and present all potential outcomes so your team is informed. Just because a concept has a downside, doesn't necessarily make it a bad idea, but your team needs to go in informed.
Two, if you are missing essential information, and someone else in the room has it, it could invalidate your work. Come ready to impress by presenting as much information as you can find, in a logical way.
Try to anticipate what your team will want to know, and in what order. The presentation should be a logical flow of information, leading to what the audience will want to know more about and in what order.
Related: Working From Home: How To Set Yourself Up For Success & Productivity
Be Ready For Questions By Thinking Ahead
To show up to a meeting ready to impress, you must learn to anticipate your team. This can be difficult if you are just entering a new workplace, but for veteran employees it is time to put that knowledge to good use in the conference room, or on the zoom call.
When reviewing your presentation, ask yourself what questions will likely come up. Think about if there are any standard questions that are always discussed. You can try presenting to a friend or your work bestie, and see if they have any questions to gain some perspective on how others view your work.
Everyone has their own way of thinking, it is okay if you can't anticipate every move of your team, and that is important for creating work that reflects diverse perspectives.
It is most important to be ready for questions when they arrive. If you are on the other end of the meeting, know what will be discussed at the meeting and come ready for questions.
Depending on how often your team meets, being generally prepared with questions for your team members about current projects is a good use of everyone's time, and will allow you to be more productive during the week.
