1. Outline Your Objectives
   What do you want the end result of your presentation to be? Do you want to convince people to buy something? Do you want to instruct them? The objective of your presentation will determine most of your substance; the simple act of writing down your objectives will make it that much easier to organize what you’re going to say and when you’re going to say it.
   


2. Gauge Your Audience’s Expertise
   The next step is to determine how much your audience already understands about the subject you’re going to present. If you’re asked to give a lecture about gravity to elementary school students then you’re not going to treat all of them like tenured physics professors.
   
   Try to gauge the level of expertise and design your presentation to build upon what they already know. If you’re not sure how much experience the audience has had with a given subject, try to meet them somewhere in the middle.
   


3. Make an Outline
   The next step is to make an outline of all of the concepts that you’re going to cover in your present. I like to use a mind map to organize my thoughts into a rough outline, since I think that they’re a better tool for fleshing out ideas than traditional bulleted lists are. Regardless of what tool you use, build an outline of the topics you want to cover during the course of your presentation.


4. Sequence Your Presentation
   Once you have an outline of all of the topics that you want to cover in your presentation then you need to determine the sequence of your presentation. A good way to do that is to use a simple flowchart which lays out the order of the ideas that you’re going to present. Some people, usually hardcore PowerPoint users, prefer to use real storyboards where they produce mock-ups of each stage of the presentation.
   
   Personally, I think using a real storyboard can be pretty time-consuming so I prefer to stick with a basic flowchart when I’m sequencing a presentation.
   


5. Determine What Visuals You Will Need
   The final step to preparing a presentation is to figure out what sort of visual aids you’re going to need. You probably won’t need a complicated visual for every single point of your presentation, but when it comes down to explaining something complicated, like how a business process works, then you’re going to want to support yourself with a good visual.
   
   Figure out which concepts are going to require a visual – typically it’s the most complicated or important concepts which really need it. Go ahead and make a list of what sort of visuals you’re going to need.

...happiness with a purchase depends on the choices that were available on a store shelf and how the items were presented.

• Researchers have known empirically for more than 20 years a "50% off" sign leads consumers to assume a price is attractive, even if they have no knowledge of the original price or reasonable prices for that product.
  


• Studies have also shown that frequent but modest discounts - such as the constant sales at a car dealership - lead to perceptions of greater value than less frequent but deeper discounts.
  


• When math is involved, most of us can't cope. For example: See if you can calculate the total savings in the setup: 20 percent off the original price plus an additional 25 percent off the sale price. How much is that item marked down? If you said 45 percent off, then your math skills are as pitiful as the 85 percent of college students who also got this wrong in a study last year by researchers at the University of Miami and the University of Minnesota. The right answer: 40 percent off.

Throughout the stories, Sherlock is portrayed as a man of profound wisdom, which is why we can call upon him now to learn about what it takes to live an exceptional life. We can't just let his assistant Watson get away with all these gems of wisdom, can we?

• Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot. Not a word! Into your clothes and come!
  Sherlock lives his life with purpose. With purpose comes the excitement and enthusiasm that is seen in all children as they jump out of bed in the morning. Hopeful, and ready that today will be full of miraculous fun, unlike any other day that ever was or ever will be.
  
  You can see Sherlock passing this lesson on to Watson, as he expects him to be just as excited about the latest and greatest piece of evidence that can be used to crack open that case today. Of course it will be up to Watson to create that excitement for himself, but it doesn't hurt to try, does it?


• Perhaps when a man has special knowledge and special powers like my own, it rather encourages him to seek a complex explanation when a simpler one is at hand.
  Sherlock recognizes that his exceptional intellect sometimes acts as an obstacle in the way he rationalizes basic thoughts. He tends to be complex and over think relatively simple problems. There is no doubt that his frame of thought is invaluable for him as a detective but the truth stands that the shortest line between points A and B is a straight one.
  
  How many times in our own lives do we tend to over think and over complicate relatively simple matters. We make things harder on our own selves, when there is not only no need for it, but the need for the contrary. The message here is to look for the fundamentals and let the shortest path guide you in your decisions.


• Vox populi, vox Dei. "The voice of the people is the voice of God."
  Sherlock Holmes is quite obviously a scientist, yet he exhibits a reverence for God, the unexplainable. Part of what makes Sherlock so great, and what makes great men great, is that he is able to distinguish the fact that there is something bigger than himself.
  
  Some people are too self-centered, and lack the focus to grasp a cause that is bigger than themselves, bigger than life, and something they are willing to give their life for. Not necessarily give their life for in the sense of dieing, but in the sense of living out their life dedicated to a purpose, perhaps a holy one, that will impact not only themselves but man-kind as a whole. All this while realizing that your impact could be meaningless.
  


• There, Watson, this infernal case had haunted me for ten days. I hereby banish it completely from my presence.
  Persistence, the secret ingredient in productivity that is so often over looked. How bizarre that such a prolific detective as Sherlock would just give up and throw away a case because it did not fancy him. Perhaps there is something more than meets the eye, and giving up can be a great tool for productivity, especially when we're trying to push a brick wall.
  
  As the appointed arbiters of our own lives we get to choose what we do with our time. If something in life is bringing us down, no matter how important we may think it is, we reserve the right to walk away from it. This may be hard at times, but can increase our enjoyment of life and our fulfillment many times over.
  


• There can be no question, my dear Watson, of the value of exercise before breakfast.
  One productivity tool that I use is waking up early and exercising as the first thing of the day. This allows me to shake slumber from my brow and invigorates me to take on the entire world during the day.
  
  Part of the message is to do it before breakfast, before our stomachs are full and we are weighed down. This is the perfect time to exercise our hearts by going on a 30 minute jog and flushing our bodies through with a quick sprout of oxygen. It's the special ingredient to productivity and intelligence that some scholars tend to over look.


• It is always awkward doing business with an alias.
  This message carries a hidden meaning in it. On one hand, very bluntly, Sherlock means that using a different name or a disguise creates certain difficulties in conducting business. A lie on top of a lie is magnified and it becomes hard to remember what you should be inventing for the next person. This also kills off your ability to network as your name is not being passed around with good words.
  
  The other meaning of this statement is the genuineness with which we live our lives. If you're a real man then you have a backbone to stand for something, and be committed fully to it. Whether it be family, God, or country, one must show his true colors wherever he is. Not to do so would be a disservice to oneself.
  


• I play the game for the game's own sake.
  Ask yourself a simple question - why do you do things? Is it for the money, the reward, the power, or the fame? There is another alternative. Sherlock does things for the enjoyment of the thing itself. He is a detective because he loves the scientific approach to solving cases.
  
  A big part of happiness is to take pleasure in what one has or what one is doing. Thus, by playing the game just for the fun of the game, one can maximize the pleasure of life. So no matter what you're occupation, relationship, religion, or whatever game it is that you're playing right now, immerse yourself fully in it and enjoy it no matter what the outcome should be.
  


• He is as tenacious as a bulldog when he once understands what he has to do.
  Ready-aim-aim-aim-aim-aim and maybe fire. Over planning is likely the number one killer of productivity and the biggest cause of procrastination. We can do research on a subject indefinitely, if not making it simpler, making it much more complicated than it has to be.
  
  By taking the ready-fire-aim approach we can use whatever information is already available, whatever we already understand, and take action immediately. We can then go ahead and make adjustments as we repeatedly take further action.


• To the man who loves art for its own sake, it is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived.
  This applies not just to art, but to every nuance of life that a person can extract an experience from. The very essence of things -- pure, uncomplicated, and zenlike -- is what man most resonates with because atom to atom it is most similar to what we are.
  
  This can be seen in all parts of life, but we can take a look at nutrition. There is a term called "close to the vine" which represents the fact that food, in it's simplest form is the healthiest. It gives us the most energy and resonates the most with what we're made of. The closer we are to nature and simplicity the more serene and holistic is our experience of life.


• I can't make bricks without clay.
  All our goals and dreams are made up of certain steps that we have to take to accomplish them. Life is made up of a journey, and the ultimate end is our death. By constantly looking forward we are missing the elements that make up the future -- the present.
  
  The present is the clay that makes up the bricks that make up our ambitious goals. Keep this in mind, enjoy the clay which is the present, because the ends are always inconsequential in comparison to the journey that it took to reach them.


• Come at once if convenient - if inconvenient come all the same.
  In #4 above we mentioned that we have the power to choose to abandon whatever task, journey, or life that we have found ourselves living. However, persistence is still the propeller driving the boat of success. Successful people may not want to do something just as much as the next guy, but they'll recognize that it is good for them, persist, and stay their course.


• I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one's self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one's own powers.
  I think Sherlock says it all here. To be truthful and realistic is best. To not give oneself to overconfidence and arrogance as well as to shy away from lack of pride and over humbleness. Of course we look at ourselves with a bias eye and it is not easy to evaluate ourselves.
  
  By using other people in our lives as a mirror, and seeing how others react to us, we are in a better position to see ourselves for who we are. Not everyone will give us a fair and honest evaluation, so if you have people in your life that are sincere be sure to cherish them.