Make Your Next Presentation Without Notes

I’m always asked if it is OK to use notes when making a presentation. Using no notes makes you look incredibly confident. Using lots of notes make you look weak. However, most people are nervous trying to memorize their presentation and use notes instead. Instead of memorizing, think of your presentation as a logical argument that you are delivering. Because it is logical, one thought naturally follows the next. Below is my system for creating a logic list which I use as a memory device to make presentations.

Write your presentation in a logical order based on the following:

• The opening is the one thing you want everyone to remember -- the takeaway;
• Then comes the demonstration of the takeaway through proof, statistics, stories, etc;
• Then issues with doing it;
• Then a summary;
• Then there is the close which asks people to take action.

All you need to remember is the opening and the logic that follows the opening, not the literal words. If your takeaway is “Giving money to charities will make you feel better about yourself” the logic train that follows might be the proof of that statement- research, statements by experts, testimonials. Followed by reasons people don’t give. Then a summary which could be a case study of one person’s experience giving. Finally, a call to action.

I practice writing this presentation as a logic list. Mine would be:

• Open story. Charity makes you feel good;
• Proof: science/personal;
• Negatives: why people don’t give;
• Case study: Joe’s story;
• Close, give.

This is over simplified, but that’s it. I practice writing my logic list a number of times to really know it and I’m good to go.