📣 Memorizing the whole presentation, word by word – life hack or a trap?

First, I have to say, if you have severe anxiety and a horrible fear of public speaking, especially when it comes with a strong and overpowering physical response, and you still show up, that is extremely brave 💪.

In that situation, use anything that helps you survive your presentation.

However, in most other cases, even if you are suuuuper nervous (which is totally normal and common), memorizing word by word (usually from a fully written speech) often isn’t the best approach.

Why?

Because if you forget even one word, you might freeze. Instead of focusing on delivering your message, you’ll be stuck trying to remember that exact word you missed 😬

✨ What to do instead?

If writing the whole speech helps, do it.

Read through it a few times.

Then, prepare bullet points that can guide you through your presentation (this can include keywords, slide titles, phrases…).

Once you have them, start practicing out loud (which I cannot recommend enough) using the bullet points.

That way, your focus stays on the ideas and the flow, not the perfect wording.