Jul 26, 2016
5 foolproof steps to memorize your speech in an hour
Do you remember those Junior High presentations in front of the class? Were you terrified by them? Did you nervously read every item in your index cards or PowerPoint slides? As we become adults, presentations seem to be a vital aspect of our jobs, especially if we aspire to reach positions of leadership or have a startup.
In addition to body language, great speakers also are great memorizing speeches, or least they learned to be good at it. Either way, we’re certain these tips can help you conquer your fear and memorize your speech in no time at all (like just an hour):
Don’t learn a speech word by word:
Make an outline of your topics. These will help you to express yourself naturally. You are telling a story of sorts, so try to remember the route that you want to travel. This storytelling outline can be based in the parts of an essay: introduction, body paragraphs (which could be divided as your themes), and a conclusion. Then:
Visualize the outline:
An outline is composed of organizational patterns of your choosing. Create mental images of your key points in the order you want them in the “story”. Those body paragraphs mentioned before are the key points that drive your speech. To memorize them, you can write them as bullet points. For example:
- Inspiration
- Concept
- Budget
- Market
- Problem
Build your “Memory Palace” :
This ancient technique to storage information in your brain can help you to organize your ideas in imaginary rooms. You are practically building a structure in your mind to store information. Learn more about it here.
Record yourself:
It has been scientifically proven that rehearsing out loud can improve your memory, so recording your presentation is a way of doing so. After this, you can review your content and make last minute alterations.
Remember that you are the expert:
Don’t be paralyzed by fear. Keep in mind that you made the presentation and know enough about the topic to be considered an expert. Bruna Martinuzzi advices to stay sharp by replacing the time spent on worrying with time spent acquiring some of these memory improvement tools.
Training your brain will minimize your anxiety and will make you an expert public speaker. Experiment with different techniques until you find the one that suits you: from rehearsing out loud, creating visual maps, recording it, or even practicing with music. It takes practice to get the flow you desire and be a skill full memorizer.
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