by Randy Pace
The key word on your Career Service today is “prepare.” When you prepare your speech, talk, or presentation using index cards, you’ll present and speak with confidence.
Index cards are great to word with. Why? Because they help you learn the material But in today’s technical environment of Palms, iPhones, and Blackberry’s, the simple 3 x 5 cards have been lost in the shuffle (pun intended).
Dale Carnegie recommended he use of index cards. An early pioneer in the American self-help movement, Carnegie recommended you avoid committing speeches to memory. He taught his students to jot down notes about what they wanted to say on index cards which can be held in he palm of your hand while speaking.
It’s been my experience as a sales, interviewing, and personal presentation trainer and former Associate Instructor of the Dale Carnegie Sales Course that glancing down at your hand while speaking is disconcerting to the audience. That’s why I memorize material using index cards to prepare and rehearse.
Whenever I need to give a talk of more than a minute, or deliver a training of up to ten minutes, I go through these four steps –
- Condense the talk you’ve typed on to index cards. I often have a dozen of them.
- Condense again during rehearsals to fewer and fewer cards until you have a series of one liners — the main points of the talk– on just one larger 4 x 6 index card.
- Rehearse from this card until the material has been memorized. If you don’t recall a point or two, refer to the original script.
- On the day of your talk, stick the card in one of your pockets in case you don’t recall a point and need to refer to the card during the talk. You won’t need to if you follow these steps. Because in the process, the material has been committed to memory.
This strategy of using index cards is also recommended in David Moldawers wonderful article on the use of prep cards on Life Clever where you can find a wide range of subjects to help make your life more enjoyable and yes — clever, too. Reading David’s article reminded me how I’ve been using 3 x5 cards since the Stone Age – before computers – when all we had to work with were typewriters and pens and index cards.
Sure this method is time consuming. But guess what? People who take the time to prepare a talk this way are able to perform with confidence and appear to be giving their presentation extemporaneously.
So remember the many practical uses of the simple and forgotten index card. Today, you can buy ruled and unruled index cards nicely packaged in a variety of colors which make them fun to work with.
Now that I’ve shared how I use index cards, let’s hear from you. Visitors to Your Career Service would love to know if and how you use them. So click “comments” on the next line and fire away.