The right way to use notes during a presentation is to work from a setlist, not a script: one page of large, bullet-pointed main ideas that you glance at and look away from, the way a musician glances at the songs taped to the stage. I type mine at about 20 or 22 point so I can read it from eight or ten feet away, lay it down, and take the next idea in a single peek. Nobody in the room notices, and I never lose my place.
Why this matters (and what most executives get wrong)
There are two default ways executives use notes, and both of them cost you the room. The first is a stack of little note cards held at chest height, which turns the talk into a reading with the audience watching your eyes track left to right. The second is worse: the full script goes on the slides, and you turn your back on the room to read it to them.
We see it constantly. And the instinct behind it is right, because standing up with nothing at all is how people freeze. The problem is not that you have notes. The problem is that you built the wrong kind.
Musicians do not memorize the set and they do not read sheet music to the crowd. They keep a setlist on the floor and look down for one second between songs. That is the model.
A script invites reading, because every word is there to be read. A setlist cannot be read aloud, because it is only the names of the things you already know how to say. That single design choice is what decides whether you talk to people or perform a document at them.
The 6-step setlist method for using notes during a presentation
1. Write main ideas, never sentences
Each line is a landmark, not a paragraph. The opening story, the three shifts in the market, the customer example, the ask. If a line is long enough to read out loud, it is too long, and you will read it.
2. Add a cue for each story or example
Next to a main idea, put two or three words that name the story you plan to tell there: airport delay, the CFO who asked twice, first day on the floor. You are not scripting the story, you are reminding yourself which one you chose.
3. Print it big enough to read standing up
Type it at 20 to 22 point. The test is simple: you should be able to read it from eight or ten feet away, standing, with a glance rather than a lean. Twelve point notes force you to bend over the lectern, and that is the posture the audience remembers.
4. Lay it down, do not hold it
Paper in your hands shakes, and it gives you something to grip instead of gesturing. Set it on the lectern, a stool, or a front-row chair. Once it is down, your hands are free and your body stops broadcasting nerves you may not even feel.
5. Place copies where you will actually stand
If you roam, one copy is a leash. Put a page at each end of the stage, one near the screen, one where you take questions. Keep a folded copy in your pocket as insurance, because rooms get rearranged and lecterns get moved five minutes before you go on.
6. Peek, look up, then talk
The rhythm matters. Glance down while you are silent, get the next landmark, come back up, and speak to a face. Never talk to the page. Talking while looking down is what makes an audience feel read to.
If somebody sees you peek, that is fine. It says you cared enough about this room to plan what you would say to them.
The mistake most executives make
The biggest mistake is treating notes as something to hide. People memorize word for word so they will not need a page, and memorized talks fail in a specific, ugly way: one lost sentence takes the next three with it, because there are no landmarks left to find. A setlist cannot fail like that. Lose your place and the next idea is sitting right there.
The second mistake is building the notes and the slides as the same object. When the slide is the script, the screen becomes the teleprompter and the room becomes an audience for your back. Keep the words on the page in front of you and keep the screen for the audience.
Case study: the keynote rebuilt in the hallway
A sales division head in the luxury space had a 40 minute conference keynote and a deck with the entire talk written into the speaker notes and half of it on the slides themselves. In rehearsal he faced the screen for most of the first ten minutes.
We did not touch the content. We opened a blank page, listed his eleven main ideas, added a two word cue beside four of them for the stories he wanted, and printed it at 22 point. One copy on the lectern, one on a stool stage left, one folded in his jacket.
He ran it again the next morning and finished 90 seconds early, having looked at the paper maybe nine times. The line from the organizer afterward was the one that mattered: it felt like he was talking to us, not presenting at us. Same talk, same ideas, different piece of paper. Much better.
Script versus setlist
| What you are working from | A script (or note cards) | A setlist |
|---|---|---|
| What is on the page | Full sentences | Main ideas and story cues |
| Type size | Small, meant for reading close up | 20 to 22 point, readable standing |
| Where it lives | In your hands or on the screen | Laid down, in several places |
| Your eyes | Tracking the page while you talk | On a face while you talk |
| If you lose your place | You hunt for the exact line | You glance and take the next idea |
The right hand column is not a harder skill. It is the same talk with a page designed to be glanced at rather than read.
What to do next
Rebuild your notes before your next talk. One page, main ideas only, 22 point, laid down where you will stand. If your team is still reading slides to the room and you want that habit trained out with real rehearsal and playback, get a quick quote and we will build it around the presentations they actually give.
Next, read how to outline a presentation so the eleven ideas on that page are in the right order, and how to practice a presentation to rehearse with the setlist instead of against it.