Holding a phone while you speak is fine. Not holding anything is better. An Apple Watch lets you keep your notes a glance away while your hands are free for a microphone, a glass or a clicker.
Here is how to put speech notes on your wrist with CueCard, which is free and comes with its own watch app.
Why cue cards, not a script
A watch screen is small. A scrolling script on a watch is hard to follow, but a cue card with a dozen words on it is easy. That is why CueCard puts cards on the watch, and uses the watch as a remote for the teleprompter rather than a place to read it.
Write your talk as a deck: one idea per card, a few words each. (If you are not sure how much to write, see how much to put on a cue card.)
Step 1: Install the watch app
Open the Watch app on your iPhone. Under Available Apps, tap Install next to CueCard. The watch app needs watchOS 10 or later.
Step 2: Write the deck on your iPhone
In CueCard, tap the mode name at the top left of the editor and choose Cards. Type each card in its own box and tap Create New Card for the next one. Add [cue pause] or [cue look up] wherever you tend to rush, and save the deck with Save as New in the ••• menu.
Step 3: Read it on the watch
Tap Read Cards on the iPhone and the deck shows on the watch too. Swipe or tap to turn a card on the watch, and the iPhone follows; turn it on the iPhone, and the watch follows. Turn the Digital Crown to scroll a card that runs long.
The timer shows at the top on both. Set it from the timer button beside Read Cards, with a Warn in Last time so it changes color before you run out.
Step 4: Keep the deck on the watch
If you want to leave the phone in your bag, or not bring it at all, open the saved deck on your iPhone and choose Keep on Apple Watch from the ••• menu. The deck then lives on the watch under On Watch and works without the iPhone nearby.
Step 5: Stop it going back to the clock
By default the watch returns to the clock face after a while, which is the last thing you want mid-speech. In the Watch app on your iPhone, go to General › Return to Clock › CueCard and set it to 1 hour.
Step 6: Set the text size
On the iPhone, open Cards Settings with the gear and choose Card Text Size under Apple Watch. Bigger text means shorter glances.
Using the watch as a teleprompter remote
Filming rather than speaking? Open a script in Teleprompter mode and press play. The watch shows the timer with buttons to play, pause and go back ten seconds, so you can start the script from across the room without walking back to the phone.
CueCard is free on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, with no account and no ads. See everything the watch app does.