The Rule of Three

The rule of 3: three minutes without air, three days without water, three weeks without food.

Presentation Skill 3. The rule of three
This is one of the oldest of all the presentation techniques - known about from the time of Aristotle.
People tend to remember lists of three things. Structure your presentation around threes and and it will become more memorable. The rule of three - We remember three things. The rule of three is one of the oldest in the book - Aristotle wrote about it in his book Rhetoric. Put simply it is that people tend to easily remember three things.
Remember as a kid when your mum sent you down to the shop to buy a number of things. But when you got to the shop all you could remember were three things. This is the rule of three
1. The audience will likely remember only three things from your presentation - plan in advance what these will be. Believe it or not, the chances are, people will only remember three things from your presentation. So before you start writing your presentation, plan what your three key messages will be. Once you have these messages, structure the main part of your presentation around these three key themes and look at how they could be better illustrated.
2. There are three parts to your presentation. The beginning, the middle and the end. Start to plan out what you will do in these three parts. The beginning is ideal for an attention grabber or for an ice breaker. The end is great to wrap things up or to end with a grand finale.
3. Use lists of three where ever you can in your presentation. Lists of three have been used from early times up to the present day. They are particularly used by politicians and advertisers who know the value of using the rule of three to sell their ideas.
Veni, Vidi, Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered) - Julius Caesar**
”Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me your ears” - William Shakespeare
”Our priorities are Education, Education, Education” - Tony Blair
A Mars a day helps you to work, rest and play - Advertising slogan
Stop, look and listen - Public safety announcement
A classic example of the rule of three was Winston Churchill’s famous Blood, sweat and tears speech. He is widely attributed as saying I can promise you nothing but blood sweat and tears. What he actually said was “I can promise you Blood, Sweat, Toil and Tears” Because of the rule of three we simply remember it as Blood sweat and tears.
There are lots of other examples of the rule of three on this link
4. In Presentations “Less is More”. If you have four points to get across - cut one out. They won’t remember it anyway. In presentations less really is more. No one ever complained of a presentation being too short.
Presentation Essentials
Three Presentation Essentials
Use visual aids where you can
Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
The audience will only remember three messages