7 Things

Generally speaking, humans have the ability to memorize and retain 5 to 7 things, plus or minus two, which actually creates a range between 3 and 9. As I get older, I'm making it 5 things, plus or minus 2. Back in the day, before we had speed dial and smart phones, we used to have to remember telephone numbers. There is a reason why most phone numbers are broken up as 999-9999. It is relatively easy for people to remember 3-7 numbers. As more people got telephones, we need to add three additional numbers, an area code, which made the new phone number look like (999) 999-9999. Area codes were relatively easy to remember, 202 is Washington DC, 703 is Northern Virginia, New York City is 212, Beverly Hills area code is 310.

Three things

Steve Jobs was famous for his presentations, particularly to investors, employees, and Mac user conferences. Jobs is considered one of the greatest corporate storytellers ever. Steve was passionate, concise, dramatic, and clever in his communication skills.

His short phrases were memorable and reverberated. When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, he led off with this proclamation, "Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone." Repeat that line several times during your presentation and people will remember it." When he introduced the iPod, he proclaimed that you can keep, "A thousand songs in your pocket," this was back when we had to manage hundreds of physical CDs.

One reason why he stuck to the rule of three is that it is very easy for everybody to remember three things. Often, Jobs would introduce 3 new products. For each product, he would introduce 3 amazing features. If you want somebody to remember something, stick to the rules of three and make your concepts memorable, like a headline.

Seven Things

My favorite list of 7 things includes some that we created right here in Agileana and others that continue to inspire us:

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

by Stephen Covey

1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win/win
5. Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw

7 C's of SEO

1. Crawlability
2. Credibility
3. Code
4. Content
5. Conversation
6. Competition
7. Conversion

7 Drives of Website Traffic (7D Hub)

1. Information
2. Education
3. Entertainment
4. Community
5. Communication
6. Commerce
7. Tools

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