They say that 3's the magic number (De La Soul), and it's true. It's helped me present better, reduce stress at work, improve my productivity, and even led me to found my startup Motivii. Seriously. Read on.
It all started by feeling overwhelmed with too many things to do at work. I always found that when I listed everything I needed to do, my motivation would instantly dip.
Separately, when I was pitching people, they seemed to get confused if I tried to sell in too many benefits. Without realising it, I started to limit myself to never trying to explain more than three things in one go. Actions following a meeting started being limited to three things. And it worked. People remembered more, followed up on the actions, and I started winning more deals.
I thought I was onto something special. Then I realised I was not the first person to understand the magic of three.
If you look at politicians explaining ideas, the better ones limit themselves to just three points. Even counting on their fingers while presenting. The rule of three appears everywhere:
Beginning, Middle, End — storytelling.
Veni, Vidi, Vici — Julius Caesar.
Stop, Look, Listen — the highway code.
Thinner, Lighter, and Faster — Steve Jobs launching the iPad 2.
Work, Rest, Play — Mars advertising campaign.
If you talk to psychologists, they'll tell you the human brain is fine-tuned to remember three things. Ask it to remember more and you start running into trouble. Even telephone numbers — most people break them into about three groups to make them easier to remember.
From habit to system
On realising that I liked keeping things to three, I started writing down my three highlights of the week, the three challenges, and the three things I wanted to focus on the following week. This simple list started helping me reflect and plan better. It felt like I had less to do and I got more done.
I started calling it my Top 3 report. Highlights, Challenges, and Focus are three things by themselves.
It's not rocket science. But when I started getting everyone I worked with doing their own Top 3, the benefits were huge. Communication improved, stress was reduced, and we started really nailing the important things.
If you can't find it, build it
The process was still manual. I wanted automated reminders. I wanted to do it quickly on my phone. I wanted anonymous questions, automatic summary emails, word clouds, sentiment analysis, and more.
I looked, but I couldn't find anything in the market that could help. So if you can't find it, build it.
One year later, the magic of three had helped launch Motivii — which went on to make work better at GSK, Lloyds Bank, Find My Past and many more companies. The Top 3 was built into the core of the product, creating fast feedback for employees, managers, and organisations.
Why this still matters
I wrote this a few years ago, but the principle hasn't changed. If anything, in the age of AI and information overload, the discipline of three is more important than ever. When I coach leaders now, one of the first things we do is strip back the noise. What are the three things that actually matter this week? What are the three things you want AI to help you with first?
Simple frameworks compound. The magic of three is one of them.