{"id":1756,"date":"2019-12-31T14:40:19","date_gmt":"2019-12-31T14:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/?p=1756"},"modified":"2026-04-03T12:59:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T12:59:05","slug":"seventh-day-of-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"On the seventh day of Christmas&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;seven facts to remember.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"590\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/seven-487137.jpg\" alt=\"seventh day of Christmas\" class=\"wp-image-1757\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/seven-487137.jpg 590w, https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/seven-487137-300x178.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me seven facts to remember. <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.psych.utoronto.ca\/users\/peterson\/psy430s2001\/Miller%20GA%20Magical%20Seven%20Psych%20Review%201955.pdf\">A seminal paper in psychology by Arthur Miller<\/a> has suggested that seven is the magic number of new memory items that can be retained from a presentation (plus or minus 2!). This is essential when one considers the vast numbers of data items delivered in a standard presentation. Most importantly this small number is retained at the expense of all others and only if a strong effort is made to do so. Without this effort, probably only three facts are retained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The value of science in presentation skills is questioned frequently. There are multiple confounding factors in the research undertaken and the challenge of quantitative research in such a complex issue <a href=\"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/on-why-people-defend-bulletpoints\/\">leads to debate.<\/a> The simple challenge is to remember the last presentation that you attended and list the seven new facts or items you have retained. If there were confounding factors then the three facts that might be retained without positive steps are probably more easily identified. No?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/facts-are-enough\/\">Presentations cannot and should not be simply lists of data.<\/a> It does not work. <a href=\"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/the-matrix\/\">Refusing to accept this is the basis of so much wasted time and effort and resources<\/a>. Consider the magic number seven for data that might be retained and utilise this- one key message, three main points, and three sub-points. The best presentation ever is not the one with the most information but the one that is memorable. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me&#8230; &#8230;seven facts to remember. On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me seven facts to remember. A seminal paper in psychology by Arthur Miller has suggested that seven is the magic number of new memory items that can be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[348],"class_list":["post-1756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-p-cubed","tag-days-of-christmas"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>On the seventh day of Christmas... - p cubed presentations<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me seven facts to remember as that is all you can remember. Don&#039;t overload presentations.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"On the seventh day of Christmas... - p cubed presentations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me seven facts to remember as that is all you can remember. Don&#039;t overload presentations.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"p cubed presentations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-12-31T14:40:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-03T12:59:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/seven-487137.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"590\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"350\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ffolliet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ffolliet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ffolliet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ffolliet\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/seventh-day-of-christmas\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/seventh-day-of-christmas\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ffolliet\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79a90ae46194ce42b3eb9cc53dc61b56\"},\"headline\":\"On the seventh day of Christmas&#8230;\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-31T14:40:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-03T12:59:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/seventh-day-of-christmas\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":267,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79a90ae46194ce42b3eb9cc53dc61b56\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/seventh-day-of-christmas\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/seven-487137.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"days of christmas\"],\"articleSection\":[\"p cubed\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/seventh-day-of-christmas\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/seventh-day-of-christmas\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/seventh-day-of-christmas\\\/\",\"name\":\"On the seventh day of Christmas... - p cubed presentations\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/seventh-day-of-christmas\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/seventh-day-of-christmas\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/seven-487137.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-12-31T14:40:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-03T12:59:05+00:00\",\"description\":\"On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me seven facts to remember as that is all you can remember. Don't overload presentations.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/seventh-day-of-christmas\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/seventh-day-of-christmas\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/seventh-day-of-christmas\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/seven-487137.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/12\\\/seven-487137.jpg\",\"width\":590,\"height\":350},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/seventh-day-of-christmas\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"On the seventh day of Christmas&#8230;\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/\",\"name\":\"p cubed presentations\",\"description\":\"every great presentation is the product of its message (p1), the supportive media (p2) and the delivery of that (p3).\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79a90ae46194ce42b3eb9cc53dc61b56\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79a90ae46194ce42b3eb9cc53dc61b56\",\"name\":\"ffolliet\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/cropped-p-cubed-logo.webp\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/cropped-p-cubed-logo.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/cropped-p-cubed-logo.webp\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"ffolliet\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/cropped-p-cubed-logo.webp\"},\"description\":\"At work I'm a Consultant Paediatric Surgeon. That involves Surgical Oncology, Neonatal Surgery and Trauma. There's also a lot of teaching and mentoring. None of this actually makes me particularly clever. I'm pretty heavily into improving presentations and long for the world to lay down the weapon of bulletpoints and embrace creative and engaging presentations. I lead presentation workshops and am currently working up a book on presentations. I did a wee thing at TEDx Stuttgart in 2014 of which I'm quite proud https:\\\/\\\/www.youtube.com\\\/watch?v=qFza3W87eDg Outside all of that I struggle to keep fit, cycle a bit and the odd triathlon. I'm a father, singer, laugher, learner, sharer, blogger, thinker, strummer and much more.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/ffolliet\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ffolliet.com\\\/staging\\\/author\\\/ffolli5_wp\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"On the seventh day of Christmas... - p cubed presentations","description":"On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me seven facts to remember as that is all you can remember. Don't overload presentations.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"On the seventh day of Christmas... - p cubed presentations","og_description":"On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me seven facts to remember as that is all you can remember. Don't overload presentations.","og_url":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/","og_site_name":"p cubed presentations","article_published_time":"2019-12-31T14:40:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-03T12:59:05+00:00","og_image":[{"width":590,"height":350,"url":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/seven-487137.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ffolliet","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ffolliet","twitter_site":"@ffolliet","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ffolliet","Estimated reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/"},"author":{"name":"ffolliet","@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/79a90ae46194ce42b3eb9cc53dc61b56"},"headline":"On the seventh day of Christmas&#8230;","datePublished":"2019-12-31T14:40:19+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-03T12:59:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/"},"wordCount":267,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/79a90ae46194ce42b3eb9cc53dc61b56"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/seven-487137.jpg","keywords":["days of christmas"],"articleSection":["p cubed"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/","url":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/","name":"On the seventh day of Christmas... - p cubed presentations","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/seven-487137.jpg","datePublished":"2019-12-31T14:40:19+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-03T12:59:05+00:00","description":"On the seventh day of Christmas, my true love gave to me seven facts to remember as that is all you can remember. Don't overload presentations.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/seven-487137.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/seven-487137.jpg","width":590,"height":350},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/seventh-day-of-christmas\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"On the seventh day of Christmas&#8230;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/","name":"p cubed presentations","description":"every great presentation is the product of its message (p1), the supportive media (p2) and the delivery of that (p3).","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/79a90ae46194ce42b3eb9cc53dc61b56"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/79a90ae46194ce42b3eb9cc53dc61b56","name":"ffolliet","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/cropped-p-cubed-logo.webp","url":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/cropped-p-cubed-logo.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/cropped-p-cubed-logo.webp","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"ffolliet"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/cropped-p-cubed-logo.webp"},"description":"At work I'm a Consultant Paediatric Surgeon. That involves Surgical Oncology, Neonatal Surgery and Trauma. There's also a lot of teaching and mentoring. None of this actually makes me particularly clever. I'm pretty heavily into improving presentations and long for the world to lay down the weapon of bulletpoints and embrace creative and engaging presentations. I lead presentation workshops and am currently working up a book on presentations. I did a wee thing at TEDx Stuttgart in 2014 of which I'm quite proud https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qFza3W87eDg Outside all of that I struggle to keep fit, cycle a bit and the odd triathlon. I'm a father, singer, laugher, learner, sharer, blogger, thinker, strummer and much more.","sameAs":["https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging","https:\/\/x.com\/ffolliet"],"url":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/author\/ffolli5_wp\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1756"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3591,"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756\/revisions\/3591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ffolliet.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}