Ok i'm sure you've all heard of the three second rule. If not it's basicaly as soon as you spot a potential target you have three seconds to approach her. If you leave it any longer than this then you will become way to nervous and start thinking about it to much. Get in there fresh and greet her with a pre rehearsed opener. This applies in many sports also, anxiety will build up before a game even until the whistle blows but as soon as it does thats it your anxiety levels drop and you become more relaxed, confident and ready to play. Try it, as soon as you say the first word you will chill and come across relaxed and NOT desperate!
Hope this helps

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Life is but a game, learn the rules and play to win

I just want to add you don't have to do it every 3 secs. You can wait abit longer. When I go sarging for girls, for my friends. I don't use the 3 second rule. I just tell them to pick out a group of girls they like and we continue to hunt for targets in the bar until they find the group they want the most. I was using the 3 second rule this one day me and my buddy went out for drinks. I ended up having every HB in the bar talking with us and then he had his pick of the litter... the problem I had is I sarged too many girls and they were all over talking with us, they thought I was some dirty slut. Plus I was trying to get my friend laid so I was doing abunch of lying to get them to like him over me. It didn't turn out too well lets just say... I had like 30 approaches in the books that night. But when it came time to PU a girl they wanted nothing to do with me. The 3 second rule is a suggestion if you suffer from serious AA.

Yeah good point Shaft! You don't want to put yourself in the position where you have to many girls aroud you! your not a PIMP and this will just scare potentiol 10s away. Keep it cool headed at all times.

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Life is but a game, learn the rules and play to win

As an APUA I'd say that the 3s rule is crutial in the early stages (agree with shafts point but I think that's futher down the line). A little story of how not using it can ruin everything (this is embarrassing but hopefully proves my point):

It's probably 2 years ago and I was advertising for a room mate. This girl responds and we arrange to go for a coffee to talk it through. I go to the local Starbucks and am hanging around, suddenly nervous about how I'm going to tell who she is... Anyway, she walks in and I am looking at the sandwiches, she's probably a HB8 (completely unexpected) and although I know it must be her (it's not very busy) I can't bring myself to ask her. As soon as the 3secs has passed then I'm into 'I look wierd now if I ask her, cos why didn't I ask her in the first place' shit going through my head and it just snowballed from there...

We ended up queueing next to eachother for a good few mins before she finally asked me!! Shocking, I'm getting embarrassed just thinking about it. After some stumbled 'Yeah, you must be...' I dropped some bs about it feeling like a blind date!!

Suffice to say that she didn't take the room, and that she probably left thinking I was a right twat, which I was!!

And all that with a pre-arranged opener!!

Whatever you do, get in there in 3 seconds or move on.

The three-second rule is setup as a learning technique, in order to overcome your naturally instilled fears of rejection. But do not think that it is to be used all the times, once you loose that fear of rejection you can wait longer or even play the girl out until you see fit to pay attention to her. Situations where you can do such things are settings as a gym, house-party, or even a school setting. The three second rule should act as your crutch until you feel you do not need it anymore. Its not meant to be lived by, although you can go your whole PUA career doing it still because the fact of the matter is that it works.

Good rule. Best way is to try shutting down the brain and just acting on instincts. Just do it, approach and don't think about it, just do it!

Just AS My mates Just Said (metuselah and Shaft)

The only real porpuse of The 3 sec Rule is to Force You to do the things fast, almost without thinking about doing it.

This works like these if u take to long, in the meanwhile u start thinking about Doubt-ish thoughts, the 3sec rule allows you to start talking to a Girl without the Fear of Fallure, Thats the real porpuse of these rule.

Its not a universal Thumb rule, its kinda trainig method lets say, its helps u to gain confidence and to start at 100% with no pre-concepted fears.

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Que le digo a la muerte, tantas veces llamada a mi lado,
que al cabo se ha vuelto mi hermana?

-"I Can Bend Your Mind"- Sovnarkom

Will the 3s rule build confidence...yes. It is also important for other reasons and it should always be applied IMO and in the opinion of PUG's Mystery and Style.

If you get good eye contact and you wait longer than 3s you end up creeping out the target. It's also very alpha to go stright up to a woman and initiate the conversation within seconds of seeing her. Remember strong eye contact is a great signal for IOI and you want to respond promply.