Learning to SAY NO - The Ultimate PRODUCTIVITY SUPERPOWER

If you don't guard your time, others will steal it from you.

No.

How often do you catch yourself agreeing to do something, only to fast forward to the end of the week, and finding yourself absolutely overwhelmed by all the "little" tasks you've agreed to take on?

Unfortunately this happens far more often than we would care to admit.

In fact, as a freelance photographer, one of the toughest parts of my job is constantly figuring out how not to get bogged down with seemingly simple projects, which I know are going to waste my time and cost me in the long run.

Time is a finite resource. Every second can only be used once, and it is the only asset that we have, which we can never invest and get more of it back as interest.

The Power of Saying "No"

Something that we never get taught at school, is that the words “yes” and “no” are not merely opposites.

Right now as you read this sentence, I bet you're thinking that yes and no carry pretty much equal weight. One is positive and the other negative.

However, in reality they are not just completely opposite in meaning, but of entirely different magnitudes of commitment.

Think about it. When you say no to something, you are essentially saying no to one option.

"Want to go out to a restaurant?"

"No".

That's it. You've decided for the status quo to remain the same as it was before the question was asked, and you are still free to do anything you like with the rest of your day.

Now consider this scenario:

"Want to go out to a restaurant?"

"Sure."

You have now committed the rest of your afternoon and probably all of your evening to going out to a restaurant. There is nothing else that you can do with the remainder of your day. You have already decided how that future block of your time will be spent.

Every time we say yes to a request, we are also saying no to anything else we might accomplish with the time.

Basically, no is a decision. Yes is a responsibility.

Of course, you can always try and get out of going to the restaurant, but the act of saying "no" after the fact, carries significantly more weight and is a lot harder to do.

As writer Mike Dariano has pointed out:

“It’s easier to avoid commitments than get out of commitments."

Of course not every decision is as simple as choosing whether or not you want to go out to a restaurant. Perhaps you need a break, and a delicious meal prepared by a master chef may be exactly what the doctor ordered.

Saying No Saves You Time in the Future. Saying Yes Costs You Time in the Future.

So what about all of those other, more difficult decisions?

There is a well-known "Hell yeah, or no" method, which essentially means that unless something doesn't make you giddy with excitement (hell yeah!) then you should probably skip it.

However, on a more professional level, a better tactic is to ask yourself:

"If I had to do this either today, or as my very next task, would I agree to it?"

This way, if you didn't have any other things on your plate, would this decision be something that you would be happy to do next?

When you think about it, any future commitment, no matter how far away it may be, will eventually become an imminent problem.

If you could see yourself doing something today, then you are proactively avoiding causing a headache for yourself later on, and your future self will thank you for it.

Elimination is a More Useful Skill Than Optimisation.

When you make a decision to do something, take a few seconds to consider whether that decision is truly necessary. The painful truth is that many of them are not, and a simple "no" will be far more productive than whatever work a more tired future version of you will be able to muster.

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Happy shooting!