From: Lifehack - Thursday Mar 22, 2018 04:17 pm
This week I've been talking a lot about focus and priorities, and last week I talked about when giving up can be the right thing to do. It seems to have hit on some common pain points, so I want to follow up with another important topic. There's another difficult challenge many people face that makes them lose sight of their priorities. It's when you feel the need to say "Yes" to everything. Often what happens is that you soon get overwhelmed. Because you've created obligations on yourself to other people's priorities, you feel pressure to please all the people you've promised. Inevitably, when you end up being unable to fulfil everyone's wishes - it leaves everyone unhappy. Your original well wishes turn into resentment, or leaves you drained of energy and motivation. In the end, it does no good to anyone. A fundamental point I try to teach everyone at Lifehack is that productivity is not just about neat, time-saving, technical tricks and tips. Before any of that matters - what's much more important is having a big-picture perspective, which gives you clarity. Clarity helps you to make wise decisions. If you're not making good decisions, all the coolest productivity hacks won't save you. When we don't have a big-picture perspective, we're generally only looking at things from one side of the coin... Such as believing that saying "Yes" all the time is the selfless thing to do. We often end up shooting ourselves in the foot. The key to big-picture perspective then, is being able to see both sides of the coin in any given situation. Just like understanding when giving up can be positive, knowing when to say "No" can be positive too. The truth is that most problems can be avoided in the first place with just a little change in mindset. So if feeling the need to say "Yes" all the time is a challenge for you, learning how to say "No" can turn out to be one your biggest productivity boosters. (amongst other things!) This means first understanding that it's not necessarily a negative or even a selfish thing. Secondly, it means learning the right time to say "No" and how to say it constructively. I want to share an article by Danielle Droitsch, where she teaches practical tips and techniques on when and how to say "No" effectively. Read the article here: How to Say No When You Feel You Can Only Say Yes If this was helpful, I would love to hear your feedback. Any suggestions, comments, requests, or even sharing how these effect your everyday experiences are most welcome. Cheers! - Leon
