Try to be as ruthless as possible here: Remember, even if a meeting is on your calendar, doesn’t mean you necessarily have to attend. What’s on here only because I think I should do it, not because it’s necessary or I want to?.Open up your calendar for the next month, and see what’s on it, in both your work and personal life. Right now is one of those seasons, and I’m committed to saying no to anything that’s not necessary to move my goals forward or that doesn’t add joy to my life. And I realize that in order to say yes to those things, I need to say no to others. In fact, I say yes until I find myself with a jam-packed calendar that not only stresses me out every time I look at it, it leaves no time for the activities that keep me balanced or the big priorities that really matter to me.
Sure, I’ll come to that meeting, be on that task force, grab drinks, grab coffee, grab dinner. But I’m also a big proponent of the opposite: defaulting to no.Įven when I’m not in the season of say-yes-to-everything, I find myself yessing pretty often.
