Stop Reading This – The Power of No

The #1 problem of most leaders? "I don't have time!"

The Answer is No.

No to a meeting you shouldn't be in.

No to scrolling on Instagram, TikTok, and mindless hours.

No, to the last time, you go over that presentation to make it 100%.

A No is Powerful. A No is Hard.

A No is powerful. A No earns you time. A No earns you energy. A No earns you focus. A No to a task that you shouldn't be doing buys you 20 hours of free time: the 2h to complete the task plus 18 hours to follow up and make sure it's implemented. A No empowers others: it shows them you trust them and they will figure it out. A No on vacation earns you rest and peace of mind.

But here's the caveat: a No is hard.

Many of us don't want to appear harsh, or lazy. Many of us (myself included) are people pleasers. Maybe you are also afraid of the consequences of a No?

It's almost engrained in our office culture that if you want to excel, you add the latest good idea of your superior on your plate. Because you deliver much, people trust you to deliver even more. Over time, saying Yes becomes a habit and has become the expectation of everyone around you.

Before you know it, you are following the priorities of everyone else but not your own. Your days get loaded up with additional meetings, tasks, committees, analyses, and reports. And because you want to deliver what you promised it becomes even harder to stop.

This is only my view but I'd like to know:

What are your reasons for saying yes?

What would saying No more often enable you to do? What would really be missing?

How much more success could you have if you said yes only to the things that really mattered?

Warren Buffet thinks saying No makes a huge difference:

"The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything."

Here is one mindset shift that I developed after reading Tim Ferris' book "The 4-hour Workweek".

If you believe that saying No more often will allow you to create more value and make you more successful (e.g. because you focus on the 20% that gets 80% of the results) then it's your duty to say no more often. A duty to yourself but also to your company.

If you believe that it is your duty, you can easily find ways to say No respectfully and kindly (e.g. citing your OKRs or work priorities as a reason).

For me, a No is not to buy myself time and lay on the couch. A No is to focus on what's most important to make fast progress.

10 Ways to Say No (From Easy to Hard)

10. Unsubscribe from all newsletters that don't add value. If you don't want to be reading this article, stop right here. Time required: 10 Minutes. Time saved:* 1 hour a week.

9. Turn all notifications off. Take back control of your focus: you can write to people when you'd like. When it's urgent they can call. Do this on your laptop and mobile phone (Start with these hovering outlook notifications on the bottom right for every new email that zap your focus worse than a swarm of mosquitos. Also, include these nasty little indicators on the taskbar that tell you how much new mail you have). Time required: 2 Minutes. Time saved: 40 hours of concentration instead of being all over the place.

8. Make time 2/day to check emails, say No to looking at them in between. Time required: 5 Minutes. Time saved: 30' per day.

7. Clock for a week how many hours are spent on which activity. I promise: you will be surprised. Cut what's not serving you. Time required: 1h for one week for clocking and analysis. Time saved: 2-5 hours a week.

6. Eat your frog first thing in the morning (see my Article on The Alpinist Morning Routine ) before you say yes to anything else. If you fill your glass with small pebbles first, your big rocks won't fit in anymore. If you start with the big rocks, the pebbles will always fit. Time required: none. Time saved: 2-5 hours a week.

5. Say No to meetings for one day. It's time to think work ON not IN the business and gives you the opportunity to work on yourself. Maybe it's once a month, maybe it's once a week. To make the first step tiny: block out one day a quarter. Bill Gates went so far as to take a week per year off to think. If Bill can do it, so can you. Imagine what would be possible for you if you had an entire day for yourself away from the office, away from phone calls. What level of clarity could you reach? What would you like to accomplish? Time required: 1 Minute. Time Saved: Clarity, Focus, Energy. This can save months or years especially if you are doing something that you don't want to be doing but never take the time to re-assess your options.

4. Say no to doing everything at the same time. In sports, it's called periodization. A climber first trains base fitness, then strengths, and then endurance. Working on five projects at the same time dilutes focus and slows you down. Uninterrupted and focused time with the right people is what creates massive progress in a single day. I am still surprised how leadership teams accomplish more progress in a single day outdoors than in half a year of online meetings or workshops with fully packed agendas. Time required: one day. Time saved: Months or even Years.

3. Say No to talking about problems. Say yes to talking about solutions. Steve de Shazer: "The solution doesn't care how the problem came to be". Time required: none. Time saved: a lot for yourself and whomever you are talking to. Problem talk creates problems. Solution talk creates solutions. (If you are wondering how to get more solution focus in your environment, I am happy to help.)

2. Say No to the projects and tasks that you shouldn't be doing. If No is not an option, you may ask what other tasks should be de-prioritized instead. The thing is this: 20% of our work gets us 80% of the results. What gets you, your team, or your company 80% of the results this year? It shouldn't be more than a handful of activities or projects. Ask your team what they think. Say no to the rest.

1. Ask yourself: where is my time best spent? Where do you create the most value? Where do you feel in your zone of genius? Start saying no to anything else.?

Say No to Climb Your Peaks,

Oliver

PS: if you believe that becoming better at saying No would help you to have more time and get the important things done, simply drop me a line. I am sure we can figure out in 30 minutes what is keeping you back and how you can say No when you want to. Who could say No to that ;)?

* All time savings are estimates. How much time you can save depends on your circumstances and how much you have already mastered the art of saving No.