You possess 1,440 minutes a day. What you say “no” to is just as important as what you say “yes” to.
There is an opportunity cost to everything we say yes to. Saying yes to the good could be a missed opportunity for saying yes to something great.
There are, of course, times we must say yes even though we want to say no. But we must learn to say no to things that we know we should.
There is an art to saying no—and here are the keys:
Treat your time like money – Remember when I mentioned earlier that you have 1,440 minutes each day? Convert that to a dollar figure. If someone asked for $180 (3 hours) of that $1,400 (24 hours), you might think twice about letting someone else drain your resources. The next time you are about to say yes to something that you know you should say no to, take your hourly wage and the amount of time for that activity and imagine lighting it on fire and watching it burn in front of you.
If you are not used to saying no, think about it as practice. I have even told people, “I am practicing saying no this year; thanks for your understanding.”
Avoid saying “maybe” because the other person could interpret this as almost yes or see it as a window to keep pestering you. Make your no clear and clean.
Create a variety of ways to say no and practice with a partner or in the mirror.
Schedule dates with yourself to work on the things that are important to you including things for fun, health, and renewal. Set aside intervals in your digital calendar or planner to commit yourself, and never give up that time no matter what.