You Say No Every Time You Say Yes

Clients will often proclaim to me “I just can’t say no”. If that’s true for you then here’s what I tell them to dispel this unhealthy belief: “Every time you say ‘yes’ to something you are saying ‘no’ to something else.”

Learning not to say yes to everything that comes across your desk is one of the keys to overcoming procrastination. We all have 168 hours in every week. The reason we need to learn to say “No” is so we can leave enough time to say “Yes” to the truly important things—the ‘non-negotiables’.

High Lifetime Value activities are those that have a lasting effect on you, the people most important to you and the greater good. For me, spending time with my kids has a higher lifetime value than staying back at the office to get a deadline met.

Try this exercise: write out a list of “Things to stop doing.” This list is of time wasters that fuel your procrastination, stealing your time from your High Lifetime Value activities. Comfort activities like social networking, watching TV, or surfing the internet to excess.

Saying no to procrastination is the first step toward an extraordinarily productive day.