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- On any given day, I'm juggling a full-time job, freelance deadlines, and an active social life.
- I'm also a giver and like to make people happy, but over the years I've learned that my time is valuable and sometimes I have to say no.
- I said no to every non-essential request in my life for a week, and this is what happened.
It's a fact of life - we're all busy. On any given day, I'm juggling a full-time job, freelance deadlines, plus an active dating and social life. It's not uncommon for me to have plans seven nights a week - my schedule books up weeks in advance.
I'm also a giver, and I like making people happy, which can make saying "no" more difficult.
As someone who metes out every hour of her time, the conscious experiment of saying "no" more often intrigued me.
Over the years, I've learned to say no to things that trigger my anxiety, like holiday parties and events that involve large crowds. Ditto for doing what other people think I "should" do. Decisions made from a place of guilt rarely end well for anyone.
Warren Buffett once said, "The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say 'no' to almost everything."
I started saying "no" to everything that was nonessential, didn't excite me, or could distract me. Time is the most valuable resource I have, and I reveled in employing stricter boundaries.
Here are a few things, I said "no" to: