Saying no
As humans we are only capable of thinking about and doing so many things within a given period of time. However, our desire to please means that we often forget this fact and overwhelm ourselves to the point of anxiety and stress.
One of the best skills we can learn, therefore, is the ability to say ‘no’ and sometimes, ‘no’ is a complete sentence. That’s not to say that we deliver the message rudely or with attitude, indeed the opposite is true.
It should be delivered in a way that generates discussion about how to free up time to focus on what’s important or else provides the person asking with a swift response so that they can look elsewhere for help. Some simple ways of saying ‘no’ include:
‘I have a full day of productive work planned, but I can plan this in for tomorrow’
‘Which task would you like me to drop from today in order to accommodate this one?’
‘I understand this may be pressing for you, however, this is not a priority for me today/this week’
‘I’ll need to escalate this to my manager to check it’s a relevant priority compared to the other work we have on’
‘No, I’m afraid I can’t accommodate this today’ (and repeat!).
By learning how to say no positively, not only will you be able to make the most of your available time you will also free yourself from the anxiety of being the person that will always take on more work than you have the capacity for.