If Your Saying Yes to this, What are you Saying No To
I’ve been doing this team leader course thing recently. It’s going well when I sit down and do the work. Usual story.
The course tutor replied to a simple task I had to complete, giving great feedback I didn’t think they would do for that task.
Within that feedback was 2 book suggestions.
One of which was “The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way Your Lead Forever by Michael Bungay-Stanier
I like this book.
For one it is short and to the point. It feels like real actionable things you can do and use as soon as you’ve read it.
One question I really liked in the book was this:
If Your Saying Yes to this, What are you Saying No To?
While I’ve thought about saying no to things in the past, managing your time and doing things that you actually like, I’ve never framed it as simply as that question has.
It has a broad reach as well.
The Yes and No Process
For me it simply comes down to this.
When you do something you are saying no to something else.
- If you say yes to having a nap in the afternoon you are saying no to everything else
- If you say yes to watching TV, you are saying no to something else that could contribute to your own goals
- If you say yes to an event, you are saying no to family time or other things
You get the idea.
Time is Finite
We only have a limited amount of time.
We have a rough estimate of the time we have available. From daily to weekly, out to monthly yearly and the rest of our lives. If…. everything goes to plan.
When it doesn’t, who really knows.
You could be in a freak accident, die in your sleep or live until you are 105 years old.
Keep the Yes and No Thought in Your Mind
If you are the productivity chasing type of person you want to be productive.
What that actually means for you will be different to how I or anyone else thinks about it. Don’t worry too much about what other people are doing or think.
Be true to yourself and realise that you have to make a lot of decisions all the time. Some will be good and some bad, some you won’t know until you’ve made them.
The decision might be right one time, then another time it could be wrong. Throw procrastination in the mix and you could be wasting away a lot of productive time.
In the End
It all comes down to balance and energy for me.
I like to work on the things I work on when I have the energy, but balancing it with day to day things, interacting with people, home stuff, work and an over excited mind when it comes to new ideas.
Trying to tame that and finding the right answers is always a challenge.
I now look at things through this yes and no lens. For myself and others. If one thing is happening, what isn’t happening.
