“No” Your Way to Increased Productivity

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Once you’ve established your priorities, you’ve set your short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals based on those priorities, and you’ve created a list of the action steps that you need to take in order to achieve your goals, the next thing you need to do is to create a list of things you’re going to say “no” to. Productivity experts emphasize that it’s not enough to establish what you’re going to do; you also need to be very clear about all the things you won’t do.

Below you’ll find several examples of how saying “no” will help make you more productive.

Create a “Yes” and a “No” List Every Morning

Peter Bregman—CEO of the global management consulting firm Bregman Partners, Inc.—wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review titled “Two Lists You Should Look at Every Morning”. In his article Bregman argues that the world is moving very fast and keeps getting faster: we’re constantly being bombarded by information, there’s an infinite number of things to think about, and there are countless things we need to react to.

Many of us try to increase the speed at which we do things in order to keep up with the pace, which Bregman explains is a mistake. The key is to know what’s important, and to learn to say “no” to everything else. We can’t know it all, we can’t do it all, and we can’t keep our attention on everything at once. He adds that we need to prioritize and we need to focus on those priorities. The way to do this is by creating two lists:

• Your Focus List: This list contains what’s important to you and what you want to accomplish.
• Your Ignore List: This list contains what’s getting in the way and what you’re willing to let go of in order to keep your focus on your priorities.

Bregman adds that these aren’t lists that you create once and then stick in a drawer. You need to review them each day and recommit yourself to spending your time on what’s important. At the same time you have to identify how you might get distracted and make the decision to stay focused on what you want to accomplish.

Create a “Stop Doing” List

The site “The 99%” published an article in which they argue that everyone should set a resolution to say “no” more often. They refer to Jim Collins—author of “Good to Great” and co-author of “Built to Last”–who once wrote about his “Stop Doing List”. In his mid-twenties, Collins was told by one of his professors at the Stanford Graduate School of Business that he was undisciplined. She added that he got lots done because he had a lot of energy, but that he led a busy life instead of leading a disciplined life.

His professor then told him to imagine that he woke up the next morning and received two phone calls. The first call informed him that he had inherited $20 million, and in the second call he received the news that he had ten years left to live. Having received these two phone calls, what would he do differently, and, what would he stop doing?

This assignment led him to start creating a “stop doing” list every year, along with his New Year’s resolutions. It became a mechanism for him to become more disciplined about how he allocated his time.

Sample “Stop Doing” List

Spend a couple of weeks keeping track of all the things you say “yes” to which you know you should be saying “no” to.  This can include bad habits, pressure from others to do things you don’t want to do, spending too much time on nonessentials instead of focusing on what really matter to you, and so on.  Here’s a sample “stop doing” list to help get you started:

1.  Say “no” to the things you say “yes” to out of guilt.

2. Say “no” to the impulse to check your email or your Twitter account every fifteen minutes.

3. Say “no” to people who are always asking for your help and then are always unavailable when you need help.

4.  Say “no” to buying things which you don’t really need and which you can’t afford.

5.  Say “no” to incoming streams of information that are not furthering either your enjoyment of life or your ability to get things done.

6.  Say “no” to nonessential tasks so that you can free up space and time to focus on what you really want to accomplish in life.

7.  Say “no” to commitments that are interfering with your ability to spend more time with your loved ones.

8.  Say “no” to projects and tasks that are not aligned with your yearly and life goals.

9.  Say “no” to senseless time-wasters such as watching too much television or pointless internet surfing.

10. Say “no” to letting others dictate how your day will go instead of taking control.

11.  Say “no” to scheduling so many things into your day that you become stressed and fatigued and feel out of control.

12.  Say “no” to high pressure tactics from others to get you to commit to things which you would rather not do.

Conclusion

You can do a great job of setting goals and identifying the tasks that need to get done in order to accomplish those goals. However, if you don’t limit projects and tasks to what’s really important to you, and if you don’t develop the discipline to say “no” to the nonessential, to constant interruptions, and to anything that takes your focus away from your vision, you’ll never achieve what you really want in life.

Knowing what to say “no” to is just as important as knowing exactly what it is that you want to get out of life.

Please share in the comments what you need to start saying “no” to in order to get more done.

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(No photo is courtesy of  Sweet One).

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My ebook “How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists” explains that creativity is not the sole domain of the arts but is important in any field. Whatever you do, creativity helps you do it better. Discover practical advice on how to be more creative in every life endeavor by reading my ebook.

The Sedona Method is a simple, powerful, easy-to-learn technique that shows you how to let go of any negative, unwanted or painful feelings you may be experiencing at any particular moment. It consists of a series of questions you ask yourself that lead your awareness to focus on what you’re feeling in the moment and gently guide you toward letting it go. Read my review of the Sedona Method here.