Declining urgent but unnecessary requests feels wrong but saves my week.

Sometimes the most productive thing is saying no, even when it feels selfish.

4 comments

4 Comments

That line about saving your week... it hits home. I used to feel guilty turning people down, so I'd always say yes. Then I'd be stuck doing things like dropping my own project to help someone else with a task that wasn't even due soon. Or saying yes to a "quick" favor that ate up my whole afternoon. Learning to say no to stuff like that... it was a game changer. My own work actually gets done now, and I'm less stressed.

rubym621mo agoMost Upvoted

How did you get past feeling guilty about it at first? I totally get that, I used to think saying yes to everything was just being a good coworker. But seeing stuff like what @seans73 said about Dave working seven days straight... it really shows how that "yes" habit just burns you out. Now I see that protecting my own time isn't being mean, it's just being smart. It's like you said, you can finally get your own work done without that background stress.

seans731mo ago

My buddy Dave kept covering shifts until he was working seven days straight. He learned to push back and suddenly had time to breathe.

the_jennifer1mo ago

But how often is something actually urgent vs just feeling that way?