The always insightful Derek Sivers wrote a great post on saying “No” recently.
I think deep down, we know that adding to the plate is usually worse. But saying “Yes” is easier than saying “no”. And doing what’s easier is often more likely to happen than doing what’s better.
So can we make subtraction—saying “no”—easier? I think there’s two ways.
The first is calling out the fact that addition isn’t better – that it won’t solve our problems. That’s what Derek has already done for us.
But the other half is to practice “no”. After all, practice is what we do to improve in areas we’re weak. We practice. Try saying “no” every day. Not a knee jerk “no” to some random request. A considered, measured “no” that looks at what’s on the plate, and deciding what can be removed.