saying_no

The more I learn about personal productivity, the more I appreciate decisiveness. I wrote If not now, when? The importance of being bold around this, and I want to expand the discussion to the word maybe, and talk about removing it (or at least limiting its use) from your productivity vocabulary could help you and those you work with.

What's wrong with maybe? It has some good uses (more in a moment), but generally people use it to put off decisions, or to avoid saying "no." It (and its close cousin let me think about it) will often make things worse, not better. This is because, without discipline, the offer/issue/problem won't go away with some focused thinking. Not only will the decision be hanging over you, you'll be blocking the person who made the request.

Repeat after me: I will not brain dump onto others, I will not brain dump onto others, ...

I was talking recently with a friend and mountain bike buddy about the ideas I teach, especially the notion of keeping everything out of your head. He loved it, and really understood the negative impact that NUTs (Nagging Unfinished Tasks) have on us (see Personal productivity, IBMs, and NUTs: Some surprises about the brain). The next time we met he was very animated about this because he realized a) his spouse has these NUTs (most of us do, unless we rigorously practice a method like Getting Things Done), and b) he claimed she tries to get him to take them on for her!