Did you know saying no makes you more productive? It can. It can help relieve the burden of busyness and help you check more items off your to-do list. Saying no will also help you focus your entrepeneurial efforts and give you laser focus in your business — a must if you want to succeed in your unique niche.
Are you overwhelmed with too much too do and not enough time to do it? Many entrepreneurs are. Those in my coaching program talk about that regularly. “I just can’t get it all done.” Maybe, I tell them, you don’t need to do it ALL. Maybe the reason you’re so busy and feeling so overwhelmed is because you’re not saying no.
Saying No Makes You More Productive
You could be suffering the “Yes syndrome.” What is it? It’s when a project or offer comes along and you just can’t find the word “no” in your vocabulary even if you truly don’t want to say yes. You find you can’t step back and turn it down. Why? FOMO — fear of missing out. Fear of losing an income stream. Having a continual need to please clients even when they ask you to take on a project that is outside of your wheelhouse or outside of the scope of the work you typically do.
Saying “yes” all of the time leads to burnout and resentment.
When should you say no? Here are a few times to consider:
Is the opportunity in harmony with your business and your life mission? If you’re saying yes to something that feels ethically wrong, you need to say no. Will saying yes to this opportunity work within your life mission? If so, say yes.
Were you offered this opportunity through reliable connections in whom you have trust? Will your family and friends support your decision? This question should be asked especially if the opportunity will pull you away from family and friend events.
Will saying yes help meet the needs of the culture in which you thrive?
Does this opportunity fit in with your life and business priorities? You should take time to list your top three life and business priorities so that every opportunity that comes your way will need to be filtered through that lens to see if it’s a fit.
Don’t continue to say “yes” out of habit. Say a friendly, but firm “no” and don’t feel you need to offer reasons why or excuses. If, however the opportunity might be a fit for your life and your business ask for time to consider it.
Do you lead or do you manage? This is a question that anyone who is at the helm of a company or organization needs to ask his or herself. While the terms may seem interchangeable, they certainly aren’t. Someone charged with the running of an organization could be a combination of the two but keep in mind they are separate management styles.
The way in which you motivate your staff determines whether you are a leader or a manager as the techniques vary. The techniques used to lead and motivate also determine an individuals’ leading or management style.
How do you think of your employees? As followers or subordinates? A leader has followers while a manager has subordinates. While an individual may have the title of Manager, he or she can still be a leader and will have the title Manage bestowed simply by seniority. Regardless of titles, a leader can still have followers in their organization as these followers would be with them regardless of that individual’s place within the organization.
When working with subordinates, these people have no choice but to follow you – their livelihood likely depends on it. They don’t follow you willingly, they are required to because of the hierarchy in the firm.
Because of the nature of authority in a corporation, employees – subordinates – perform the tasks the manager requests of them. Because they do the manager’s bidding, however, doesn’t mean they robotically follow mandates. In some cases though, a manager might have to use a transactional style of management to get the work done – in other words he or she may need to offer an incentive for the subordinate’s completion of the task.
If you’re a leader you’d be more likely to operate in a transformational style of motivating employees. These leaders work with the team and set goals and motivate those on the team to work to achieve that. Leaders are typically charismatic and they can easily persuade team members that having achieved the goal is not only desirable but that they’ll feel a sense of accomplishment for having done so.
When you walk into the office are you focused on the people with whom you work or are you focused solely the need to perform the tasks at hand? In many instances, managers have a set number of hours to perform a specific number of tasks. As such, they are focused on getting the subordinates to complete the necessary steps. Leaders don’t have to be friends with everyone they work with but they can certainly inspire them to meet their goals. Leaders and managers have the same tasks to complete in the same amount of time, but they each perform their duties in vastly different manners.
Do you lead or manage? Does your style work for you or do you feel you need to cultivate a different style?
Do you wake up in the morning looking forward to your day – both at home and at the office? You should. If you’re living a life of purpose and pursuing a career or entrepreneurial endeavor that you love, happiness will certainly follow.
It’s been shown that humans are at their happiest when they’re “absorbed in an activity or challenge that interests them.” For many people though, they don’t even realize they’re happy because they’re so involved in that particular moment that it never occurs to them simply because they weren’t consciously concentrating on happiness.
Happiness is something that everyone can work toward achieving. It may sound cliché but the decision to be happy is truly that – a decision. If you choose to be happy, chances are, that feeling will follow.
Here are some ways to pursue happiness and bring it into your work and home life:
The first thing you need to do when you wake up is to mentally count out at least 10 things that you appreciate. Write them down if it will help you remember them throughout the day. Do the same thing at the end of each day – count your blessings.
Do more of the things you love – in life and at work
Do fewer of the things that you don’t love. For example, if you are an entrepreneur and there are tasks that you simply don’t enjoy, aren’t good at and don’t help bring in business and clients, find a partner or outsource those tasks. This frees you up to concentrate on your core competencies and the things that make you happy
Take time during the day to ask yourself if you’re happy? If you’re not, stop and consider how you can become happy and if you are happy in that moment, remember what you were doing and do more of it!
Even on those days when you’re stressed out because you have too much work to do. Stop and remember that is a blessing as well – you’re doing what you love and the clients are following!
Taking time to revel in the moments that make you smile will truly make your day shine and will give you more items to be appreciative of at the end of each work day.
Are your workdays plagued by interruptions in the form of phone calls, employees coming to your office door — or if you work from home are you interrupted by daily housekeeping routines? Do interruptions draw you out of your productive moments and stall forward progress?
Is it hard to go even a half an hour without a phone call, text message, email or in-person interruption? If you’re like me, you know you need to carve out time to work uninterrupted in order to be productive. We have all heard of people who speak with pride about their ability to multi-task, but there are times when a project simply needs uninterrupted time and devoted effort. So, how can you take charge and make it a reality?
Here are some tips to regain control:
Specify certain times when you will respond to text messages, emails and phone calls. Be truly proactive and set an outgoing message on your emails to let people know you will read and respond between the hours of XYZ. They will appreciate knowing when they’ll hear from you.
If you’re going to respond to communications several times a day, specify the length of time you will allot — for example, 30 to 45 minutes every two hours.
Resist the urge to check email and text messages by signing out of your email program and putting your phone on silent and leaving it off your desk — out of sight, out of mind.
Not all interruptions are bad, though — if you have a prospective client call, for example. Truly though, many of the daily interruptions can wait until a time when you will be better able to focus and give them your undivided attention. Taking control of your workday will make you more productive and will help you complete projects in a more timely manner.
“Clarity Leads to Cash” is a phrase I heard recently and it got me to pondering whether it was true. Entrepreneurs that chase the next best idea or that are continually reinventing themselves to ride the wave of the latest fad aren’t helping themselves toward the cash at the end of the rainbow.
Do you have clarity in your business? Just as clarity in life helps you fulfill your life’s purpose, clarity in business helps you stay focused on what you truly want to do, where you ultimately want to take your business. Without clarity of purpose how will you know if your business is on the path you’ve set for yourself and for your ultimate business success.
While not all business owners look toward the bottom line as their only measurement of success, no business owner wants to be in business to lose money, right? What are your core competencies? What is the mission and vision statement for your business endeavor? Will you know clarity when you achieve it?
To find clarity you need to take time to write down your core competencies, what you do best, what drives you. Get a handle on what prompted you to go into business in the first place. Are you still focusing on what you do best or have you gotten sidetracked by the day-to-day tasks of running your business? Are you working on or in your business? Entrepreneurs with clarity understand they need to work On it rather than In it. Which path are you taking and do you have clarity of purpose?
Whether you manage a group of employees, a handful of independent contractors or are merely keeping track of your own productivity levels, you need to ask yourself: How productive am I? At what level are your time management skills? Was getting organized at the top of your to-dos for 2012? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, let me ask you this…Do you believe that multi-tasking makes you more, or less, productive. We will discuss multi-tasking in a future post, but I wanted you to be thinking of it while you read this information.
What steps do you take to make effective use of your time? Do you live by a calendar — whether virtual or paper copy; write your to-dos on a white board or write sticky notes to remind you of items to be done? Truly, no one can dictate which of these methods for tracking your tasks are best, but you do need to know yourself to know what will offer you the greatest efficiencies.
Getting a handle on your time is perhaps the most important thing you can do for both yourself and your staff and it is likely the most difficult item to tackle. According to productivity professional, Laura Stack, the biggest time management challenge is that individuals simply don’t take time to think and plan. She suggests adding “thinking time” to your daily calendar. If you’re thinking you don’t have time to even get your normal daily tasks done, so how could you possibly spend time thinking, you need to open your thoughts. To effectively plan a day, week or month you truly need to take stock of everything you need to accomplish and how can you do that unless you’ve taken the time to think about it? You probably can’t.
Do you rely on your technologies to keep your time in check? Be aware that many people get lost in their technologies — smart phones, etc. — and lose track of time and therefore, fall behind in their day-to-day tasks. If you’re going to rely on your technologies, make certain you are aware of the time you might be wasting while doing so. Set a timer to keep yourself in check.
Remember, once your time is gone, you can’t get it back. Use it wisely and be the most productive you can be!
