A New Kind of New Year’s Resolution: Saying No

It’s New Year’s Day.

A New Kind of New Year’s Resolution: Saying No

http://99u.com/tips/6216/A-New-Kind-of-New-Years-Resolution-Saying-No

Snippets:

“If you’re anything like me, your list of New Year’s resolutions reads like a sort of global to-do list. We resolve to change our diets, exercise more, travel to new places, finish a big creative project. We resolve to be better by doing more.

Yet, focusing our energies – and goals – on what we should NOT be doing in the coming year can have just as positive an effect on our productivity, not to mention well-being. As bestselling author Curtis Sittenfeld has noted, “Politely saying no can free up astonishing amounts of time.”If you are feeling overwhelmed, information overloaded, or just plain off-track, I would implore you to be more disciplined about what you are taking on in 2010, and why. Increased efficiency is not the only solution to feeling overwhelmed. Saying no – and closely guarding your focus – must also be part of the productivity equation.

Acclaimed business writer Jim Collins (Built to Last, Good to Great) writes eloquently about his discovery of what he calls the “Stop-Doing” list in his 20s when a professor gave him the “20-10 assignment”:

“Suppose you woke up tomorrow and received two phone calls. The first phone call tells you that you have inherited $20 million, no strings attached. The second tells you that you have an incurable and terminal disease, and you have no more than 10 years to live. What would you do differently, and, in particular, what would you stop doing?

That assignment became a turning point in my life, and the “stop doing” list became an enduring cornerstone of my annual New Year resolutions — a mechanism for disciplined thought about how to allocate the most precious of all resources: time.”

Saying no – and closely guarding your focus – must also be part of the productivity equation.

Here are a few best practices for deciding when to SAY NO, so that you can keep your energy focused on the objectives that really push your creative endeavors forward:

1. Distill the key objectives for your creative project or business down to just a few items.

2. Kill ideas with gusto.

3. Ruthlessly prune your action steps.

4. Be willing to reject unexpected “opportunities.”

More than just discipline, saying no requires faith in the value of your goals. If you remain focused and cultivate your chosen expertise, you will eventually become a magnet for the right projects and people. Then, all those missed “opportunities” – which would have distracted you and depleted your energy – won’t really seem to matter anymore.”

Stephen