What is your Time Worth?
This is an extract from Day #5 of NO-Vember: the 30-day challenge to teach you how to say NO to the right things.
“The more you add — the more you’re opening up to negotiation. Just leave it as close to the ‘no’ as possible.”
Saying NO to others isn’t easy. For that reason, sometimes we make up lies and excuses to get out of things.
We put ourselves in an awkward position of over-explaining why we can’t do something. The more detail you add to your NO, the more you’re opening yourself up for negotiation with the other person; “Well if you can’t do it this week, are you free next week?”
You need to put a value on your time and be clear about why you’re saying NO.
Let’s recap:
DAY 1: You committed to the NO-vember Challenge
DAY 2: You said NO to one thing.
DAY 3: You learned to PAUSE before responding to a request.
DAY 4: You said NO to distractions, focusing on what is important.
I promised you I’d get to how to say NO to people to whom you have obligations; family, friends, professional colleagues, bosses — and we will begin that today, by establishing value for your time.
It’s important to remember that when dealing with people who are requesting your time and attention, you are making a value judgment about yourself.
If you don’t respect your time, why would you expect anyone else to?
This will form the basis of your response to requests from hereon.
For today, I need you to assess the way you spend your time and put a value on it. If a request comes in and, after pausing to assess, you feel the request is not worth your time; make that value comparison. Ask yourself, “Is this worth my time?” or “Is this a useful way to invest my attention?” If not, you can say NO. It might not feel like it sometimes, but NO is always an option.
In Marie Forleo’s Ultimate Guide to Saying No, she provides several scripts you can use almost verbatim to help you respond to requests with grace, and without hurting the other person’s feelings or damaging your relationships.
They cover things we’ll explore in the coming days, such as:
1. Saying NO to your boss,
2. Saying NO to your friend,
3. Saying NO to your clients/customers,
4. Saying NO to your collaborators,
5. Saying NO to those “Can we grab a coffee and ask you about x?” requests,
6. Saying NO to anyone else.
But for today, you just need to pause and ask yourself, What is my time worth? (Hint: It’s a lot.)
Baby steps. Remember, NO takes practice. Start small. Work your way up.
- Jason
Further reading:
Marie Forleo’s Ultimate Guide to Saying No
