Before you say ‘Yes’ and overcommit again, ask yourself 5 questions
Parent Post
Being inundated and exhausted
Being inundated and exhausted became like a badge of honor at work, a way to compare to others to convince ourselves that we’re doing all we can with the time we have.
No one loves saying “no.” But being discerning is the skill to develop if you hope to have any sense of balance in your life.
Being hard on your work is hard work, but here are five powerful questions to pause and ask yourself before you commit to that new opportunity/responsibility/task/time-suck being presented to you.
“Will taking this on
“Will taking this on serve my mission?”
What higher order work are you doing? What’s your purpose and mission? While not every single thing you take on must flow into your mission, the vast majority of your work portfolio should all complement or support that cause.
Asking “What’s the point?” brings you back to what the completion of that work serves. If it doesn’t matter enough, or at all, you know what to do.
“Is this on my
“Is this on my ‘to-don’t’ list?”
Even worse than taking on work that might not fit with your overall mission is work that you pointedly told yourself you wouldn’t get sucked into, but find yourself getting sucked into.
We don’t always take on such work wittingly, we can forget in the flurry and agree to it while forgetting how disagreeable the task is.
Be cognizant of what work simply must not end up on your plate and why.
“What’s really involved here?”Quite
“What’s really involved here?”
Quite often, we’ll kid ourselves about the real scope of something we agree to. “Aw, it won’t be that bad” we reason. But then it’s worse. It’s critical to get clear on the real scope of what you’re about to take on.
How much work will it really take? How much time will that work really take? And keep in mind Hofstadter’s Law which says things always take longer than you expect.
Don’t trigger this trap, trigger the truth of what’s involved before taking it on.
“Can I give a
“Can I give a different ‘yes’?”
We often say “yes” just because it’s so much easier than saying “no.” It’s human nature. So capitalize on that tendency by asking yourself if there’s a different “yes” you can give so you can maintain the spirit of the affirmative.
For example, have empathy for the request and present an alternative solution or an alternative doer (and why it should be that person, so it doesn’t look like you’re just dishing off work). The point is to show support in some other way that doesn’t require you to actually take on substantially more work.
“What’s the cost of
“What’s the cost of saying ‘yes’?”
There will be a cost to everything additional thing you say “yes” to. It might be inconsequential, or not. Just be informed. What has to give to say “yes” to the new thing?
What new skills, resources, or assistance will you have to acquire? How much attention and energy gets diverted from something else, and is that something else more important?