major product hacking says no.
Not doing something will always be faster than doing it. This statement reminds me of an old computer program that said, "Remember that there is no code faster than incoming."
The same principle applies to other areas of life. For example, no meeting is faster than not having a meeting at all.
This does not mean that you should never go to another meeting, but the fact that we say yes to many things we do not want to do. There are many meetings that do not need to be held. There is a lot of written code that can be deleted.
How many times have people asked you to do something and you answer, "Of course it is." Three days later, you are frustrated with how much of your to-do list. We are frustrated with our obligations even though we were the ones who said yes to them from the beginning.
It is worth asking if things are needed. Most of them are not, and a simple "no" will be more productive than any job that the most skilled person can do.
But if the benefits of saying no are obvious, then why do we say yes more often?
Why We Say Yes
We approve of many requests, not because we want to make them, but because we do not want to be seen as rude, arrogant, or useless. Usually, you have to think no to someone you will contact and in the future - a co-worker, spouse, family and friends.
Saying no to these people can be very difficult because we love them and want to support them. (Not to mention, we always need their help too.) Working with others is an important part of life. The thought of undermining relationships exceeds the commitment of our time and energy.
For this reason, it may help to be kind in your response. Do whatever you can, and be warm and understanding when you have to say no.
But even after we have listed these social considerations, most of us still seem to be doing a bad job of managing the tradeoff between yes and no. We find ourselves overly committed to things that do not develop purposefully or support those around us, and certainly do not improve our lives.
Perhaps the only issue is how we think about the meaning of yes and no.
The difference between Yes and No.
The words “yes” and “no” are often compared to each other so often that they seem to carry the same weight in the conversation. In fact, they are not just contrary to meaning, but in a completely different dimension from commitment.
If you say no, you are only saying no to one option. If you say yes, you mean no to all other options.
I like the way economist Tim Harford put it, "Every time we say yes to a request, we also say no to anything else we can achieve at this point." Once you have made a commitment, you have already decided how you will use that future level.
In other words, saying no saves time in the future. That yes calls for time in the future. There is no term debt type. You save energy to use your future the way you want. Yes it is a form of time debt. You have to pay for your commitment sometime.
No decision. Yes it is a job.
The role of No.
Saying no is sometimes considered a luxury that only those in power can attain. And it is true: rejection of opportunities is easy if you can return to the safety net provided by power, money and authority. But it is also true that no no is not just a privilege reserved for the winners among us. It is also a strategy that can help you succeed.
Saying no is an important skill that you can develop at any stage of your career because it saves the most important asset in life: your time. As investor Pedro Sorrentino puts it, "If you don't watch your time, people will steal from you."
You need to say no to anything that does not lead to your goals. You need to say no to distractions. As one student told me, "If you extend the definition of how to insert no, it is actually the only way to produce (as in the end you say no to any disruption to produce)."
No one put this idea better than Steve Jobs, who said, “People think that focusing on it means yes to something you have to focus on. But that is not what you are saying at all. Which means it's about to be the most delusional time of the year, as well. You have to choose carefully. ”
There is an important balance to be struck here. Saying no does not mean that you will never do anything exciting or new or automatic. It means that you say yes in a steady way. Once you have removed the distractions, it may make sense to say yes to any opportunity that may move you in the right direction. You may have to try many things to find out what works and what you enjoy. This test period can be very important at the beginning of a project, task, or task.
Improving Your No
Over time, as you continue to improve and succeed, your strategy needs to change.
The cost of your opportunities increases as you become more successful. At first, simply remove the obvious distractions and check out the rest. As your skills improve and you learn the correct distinctions of inactivity, you should continue to increase your limit of yes.
You still need to say no to distractions, but you also need to learn to say no to opportunities that have been well spent in the past, so that you can make room for better use of time. It's a good thing to have it, but it can be a difficult skill to do well.
In other words, you should improve your "no" over time.
Improving your no means you will never say yes. It means you can't say no and then say yes only when it really makes sense. Quoting investor Brent Beshore, "Saying no has great potential because it saves the opportunity to say yes."
A common practice seems to be something like this: If you can learn no from bad distractions, you will eventually get the right to say no to good opportunities.
How to Say No
Most of us are probably too quick to say yes and too late to say no. You have to ask yourself where you fall into that category.
If you have a problem with saying no, you may find that the following strategy proposed by Tim Harford, the British economist I mentioned earlier, is helpful. He writes, "One plan to ask," If I had to do this today, would I agree? "It's not a bad law, because any commitment to the future, no matter how far away, will eventually become a problem in the near future. ”
If the opportunity is exciting enough to give up everything you are doing now, yes you are. If not, perhaps you should think twice.
This is similar to the popular "Hell Yeah or No" version from Derek Sivers. If someone asks you to do something and your first response is “Hell Yes!”, Do it. If you don't like it, say no.
It is impossible to remember to ask yourself these questions each time you face a decision, but it is still a useful task to review from time to time. Saying no can be difficult, but it is usually easier than the other. As author Mike Dariano puts it, “It's easier to avoid commitment than to avoid commitment. Saying no keeps you close to the easy edge of the habit. ”
The reality of life is also true of production: an ounce of prevention costs a pound of solution.
The power of No
Many efforts are wasted on trivialities rather than on wasteful pursuits. And if so, termination is a much more useful skill than application.
I am reminded of 102 of Peter Drucker's famous quote, “There is no such thing as a noble thing to do.”
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