15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management pdfdrive com

In Their Own Words…
If something is not a "hell, YEAH!" then it's a "no!"
–James Altucher is a bestselling author, active investor, and host of The James Altucher Show.
Multipliers realize that perfection is achieved not only when nothing more can be added, but when
nothing more can be taken away. It is the permission to ignore. Because anything we can say no to today,
creates more time tomorrow.
– Rory Vaden is the author of Procrastinate
On Purpose and Take the Stairs.
True focus is saying no to the things YOU really want to do.
–Nikhil Arora & Alejandro Velez, co-founders of Back to the Roots.
My best tool is to keep front of mind this idea: Everything you say yes to means you are saying no to
something else.
–Melanie Benson is the co-author of Entrepreneur.com’s Startup Guide to Starting an Information
Marketing Business.
My daughter had RSVP’d yes to a friend’s birthday party. Then the pop
singer Max Schneider announced a local concert date that fell right on the same
date. What should she do? Oh the teen angst! She’d told her friend she’d be at

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the party, and she needed to honor that commitment.
My eleven-year-old son signed up to play travel soccer; he’s one of two
goalies on the team. After the season was underway, he was asked to play a part
in a local play. He really wanted to do it, but the play performance would mean
he would miss one or two soccer games. What to do? He made a commitment to
his coach and fellow teammates, so he was going to play soccer.
Again, the lesson isn’t to always say no. Just realize that every yes will be a
no to something else when the time comes. Understanding that there is always an
opportunity cost will make you hesitate and really be careful about what you are
agreeing to put on your calendar.
Why It’s Hard to Say No
Despite the fact that “every yes is a no to something else,” we find it so hard to
just say no. There are many reasons: •
We’re afraid to make people mad.
•
We’re afraid to hurt someone’s feelings.
•
We want to be liked.
•
We don’t want to be rude; we were raised to be polite.
•
We underestimate how much time it will really take.
•
We aren’t clear on our own priorities.
•
We feel good by being helpful.
•
We like earning future return favors.
Indeed we are raised and socialized to want to help others in need; we value
helping others.
But uncontrolled, saying yes to requests for time will quickly block out all
the other things we value—including the very things that made us successful in
the first place. We are self-imposing the pressure and the feelings of guilt when
we say no.
Give yourself permission to say no without guilt. You should not care about
what others think of you for declining their requests!
7 Easy Ways to Say No
First of all, know that “no” is enough. You don’t owe it to any-body to have to
say more than that.
But if you are still struggling with “just say no,” then try these more subtle
responses. I often send a response email beginning with “Thanks for reaching

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out…” and continue with one of these messages:
1. “…but I’m on a deadline right now and am not taking any new
meetings until I’m done.” I use this approach often with strangers
who cold-contact me. I don’t specify what the deadline is—since
they’re strangers, they don’t need to know my details and
shouldn’t expect me to share. And the word deadline has a magic
to it, a power that most people can relate to.
2. “…Unfortunately my schedule is so packed at this time I can only
take calls and meetings with paying clients. Thanks for
understanding.” I use this approach for people who are looking for
free advice that will benefit them and their company tremendously.
It’s really incredible how often people who already have decent
income and assets will ask for time and information that will make
them a ton of money, but they don’t think to hire someone for the
answer. The approach above is a gentle nudge that if they really
want to talk to me about their business problem, they can do it if
they’re willing to pay. They almost always disappear instead.
3. “…and I’m happy to connect, but there is no daylight on my
calendar until 2:15 p.m. ET on [pick a date five months in the
future].” This is what I usually say to someone who I don’t know
personally but who is vaguely connected in some way. Maybe they
are a friend of someone who used to work for me from years ago.
The intent of this approach is to not reject them outright, but to let
them know I’m hustlin’ and have a very busy calendar. This
response sends the message that their issue had better be pretty
important, and if they really want to meet with you, they’ll take the
offered time slot in the distant future. I’ve found that most of these
people just respond and say, “Oh, no worries, you sound swamped.
Let’s just connect when you’re less busy.” And they go away.
4. “…and my next open slot for a phone call is 2:00 a.m.–2:15 a.m.
ET on Thursday of next week. Let me know if that works for you.”
Notice the time slot is a.m., not p.m.; that’s on purpose. I only use
this line about once a year, because if the person calls my bluff,
I’ll actually have to stay up late or drag my butt out of bed to take
the call. But I use this on people who are really, really persistent. If
I know they’re a persistent stranger just trying to sell me
something, I can easily say no. But if a friend or business partner
suggested they call me, I don’t want to ignore them out of courtesy
to my friend. But this approach puts a burden back on the

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requester. How badly do they want to talk to me? Are they really
willing to do the call in the middle of the night? Usually they
respond with, “Sure, next Thursday afternoon is great, but you had
a typo and wrote a.m.…that would sure be a crazy time!” I then
write back, “No typo. I’m a 24/7 kind of guy, and that’s my only
open slot for the next several months. Do you want it?” I’ve never
actually had a person in this situation ask for the call, which is
really amazing. They are willing to impose on my time to try to get
some life-or career-altering information, yet they won’t take the
call at two in the morning. And, if anyone ever says, “You bet, I’ll
call you then,” I can always respond and say I found a way to
move something around and that we can talk during normal
business hours.
5. “…but I don’t think I’m the best person; I’d like to refer you to…”
This is an easy one. People often request your time because they
think you know something that can help them or that you are a
decision maker that can buy something. If you aren’t, or if you’ve
“delegated” that decision making power to someone on your team,
use this approach. You can always qualify it by saying something
like, “The fastest way to make progress on this is for you to talk
directly to my colleague Paulina. But don’t worry; when you’re
talking to Paulina, you’re talking to me. She’s the ultimate decider
here.”
6. “…but I’m not able to take any more meetings or calls during
normal business hours. But I often can catch up on emails during
travel or at night. Would you like to communicate via email?” This
is probably the response I use most often. I really do try to respond
to every email I get from readers, email newsletter subscribers,
referrals, etc. And email is way more efficient than live phone
calls.
7. “…and as a rule, I only schedule 15 minutes for first calls. If
you’re interested, could you send over a draft agenda so I can see
what we’ll be covering and what desired outcome you are hoping
for?” Again, if you don’t want to just reject the person, this type of
response is a good way to let them know you’re very busy, so if
they really want to talk to you, they’d better be willing to do some
pre-work. I usually never hear from these people again.

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