If you struggle with staying focused and getting things done, you should consider entering a season of “yes.”
A tip I hear from time to time is that in order to be more productive you need to get good at saying “no.”
No to distractions.
No to things you don’t love.
No to invites from people you don’t know.
Etc.
It sounds like a good strategy but it never really worked for me.
I end up endlessly analyzing options, thinking I’m being productive.
For example, contemplating whether I should take on Project A or Project B.
This is then followed up by an analysis of the pros and cons of each.
Project A will only take a few weeks while Project B will take a few months.
Project A is not within my sphere of expertise while Project B is.
And on and on until I reach a “no.”
This is the problem: Having to make never ending decisions.
Rather than saying no I decided to start saying yes.
Now when I commit to something, I inherently reject all other possibilities.
Saying no is a constant battle – swatting away distractions one by one.
Saying yes involves a straightforward decision-making process. I have a singular focus of our attention, automatically dismissing everything else.
No analysis. No paralysis.
Everything else is just noise. I don’t even have to think about it. If it’s not a yes, I just push it aside.
With “no” we have to take things as they come, swatting things away one at a time.
But with yes, we pick the ONE thing we want to focus on and then everything else is an implied no. There’s zero thinking involved.
Warren Buffet offers a straightforward exercise for identifying your “yes.”
The 1-3 priorities become your “yeses,” while everything else falls into the implied “no” category.
So, when confronted with an opportunity, it’s simply a matter of assessing whether it aligns with your core objectives.
For instance, if your priority is to get fit, your “yeses” might be:
Anything that doesn’t align with these priorities can be disregarded as noise.
That’s it!
If it’s not a yes - if it doesn’t help with any one of your priorities - then toss it aside.
Since the new year, I found that I’m slowly training my mind to become more and more focused. If at the end of the season I’m barely aware of all the things I said “no” to, then I know I’ll have succeeded.
Saying “yes” is about embracing opportunity.