It takes five times more character to say No to someone than it does to say Yes. We want to please the other person and in reality we don’t know at that moment what is really important from what is not. So we simply say yes, only later to regret the decision because we don’t have the margin to get it all done. This post by Rishawn Biddle is excellent:
“Sometimes you just have to say no. That isn’t always easy. But there are strategies that can help say no when you need to—and save your time, energy, and sanity in the process. Motivational speaker Byron V. Garrett, my former boss at National PTA, often says that you only have twelve hours a day to take care of business. This means culling away the drive-bys and extraneous requests that can take away from achieving your goals.”