You want more time? Are you struggling to find the time of day to do something you really want to? Do you constantly tell others (and yourself) that you are too busy and don’t have time? Well, there is a way of fixing this.
At one point or another, you have allowed something into your life that together, takes up this time. Having “no time” is a problem caused by yourself, and not those around you. It was your choice to allow this into your life. It was you who decided to say yes.
Do you want more time? You have to say no.
First of all, you have to assess your values, what is truly important to you and worth taking your attention at this moment in time. Ask yourself are you spending enough time with your partner, your friends and family, and most importantly, yourself. These take priority over all other work related activities first and foremost. Create enough margin for yourself to enjoy this time, to take on other projects, to learn something new. Its your time, you can decide what you want to do with it. By assessing what is important to you, you can then decide to let something out of your life if its taking up too much time. Just say no.
We automatically aim to fill our free time with lesser, unimportant activities.
By saying no and letting something out of your life, this gives you the margin to then say yes to something greater with your time down the line. Something that could develop, something that you could grow, something you may really enjoy, but haven’t realised it yet, because your “too busy”. We all have something greater we could be doing with our time. Imagine saying no to projects, to clients, to frivolous pursuits and working on a greater goal, something like starting your own business.
The more you say yes the more your taking on, which means the more your diluting the quality of your work, as your unable to focus specifically. Why would you say yes to all these things, these activities and project work if your going to be distracted by all of them. They detract from the value of your work.
Don’t say yes to things you know you shouldn’t. You will know what is important to you, and what you can take on. This is the importance of knowing your values and principles.
This is very hard for the people pleasers out there, like myself. It’s hard to adjust to saying no to people, especially if you’re a freelancer. The fear of putting them down and them never returning for work from you. But if by you saying no to someone really displaces them enough that they would never return to you, then that’s not the type of person you want to be working with or involved in.
Be gracious. Be humbled in declining the proposition of work from someone, by simply stating that your schedule is booked up. Don’t spread yourself thin. As I mentioned, the more you take on, the more you dilute the quality of your work, by being unable to dedicate the attention and time a project deserves.
It takes a maturer person to say no, and a mature person with understand that. To understand what is the most important problem to solve, it takes a professional. A professional in this case, is someone who understands their process, they have the foresight to know what they can take on with the time they have in order to produce the best quality of their work as they can by dedicating the appropriate amount of time to a project and solve the problem.
Saying no builds character, and boost your moral, you’re not a pushover. You’re a professional to yourself and to outsiders looking in. People will respect your decision to decline a project or piece of work.
One of the hardest things to do as a creative, is to say no to something you would have otherwise done, something you have a genuine interest in, something you would have done otherwise, but have taken on too much at this time by saying yes to everything. A hobby, a job opportunity, a business venture with a friend perhaps.
By saying yes to everything and anything, without consulting your available time and foresight into whatever it is that you are taking on, your eliminating the chance to say yes to something that may come up that really excites you, something you want your name attached to and to be involved in, but your stuck for the time being until you drag this other thing to the finish, because you said yes to it.
You never know, by saying no, you may open the door to something you may have never know you loved.
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