A good friend of mine, Meredith Wilson, works with leadership teams to help them build and lead better cultures. I recently saw her post about what she calls NOvember, and I thought it was a brilliant idea. I asked her if I could share this idea to my readers and clients.
She has made it a personal quest to practice saying No to more things that suck her time, energy and attention during the month of NOvember. I reckon we could all benefit from practicing this for the month ahead.
- Say No to some of those meetings that you really don’t need to be in
- Say No to urgent work requests that are really not that important (or urgent)
- Say No to email alerts and distractions
- Say No to getting the laptop out every night after dinner
- Say No to meeting requests that do not communicate a meeting purpose
- Say No to meetings before 9.00am or after 5:00pm
- Say No to the part of your brain that drifts to social media on your phone
Your time, energy and attention are precious resources. Every time you spend them on something that is of lower value, the opportunity cost is you are not able to spend them on things that are of higher value. So, take a leaf out of Meredith’s book, and practice the art of saying No during NOvember. You may be surprised by the results.