“What do you want me to prioritize first?”
It was a question I wasn’t expecting and one that made me stop and think.
A few years ago, I sent a ton of work to a writer on my team. When faced with numerous deadlines, she simply asked what I wanted her to prioritize.
It was her way of saying no without actually saying no.
As a leader and entrepreneur, one of the most important things you can do for yourself is learn to say no. But no doesn’t always mean coming right out and saying the word. There are gentler ways to turn someone down or make them realize their request is too much.
In the case of my writer, her response wasn’t a full “No”—it was more of a “Not all at once.”
Now more than ever we need to take a step back to define what it means to be a leader and what great leadership looks like. But this isn’t easy to do. In fact, man business leaders struggle with this. You cannot become and build what you don’t define. In the PDF you will get a framework you can follow and also see how some of the world’s top CEOs define leadership. Click here to get the PDF.
Asking what tasks to prioritize is a good question to ask of yourself and your leaders and colleagues. When you think about what you want to prioritize, the less important tasks get pushed back or fall off completely. If they aren’t worth making it in the top one or two tiers of priority, they likely aren’t worth saying yes to at all.
Similarly, you can ask this question to your leaders and colleagues, especially when there are multiple tasks or projects on the table at once.
Taking a step back to prioritize tasks allows you to say no to the tasks that aren’t important and yes to the things that keep you moving in the right direction.
I love this quote from Steve Jobs: “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.”
It’s easy to say yes to everything, but most of us do so at the expense of saying no to ourselves; this is a terrible way to live and lead.
To succeed in the future of work, everyone—leaders, entrepreneurs, freelancers, entry-level employees—has to learn to say no. And we can say no without actually saying no.
Learning to focus on the most important tasks and say no to the rest is crucial for our mental health in both our personal and professional lives.
And it all starts with a simple question.
Now more than ever we need to take a step back to define what it means to be a leader and what great leadership looks like. But this isn’t easy to do. In fact, man business leaders struggle with this. You cannot become and build what you don’t define. In the PDF you will get a framework you can follow and also see how some of the world’s top CEOs define leadership. Click here to get the PDF.
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