Saying No, and Developing “No Zones”
Saying “no” is a subject that I speak on with a whole lot of experience – perhaps more than most.
In the early years of business, I said yes to every opportunity that came along – both in my workplace, and in my community. This made for a very long work week, and likely did not allow me enough time for my family and relaxation.
While I learned a lot of hard lessons along the way – it seemed that one of my biggest lessons was that my vocabulary did not include that little word - “no”.
So, what does saying “no” provide us? Simply put – work / life balance (which leads to better business, better client relationships, and better profits).
Now, we’ve heard the term work / life balance many times before. But, my philosophy takes a different approach. Work and life will never be in balance. If you’re at work, your life is out of balance. And if you’re at home, your work is out of balance. There will never be a “perfect” balance, but, there is a formula for calculating how much you need to allocate to each to find yourself in a place of determining if you need to say “no” to something.
Developing your “No Zones”
Let’s do an exercise. Take the time out of the day that you sleep – if it’s 8hrs, we’re left with 16 hours for work and life. We might allocate 8 to work, and 8 to life (in a perfect world).
However, sometimes we experience long days at the office – before we know it, we may only be allocating 6 hours to life, and are giving 10 hours to work. This often is a result of not using that magic little word - “no”.
Continuing on with our exercise, let’s multiply our 16 hours by 365 days. The total is 5,840. This means we have 5,840 hours in one year for work or life. Take out weekends, statutory holidays and two week’s vacation (minimum) and you’re left with 4,176 hours.
Next, I need you to take a moment to decide what percentage you are willing to give to work, and what percentage you are going to give to life. If we are working about a 50/50 split, that means each category gets 2,088 hours (which means you’re working a little more than 8 hours a day at work).
From here, you’ll want to make a spreadsheet to predict (and eventually track) your time (Excel is best). Map out your year at a glance and assign each month the hours that you think you might need for work and life. Try to predict when you might have periods of long days at work, and when might allow for shorter days. In my background as an accountant, I always knew springtime would be a very busy season, and summertime might allow for more flexibility.
Now, assign your percentages to each quarter. For example, you might have a 60/40 split one quarter, and a 50/50 split another. The end goal is to have your year land at an average that puts you in the balance that you’d like to be in overall. Some months, work will be out of balance – and, some months, life will be out of balance. But, with a little planning of when you can and can’t say “no”, you’ll find yourself in a great place.
Closing thoughts
Remember – saying no gives you the power to do better work, and drive better results. Fueling your personal life with rest and recovery allows you to come to work energized and build long lasting relationships with your clients, which leads to higher profits.
Having a hard time saying no, or need help developing your “No Zones”? Give me a call – I’d love to help. I have a ton of first-hand experience and learning in this area!
- Coach Casey