“No” is one of our power words. How do you say “No”?

Professional organizer Ramona Creel has a list of twenty ways. Here are seven of them, good for the office and for all the other places that people want some of your professional time (homeowners association board, anyone?):

I DO NOT HAVE ANY MORE ROOM IN MY CALENDAR

* be honest if your schedule is filled
* “filled” doesn’t have to mean really filled
* know when you are scheduled as much as you are willing and stop

I HATE TO SPLIT MY ATTENTION AMONG PROJECTS

* let people know that you want to do a good job for them
* but you can’t when your focus is too divided or splintered
* you will be more effective if you focus on one project at a time

I NEED TO LEAVE SOME FREE TIME FOR MYSELF

* it’s okay to be selfish — in a good way!
* treat your personal time like any other appointment
* block off time in your calendar and guard it with your life

I WOULD RATHER DECLINE THAN DO A MEDIOCRE JOB

* know when you aren’t going to be able to deliver a quality product
* the reason doesn’t matter — not enough time, wrong skills, etc.
* whatever the reason is enough for turning a request down

LET ME HOOK YOU UP WITH SOMEONE WHO CAN DO IT

* if you aren’t available to help out, offer another qualified resource
* helping to connect people is a valuable service to offer
* make sure the person you refer will represent you well

NO

* sometimes it’s okay to just say no!
* just say it in a way that expresses respect and courtesy
* leave the door open for good relations

THIS REALLY IS NOT MY STRONG SUIT

* it’s okay to admit your limitations
* knowing what you can handle and what you can’t is a skill
* your time will be more efficiently spent on something you do well

Click here for -> the full twenty.

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Promises

Keep them. If asked when you can deliver something, ask for time to think. Build in a margin of safety. Name a date. Then deliver it earlier than you promised.

The world is divided into two classes of people: the few people who make good on their promises (even if they don’t promise as much), and the many who don’t. Get into Column A and stay there. You’ll be very valuable wherever you are.

You might suppose that the higher you go in the ranks of business executives, the more word-keepers you find. My experience doesn’t substantiate this.

– Robert Townsend in Up the Organization: How to stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits. 1970.

Townsend wrote this book shortly after leaving Avis, which he had converted from a nothing company to the prominent (and profitable) “We Try Harder” No. 2 to Hertz.

Most of his book focuses on the corporate world in which we suffer from or flee. The post above, though, points directly at us as frequent culprits. Adults with attention deficit disorder are very prone to a quick jump to “yes” — as a way to please others, and as a side-effect of our inability to gauge how long it takes to get things done (either the thing we say “yes” to or the other things we need to do, first). Townsend’s double-advice to us is to (a) break the habit and (b) be careful in trusting that our business partners have broken their habit.

In other posts, I’ll write more on the power of keeping promises (first to ourselves, and then to others). But for now, I’ll just point you to Amazon where you can buy a used copy of this out-of-print book from just $1.26: Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation From Stifling People and Strangling Profits

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