Steve Jobs, I believe it was, who pointed out the necessity of being able to say ‘no’ to requests as a vital tool in your ability to get things done and work efficiently.
There are almost certainly many more individuals who have made the same observation.
You can be a busy fool and we all, in our daily lives, have demands placed on us at a ferocious rate.
And the demands can be made in so many different ways now-for example by email, phone, text, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snap-that a badly disciplined approach to manging your time and these requests for your time and attention is major source of stress and anxiety.
The ability to say ‘no’ and to ignore certain modes of communication for certain periods of time is essential.
I am improving at developing this skill. Otherwise, the certainty is that my time and attention will be pulled and dragged in various directions on a constant basis. And this is a recipe for poor mental health and significantly increased stress and anxiety.
Just say no.