In our society, we are encouraged to be “yes” men and women. Social media, books, movies, even our friends and family are likely to push us to take risks, opportunities, and commitments that come our way. This falls in line with toxic positivity, a phrase coined by our culture promoting “no bad days” and “good vibes only,” what we mean is, this kind of mentality is only looking at one side of the coin. It’s black and white thinking. If we say yes to everything we will stretch ourselves too thin, mentally, emotionally, physically, and even financially. This is especially true in the workplace.
Is it Essential?
We are constantly being plagued by sensory and information overload. It seems every year there is a new social media app we have to get on and add to our daily routine of the others we’re already checking daily. All of them vying for our attention with still only the same finite amount of attention to divide and give. Now consider this in workplace terms. On any given day in a typical office or corporate environment, you have an unending onslaught of emails, meetings, and calls all before you can get to your actual work.
It’s no wonder people are feeling overwhelmed, undermotivated, and stressed beyond belief. Not only “does information overload slow down your employee’s productivity, it also impacts their ability to make timely decisions. They [are more likely to] feel confused, stressed out, frustrated, and naturally start making mistakes. Simply put, information overload shuts our brains down!” (1). This begs the question, what, if any of the information we’re being bombarded with, is essential?
Take for example Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. In his book, McKeown goes over the principles of essentialism and what it means to only focus on what is essential. By cutting out the noise, we can shift our attention, time and energy to what matters and mitigate stress and overload.
Learn to Say No
McKeown says the principle’s behind essentialism is to think of it as a mindset. “We are facing an unholy alliance between social media, smartphones, and consumerism. It’s not all bad, but certain forces that have come together are producing an unintended result for all of us,” McKeown said. “Our whole society has become consumed by the undisciplined pursuit of more. The only way to overcome this problem is to change the way we think—adopt the mindset of only doing the things that are essential—and do it now” (2).
This is not a tip or tactic, rather it’s a mentality to adopt. A lifestyle to live by, in and out of work. Managers in the workplace need to have strong values to go by. These values will act as guides when things come up that ask for your attention, and when measured against the values, saying yes or no will be easier to discern. A good manager knows how to eliminate non-essential time wasters. Saying yes to something that is non-essential is a good way to waste time, money, and talent alike.
Take an example from an article in the Harvard Business Review (3) about the discipline of knowing values and saying no in a business: “Today, every time new work comes in the door, everyone in the firm is encouraged to ask, “Should we take it?” We refer to our mission statement and values frequently, and on a daily basis we discuss what it means to be a “right” client. We have learned that defining our core business is the first and most critical step in even beginning to say no—it makes the process possible. Without guideposts, we wouldn’t have a clue what business to take and what to turn away.”
Continued Readings
What should be a simple topic is actually quite deep. There have been several books written on it that go into more examples and guidelines to help yourself unlearn the pattern of saying yes to everything and instead adopt the discipline of learning to say no. For further reading on the subject in order to become a better employee, manager, or business owner, check out the following:
- Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success by Ken Segall
- This book takes a look at the methods first put in place by Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs. Many of his methods are still used by Apple to this day which is a huge part of their massive international success in the tech world.
- Deep Work by Cal Newport
- In this book, you will learn how to cut out distractions and sit with a task through completion in order to produce better results in less time.
- Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown
- As we already discussed earlier in this blog, this book takes a look at what is essential and what isn’t so you can better manage your time, your team, and your business.
The next time you feel overwhelmed, step back, and ask yourself, “is this essential?”