Digital Cleanse Day 21:
Say no. Just No. Practice.
Say no.
Really. Right now. Say it out loud.
“No.”
And again.
“No. No. No.”
(Just be careful you don’t sound like a whiny preschooler!)
There’s great power in that two letter word. You can use it to save time, declutter your data, free up your calendar and reduce your reading list. Model these sentences:
- “No, I don’t want to go to gonna-hurt-tomorrow fitness.”
- “No, I don’t need to save this 46 GB video clip.”
- “No, thank you, I’m unable to attend your event.”
- “No, I’m not going to read this email newsletter.”
See how that works? It’s powerful, right? As Julie Cole said at the National Mompreneur conference, “No is a complete sentence.” Use it often. Use it wisely.
And you can use that power to say no to new social networks. For example, do you Snapchat? You don’t have to. Sure, social media marketing gurus tell you its the latest and greatest thing. And it might turn out to be HUGE. But you don’t have to be an early adopter. You can say no. If at some later date you realize Snapchat is ideal for your project or business model, then go ahead and change that no to a yes.
Using “no” successfully requires you to be clear on your current priorities. At work, what is your focus? Are you focused on a product launch? Are you, like me, writing a new book? Are you making family time a priority? Is this a vacation week? Remember each day you have 86,400 seconds to spend. You get to decide how to spend them. Every “no” frees up seconds for something else that fits your priorities. Keep your time in perspective. Each day you’ll use:
- 25,200 seconds to sleep
- 7,200 seconds to commute
- 5,400 seconds to eat
- 3,600 seconds to exercise
- 2,700 seconds to shower, etc.
42,300 seconds remain. That’s 11 hours and 45 minutes. How will you spend your time?
More on the 30 day #digitalcleanse tomorrow. Hope to see you then!
(If you missed yesterday’s installment, take a couple extra minutes to explore Pick Subscriptions that Serve You. For links to the complete Digital Cleanse series, click here.)