Love the "no list" idea! And what a reflective Japan trip, sounds like you had a good time!!
This isn't a big problem for me yet, but I have trouble saying "no" on the spot. I like to wait and see whether I see a big enough upside in a request. But this leads to another problem: If I don't see an upside and respond quickly, I procrastinate responding for weeks, feeling guilty the whole time. (these are folks I've never met, not friends/colleagues btw).
I expect I'll need much more compartmentalization of my time to make the next few years work, but absent hard deadlines, I've often struggled to force my brain onto a topic at a specific time (more so if there's low reward for me and my colleagues).
That makes since. It is always a challenge to say "no" on the spot. I sometimes like to use lines like, "Let me ask my chair..." or something to give me some breathing room to at least think about it
Love the "no list" idea! And what a reflective Japan trip, sounds like you had a good time!!
This isn't a big problem for me yet, but I have trouble saying "no" on the spot. I like to wait and see whether I see a big enough upside in a request. But this leads to another problem: If I don't see an upside and respond quickly, I procrastinate responding for weeks, feeling guilty the whole time. (these are folks I've never met, not friends/colleagues btw).
I expect I'll need much more compartmentalization of my time to make the next few years work, but absent hard deadlines, I've often struggled to force my brain onto a topic at a specific time (more so if there's low reward for me and my colleagues).
That makes since. It is always a challenge to say "no" on the spot. I sometimes like to use lines like, "Let me ask my chair..." or something to give me some breathing room to at least think about it