What Will You Say "No" To?
The Fulling team is continuing a video series! Each week in our staff meetings, we watch a culture & leadership video to aid in our professional and personal development. We are diving into the series called Redeeming Your Time At Work by Jordan Raynor
Managing our time wisely and effectively is one of the most important things we can do to advance our careers. When we institute the right lifestyle changes—not just adopting some habits—we can begin to reach our full potential. In this ten-session series, bestselling author Jordan Raynor will cover ten simple practices that will help us manage our time wisely and clear out the distractions that keep us from making progress with our work.
In the videos Cease and Feast Once A Week and Protect Your Time Budget With a Unique Approach to “No”, Jordan talks about how observing the sabbath can look different for all of us. For some, it’s spending a whole day relaxing at home in front of a television while others enjoy spending the day outside being active.
When we institute the sabbath into the framework of our lives, we will begin to see how much easier it is to stay on track with our goals and honor God with our time.
Jordan asks himself five questions to discern whether he should say “yes” or “no” to a request. The first question he asks is, “Am I the best person to say ’yes‘ to this request?”
Question two helps us think about how our habits affect our schedule. “Would I say yes to one hundred similar requests for my time?” If we make a habit of accepting responsibilities or appointments waste time, we do ourselves a disservice.
Questions three and four focus on evaluating our opportunities and motivations. Both of these questions reveal investigate why we say ”yes“ to certain events and what might be motivating our busyness.
Finally, ask yourself, “What will I say ‘no’ to?” Every time we say yes, we’re inevitably saying no to something else. Sometimes, that trade-off isn’t even. By accepting busy work or tasks we aren’t equipped to accomplish, we might lose valuable time reserved for something important on our to-do list.
Food for Thought
What would the perfect day of rest and enjoyment look like for you and your family?
How can you be more intentional about instituting a weekly day of rest into your schedule?
What types of requests are you always apt to say yes to? How might the appointments in your full schedule be wasting or misusing time?
What upcoming tasks should you say “no” to so that you can say “yes” to what matters most?