Saying “No,” to someone has always been hard for me to do whether for personal favors or work, my mind says “No” but my mouth says yes.
For example, when I used to work in the retail/food industry, there were times it would be understaffed and my manager would ask if I could stay an extra hour. Even if I was mentally and physically tired, I would not be able to decline unless I had something important planned for the rest of the day. Or if a friend calls me early in the morning on a weekend, asking for a ride back from the airport, I know I don’t want to get out of bed, but I also don’t want them to think I’m a bad friend. I think that this is an issue many people face, because they hate to let others down or hurt any feelings.
When to say “No,” to projects at work, to me personally, determines on the load of work you already have piled up on your desk. I do believe in quality over quantity, so I’d rather take on a few projects and put my best effort into them vs. a lot of projects and rush through them all. When I have too many tasks, sometimes I get sidetracked, and end up completing all of them except the very first task because I had forgotten all about it. You don’t want to have too many projects lined up to the point where you feel overwhelmed and stressed. I also find that when I am overwhelmed and stressed, I get mind fog, and that affects the quality of the project and if you’re going to meet the deadline or not
To help me manage the workload, I like to use a calendar to write out what classes we have that week, what shipments need to go out, and deadlines. I also use a daily calendar to write out the list of tasks for that specific day. If I know I have a bigger project, I won’t put anything else on the to-do list for that day. Putting sticky notes on my desk top also helps me manage all my tasks into categories. For me, the green sticky notes are for shipment and class dates, grey are upcoming deadlines, and so on. Use whatever tools you like, to help you manage your time and workload for better quality of work and mental health.
Know your limits and know when to say “No,” when you need to.
Written by: Rhea Baesa, Administrative Assistant