“I say yes to everything. After all, it’s all an opportunity!” a colleague once told me.
Are you a Yes person, too? It may be time to rethink that approach!
Your work calendar is probably overflowing with commitments by this point in the year. So, if you say yes to every new project—especially without considering all the fun coming your way in the next 60 days—you’ll run yourself ragged trying to make everyone happy.
There’s an alternative to that Halloween horror story, and that is to use soft skills. Soft skill How tactics like discernment will help you transform overload into elegant execution.
Let me tell you about a woman who set herself up for success by creating manageable milestones.
Maggie Olson was so inspired by “The Great British Bake-Off” that she decided to start her own baking journey. Gathering a long recipe wish list happened in a flash. But then the time came to stop dreaming and start doing.
Maggie’s solution was to put her project management skills to work to design a step-by-step strategy. She would choose a recipe from her spreadsheet every week, starting with the easiest ones. She blocked out at least half a day on the weekend so she wouldn’t have to rush, then stopped by the grocery store on Friday night to ensure she had the necessary ingredients.
Pushing herself to make everything from bagels to Oreos to carrot cake surprisingly boosted Maggie’s self-image. Her newfound self-confidence had an important spillover effect: She started volunteering for special projects at work and kept getting promoted. Then she used her increased income to invest.
Maggie’s takeaway was, “If you can do one thing, you can do more hard things, and there is great satisfaction to be had in chasing these milestones.”
In the October series, Three Ways to Use Soft Skills for Elegant Execution, we’re discussing how you can use soft skills to dust off your To Do list and keep your sanity. If you’re starting to feel frantic and overscheduled, there’s an easy solution: Like the case study, set up manageable milestones.
The secret to effective productivity isn’t saying yes to anything and everything—it’s discriminating choices. Productivity expert Peter Drucker described it this way: “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently something that should not have been done at all.”
Think of “yes” as a selective answer. For instance, if I told you to drive from Seattle to Canada, would you jump on the first exit, without understanding if it was going the right direction? Would you skip the map app telling you what freeway gets you there the fastest? And would you just start driving, instead of tanking up and getting some road snacks first? The answer to all those questions is a resounding “No”!
Your yes needs to have weight and value. It should be reserved for the right people and opportunities. So, pump the breaks on spur-of-the-moment yes commitments. Start sketching out a step-by-step plan for consistent, quick wins. Here are three ways to start:
Don’t let FOMO override your best thinking. Instead, boss up by creating manageable milestones—that’s how you shift from overloaded to elegant execution.
If you’re new to soft skills or want a refresher, boss up with my free 15-minute course, “Soft Skills Basics in a Flash.” You’ll learn what soft skills are, why people who understand soft skills stand out in a crowd, and practical, actionable ways to use soft skills every day. With the bonus 1-pager, “7 Ways to Pitch Your Soft Skills Superpower” in your back pocket, you’ll leave calm, self-assured, and ready to speak soft skills with anyone who asks.