10 Responses to Memorize

Meggin McIntosh
2 min readApr 24, 2022
iStock by Getty Images: breakermaximus

A number of statements and phrases are worth remembering in your quest to be more peacefully and predictably productive. Consider these ten:

  1. ‘No, but thanks for asking.’ Full stop.
  2. ‘Not now.’
  3. ‘Let me get back to you after I’ve checked on a few things,’ (e.g., calendar, family plans, energy, effect of a new medication, etc.)
  4. ‘I am busy right now, but let’s schedule a time to meet. Do you want to send me your scheduling software link or should I send you mine?’
  5. ‘Let me verify some details with you about this project, request, or meeting.’ And if you need time to think through what these details might be, give yourself the time you need.
  6. ‘Let’s both clarify our conditions, parameters, and/or constraints.’
  7. ‘I am not the right person for this, and here is a suggestion of who might be.’ Note: It is not your responsibility to come up with a suggestion, but if you have a name top of mind, share it.
  8. ‘I cannot agree to the whole task, but I can agree to take on this part.’ Another version of this is, ‘I cannot agree to the timeline you requested, but I could agree to a different timeline.’
  9. ‘No, I simply can’t say ‘Yes’.’ (This is my personal favorite).
  10. ‘I can easily say ‘Yes’ to this because I know exactly what it entails.’

Say one or more of these in the next day or so and see what happens. Be clear on your intent to be more productive. If you need a reminder on these, print out this article and display it somewhere so you can see it when you need it.

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Meggin McIntosh

Meggin McIntosh, “The PhD of Productivity®”, invests time & energy with people who seek ways to be overjoyed instead of overwhelmed. https://meggin.com