Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Just Say No.

Adam asked if I could attend three days of meetings later this month. I sighed before clicking over to view my calendar.

My first conference call began at 7AM yesterday. The last one ended around 11PM. Today followed the same pattern.

I'm traveling at least 2 days of every week in March. This week is by choice - I'm meeting Friend at the beach for a couple of days. Next week is east for a day, the following week is another day on the Atlantic coast. When faced with following that trip by an immediate departure west, I looked at the email again and touched the button that lets me reply.

"No," I replied simply. "I think the organizer is useless and would rather avoid working with him. I have a number of priorities and this would be very low on the list." I hit send without feeling even a twinge of guilt.

The feedback I've received from upper management has been incredibly positive. I'm bright and enthusiastic and I follow through on any statements I make. (Pet peeve - Customer: "I was promised this!" Me: "I heard that statement - we said we'd try.") But in order to continue that trend - to avoid being exhausted and irritable and to set expectations properly, I'm going to refuse some opportunities.

I think I'm beginning to get it.

2 comments:

Amanda@Lady Scientist said...

I'm glad that you're feeling like you can set boundaries and your own priorities. That sounds like it'll be key to the whole balance/not burning out thing.

Anonymous said...

yay for no!

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