Notes on saying no

The expensive part of saying yes is almost never the work. It’s the four weeks where everyone plans around you before you admit you can’t. By then the no has compounded — it isn’t just your no any more, it’s three other people’s rescheduling.

What I’ve landed on: answer within a day, and if the answer is no, say only that it’s a no and roughly why. No apology tour. No offer of a worse alternative to soften it, because the worse alternative usually gets accepted and then I’ve committed to something nobody wanted.

It reads cold on the page. In practice people are relieved.