Saying no, renegotiating, delegating

The real problem with yes

Every yes is a no addressed to something else, but that no is invisible: it is addressed to future work, to an evening, to a project that is not moving. That is why a yes costs so little in the moment and so much three weeks later.

A faultless planning system does not survive a person who accepts everything. Capacity is protected upstream, not in the diary.

The four possible answers

There are never only yes and no.

The full yes. Yes, I will take it on, it will be ready Friday. The negotiated yes. Yes, and to hold that date I am pushing file B to next week. Does that work? The partial yes. I can do the analysis part. For the formatting, you will need someone else. The no. I am not going to be able to.