Be Productive! Say "NO"

Date: November 11, 2021

I don't really have any topic to write today. But then this word "productivity" just popped up in my mind.

There are times that we're not productive at all due to a lot of factors around us. But you know what? In my 13 years of experience in the I.T industry, there's one thing that I learned which helped increase my productivity at work. And it is to say "NO".

Learn to say "NO" to people asking you a favor

If someone comes around and ask a you a favor but then your workload is too full enough to accept another load, then you can always say "NO".

If someone asked your help about something they know that you're good of, but then you're busy with your current project or work and you're trying to meet the deadline, say "NO".

Saying "NO" doesn't mean that you're selfish.

When you always entertain those people around you asking for your help, you'll just end-up missing your own deadline. You'll end-up not completing your own work on-time.

You may never realize too soon that slowly, those people coming in asking for your small help are stealing your precious time already.

And then at the end of the day, when you look in the progress of your work, you'll learn that you've lost a lot of time due to those distractions.

Saying "NO" is your way of telling them that you also have your own priorities and urgent deadline that you are targeting. That you want to reserve your time and energy to your own work.

Be honest to them and explain in a gentle way that you don't have enough bandwidth to help them. Saying "NO" doesn't mean being rude to those who are asking for your help. You must find the right words and the right tone so that you will not sound offending.

Another option is, you can direct them to someone whom you know can help them as well and might say YES to them. In that case, you are still helping them (indirectly).

Learn to say "NO" to Procrastination

Delaying things can affect a person's productivity as well. "Why not do it today than wait for tomorrow?"

I know that temptations are just around us. There are lots of distractions that will cause us procrastinate a thing.

Why not wash your dishes tonight? Why wait for tomorrow to do it?

Why not do your laundry today if you're free than wait for the weekends where you're not sure if the weather will be as good as today?

Why not pay your bills as early as now (if you have enough money), than wait for the due date to come?

Speaking of paying bills, I've experienced this once.

I am supposed to pay my credit card bills every 28th of the month although their due date is every 4th of the following month. I am paying our credit card bills via GCASH.

So here comes the 28th of September, my husband started to ask me "did you pay our bills yet?" but then my response is always "Later, once my shift is over because I don't want to make any mistakes while paying it".

He's always doing it in a daily basis to remind me to pay our bills before the due date because I'm sure those who has credit card can relate that the late payment fee is costly (more or less 500PHP in my case). And my husband is also aware of it so we're trying to get rid of it that's why we schedule our payment every 28th of the month.

And you know what? I missed it!. I missed the due date!. I am able to pay our bills on the 6th of the following month (October). That means we're 2 days overdue!. I felt guilty at that point. And then my husband told me "I told you to pay it even before the 30th but you're always delaying it, you didn't prioritized it".

So when my billing statement has been sent over the mail, I immediately checked if they charged me late payment fee on . And yes they charged me late payment fee on 5th of October (the day after the due date). But then I am so thankful that they have reversed it right after I do my payment on 6th of October.

I felt relief when I saw the billing statement. I immediately relayed the information to my husband and he told me "Lessons learned - next time, prioritize it over something else".