Simplifying Your Career
In her blog Serenity for the Self Employed, Heather Boerner has an excellent post on The Serenity of Saying No. One of her pieces of advice is to tell too-cheap-for-you clients that you just revised your business plan and you need $X amount to give the assignment the time it deserves. Another tip is to negotiate for longer deadlines if you feel crunched.
When I was in Germany this past October, I spent some time revising my own business plan. While working on the plan, I discovered that I was spending time doing lots and lots of tasks that weren’t paying off, like promoting the Renegade Writer wiki, updating the Review Copy Helper, writing long answers to the many e-mails I get asking for advice, and spending time and money traveling to out-of-state speaking engagements. In each of these cases, I was making myself crazy with stress for little return. (I enjoy providing aspiring writers with help and information, but I was doing so much of it in so many different forms that it was sapping too much of o much of my time and energy.)
In addition, I was having trouble saying “No” to writing assignments. The result: More than a dozen articles due in one month this past summer. Talk about stress!
After I wrote out the tasks that made up my writing career at that point, from speaking to book promos to article assignments, I was able to look them over and decide what to say “No” to. I didn’t completely cut out all of the activities that weren’t paying off for me, but I did come up with ways to pare down.
Since returning from Germany, I’ve refused several assignments, telling the editors that I didn’t have the time to give the articles the attention they deserved. And you know what? The editors weren’t offended, and some of them offered to extend deadlines or even get back to me with different assignments when I was feeling less crunched. I’ve also turned down an out-of-state speaking engagement, come up with a plan to do less updating on the Review Copy Helper, and cut down on promoting the Renegade Writer wiki.
It feels good to say “No” and realize that my career won’t fall apart. I love simplifying my home life — and now I realize that simplifying my work life is just as important. [lf]
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Dec 9, 2007 Advice, Observations, Personal yammerings, Rants
*How* you say no is very important to your reputation, credibility, maintaining good terms with the client, offering professional service, and still sleeping well at night.
You chose a good one: “I’m so crunched for time that I couldn’t do your project justice.” That flatters the *hell* out of a client. Well done.
I don’t usually post links in comments, but we wrote a post recently about how to say no to a client, and it sure sounds relevant. Take a look: How to Say No to Clients You Want to Keep
Um, I think you meant “Simplifying Your Career.”
Good advice in the article, though.
Nice one… good advice for virtually any person… doing too much for too many people for too long will inevitably make you lose your focus. I’m at this point now and will take your advice to heart for sure. Thanks!
I had to say no three times today. It felt weird, but great to take control of my time and energy!