Hey there, WriteByNighters,
When’s the last time you said “no”? To an invitation, an opportunity, a favor. To a family member, a business associate, a friend. How did it feel to say it? What did you do with your time instead?
I recently read a book excerpt on Medium that got me thinking about saying no. Who does it, who doesn’t, who should, and why.
This excerpt, called “Creative People Say No,” from Kevin
Ashton’s book How to Fly a Horse, tells of a Hungarian psychology professor who requested interviews with creatives (writers, artists, composers, etc.) for a book he was writing. Of the 275 creatives contacted, only a third said “yes”; a third said “no,” citing lack of time as the reason; and a third didn’t respond, presumably due to lack of time.
That response isn’t so amazing in and of itself, but what is thought-provoking is the care with which these creatives guarded their time.
Management writer Peter Drucker in his reply made mention of “a VERY BIG waste paper basket to take care of ALL invitations such as yours” because “productivity in [his] experience consists of NOT doing anything that helps the work of other people but to spend all one’s time on the work the Good Lord has fitted one to do, and to do well.”
Other responses followed suit, albeit less caustically.
Time, it’s all too clear, is these creatives’ most precious commodity.
