When you are bad at saying NO

YES, I am bad at saying NO and it is worse than it looks. When you are bad at saying no, you waste your most precious non-renewable resource, TIME. In the office, you completed assigned works before time so that few hours can be used in learning Python on YouTube. At that moment, you hear a colleague's voice " Hey man, enjoying YouTube, looks like you are free, help me to complete my presentation buddy". 

You: " Yeah..sure "

Somewhere deep inside your cerebrum: Go to hell you piece of shit, I am not enjoying YouTube and I am not free, these hours are managed by working hard to complete my work before time so that I can do something productive. Yuk..I am bad at saying No.

The problem doesn't end here. You waste your energy and rhythm by doing something you hate to do and don't need to do. One fine weekend I was reading my new book 'Skin in the game' and getting goosebumps by Taleb's wisdom. Then just then I picked a phone call of a close friend. He said: "Get ready we are going for a movie, I will be at your place in an hour."

 From the point of doing something I love, to wasting almost 5-6 hours in watching some crap and roaming in hell of traffic I was back in my room. But now the mood is ruined. I wasn't able to hold that book again the whole day. I could have said no for the movie, I am an idiot. 

What can be done? Well, more than 50% problem is solved when you realize there is a problem. One wise man said, " In old times most of the struggle was the struggle of scarcity, in modern times, it's a struggle of abundance." The abundance of calories, information, society, entertainment, addiction, etcetera. So you need to be good at saying no to most of these.

"The way to survive in modern society is to be an ascetic. It is to retreat from society. There's too much society everywhere you go...The only solution is to turn it off." @naval

How can you become good at anything, speaking English, playing guitar, chess, maths or saying no? Simply, by doing it more. Like any other skills, to become good at saying no we need to practice it. Yes, initially others may think that you are arrogant, rude, selfish or whatever. But eventually, they will realize that you just value your time more than others and will be available for them when they actually need you. And others stop asking your favor for shitty things. 

You will just love this hack :)