Life isn't all No. Watch if you want to say yes. Firstly, when you say yes, give a strong, positive committed. Yes. You could say Yeah. All right, sort of and give a grudging Yes.

But the characteristics of your Yes, don't affect the task that has to be done. They just affect the other person. It's gonna be just as unpleasant to task whether you say yeah, or Yes. So you might just as well say yes. And give a confident, strong Yes, to give the other person a real boost to do that. But you can also say yes, on your own terms, because yes, pairs very nicely with another The powerful word.

If, yes, if set your terms, I will do it. Yes. If you can do this in return, or I will do it. Yes, I'll do it. If you allow me to get it done by the end of next week, because I'm busy this week. Yes, if puts things on your own terms.

But no matter whether you qualify your yes with an F, or whether you go straight for it. Once you've said yes, you need to build this into your planning process. And the planning process that I prefer for using your time effectively is what I call the oats principle. And the principle is a four step process for planning your time, whether on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. And it starts with thinking about the outcomes that you want. And of course, we're going to wrap your new yes into tomorrow's outcomes.

So at the end of each day, think about what you want to be different by the end of tomorrow. Those are your outcomes. Having done that, make a list of the activities that you need to carry out to deliver those outcomes, including the Yes, that you made. That list of activities is a bit like a to do list. But unlike a to do list, which is open and grows throughout the day, this is a today list is tomorrow's list of things that you will do to achieve your outcomes for the day against each of the activities, put down a time estimate. The time estimates tells you how long you anticipate each activity taking.

And it's vital, because the last thing is to schedule your activities into your day. That way, you are making a commitment to yourself, therefore to the world when you are going to do them and it's the scheduling That gives you a real sense of control over your time because you feel you've made a commitment that you can then protect against other interruptions. You use your schedule and the commitments in it to make noble objections. Now, I am unable to do this because I have other things committed into this time slot. So the oats principle is a great backup tool. Yes, it stands for outcomes, activities, time and schedule.

Use the oats principle to plan your day and it will give you the basis for using your time effectively and for making wise choices about when to say no, make a noble objection about interruptions and distractions.