Psychologists call this “decision fatigue”: the more choices we are forced to make, the more the quality of our decisions deteriorates. - Greg McKeown

Being vague is not the same as being graceful, and delaying the eventual “no” will only make it that much harder — and the recipient that much more resentful.

It is about pausing constantly to ask, “Am I investing in the right activities?

Once an Australian nurse named Bronnie Ware, who cared for people in the last twelve weeks of their lives, recorded their most often discussed regrets. At the top of the list: “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”6 This requires, not just haphazardly saying no, but purposefully, deliberately, and strategically eliminating the nonessentials, and not just getting rid of the obvious time wasters, but cutting out some really good opportunities as well.