The science of saying no at work

Researchers who put themselves under the microscope made some important discoveries.

- Pilita Clark

There were once four scientists who decided to take a systematic approach to honing one of working life's great skills: the art of saying no.

With workloads heading to burnout levels of busyness, they agreed that in the space of one year, they would collectively turn down 100 work-related requests and track what happened as a result.

Having drawn up a spreadsheet to record what each passed up and why, and how they felt about it, they set about declining a raft of requests to review journal articles, write grant proposals or run more things at work.

Together, they also turned down 31 speaking invitations fewer than the 43 talks and guest lectures they still gave.

It took them 10 months to rack up their 100th "no", or roughly 25 rejections each, by which time they had learnt several things.

First, the act of tracking your work itself makes it easier to say no, partly because you get a better idea of everything you're doing.

Also, a firm rejection is better than a "soft no" because agreeing to, say, give a talk in a few months' time, or review a paper instead of co-writing it, invariably leads to bigger asks later.