4 Practical Ways To Ensure You'll Keep Your Commitments
We've all been there. We have too much going on and have to back out of a meeting, project, or some other thing we committed to doing. And just as unfortunate is when people do that to you.
For most of us, we hate the feeling of letting people down or having to go back on something we said we would do. But this is something that we can avoid altogether (except for very rare exceptions). Below are four things you can do to be a person who keeps their commitments.
1) Learn not just to say no, but why you need to say no
We have all heard to importance of learning to say "no." If not, we over-commit and naturally cannot do everything we said that we would.
But I have found that the only way to learn how to say no is to know why you are saying no. Otherwise we feel guilty for saying no because we can't think of a reason why we can't squeeze one more thing in.
How many meetings, tasks, or projects can you take on a week before you start to feel overwhelmed? Knowing that helps you say no when you are approaching that limit.
How many hours do you actually want to work a week? Knowing that helps you manage your time. It's easy to say no when you know that saying yes will mean you have to miss out on more important thing to you.
If you know why you have to say no, it makes it much easier to actually do it.
2) Calendar everything you do
I'm a big fan of using a block calendar. What that essentially means is that you calendar out your day. Some people calendar their entire day, but I usually keep it to working hours and if I have something I have to be at or do outside normal working hours.
When you do this, you can actually look at your calendar and see if you are able to take that meeting or add that task to your to-do list. It makes it much easier not to over-commit when you can plainly see whether or not you will be able to uphold that commitment.
One practical thing I do is look at my next day's schedule the night before. If there are any gaps in my calendar, I will go ahead and fill them in with what I want to do so that I am not sitting around figuring out what to do day-of.
If you're interested in learning more about how to create a block calendar, check out episode 16 of Practical Church Planting below.
3) Guard your most valuable time
For me, I am most productive, creative, and engaged in the morning. This means I guard that time for my more creative tasks like sermon writing and review, blog writing, and other content creation type of activities. This means I rarely take morning meetings or plan to work on tasks or projects that doesn't fit the category of content creation.
What this also means is that I already know intuitively that I will say no to things that must be done during those times. I'm much less likely to back out of commitments to others when things get tight because I know I have scheduled time to work on my most important tasks.
4) Always offer times when you are available
Particularly when doing something that involves spending time with someone else, don't be afraid to be proactive about when you are available. I used to feel guilty about this, but then I realized two things:
First, I am much more likely to do things when I know it will work best for me. Second, it makes it much easier to find a time that works for all parties involved. There is less back and forth and ambiguity that comes with "let me know when works for you."
For example, when I reach out to people I would like to interview for my leadership podcast, I include in my initial correspondence 3-5 times that would work well for me even though many of these people have more going on than I do. Surprisingly, I have found that the vast majority of people will confirm one of the times I suggest. This means that we avoid all the back and forth of trying to find a time, and I get to do the interview in a time that works well for me.
So don't be afraid to say no, stick to your calendar, guard your time, and proactively tell people when works best for you. It's much easier on the front end to say no even when it's hard than to say yes and be someone who frequently can't do what they say they were going to do. To be the leader God created you to be, you have to do what you say you are going to do.