There is perhaps no greater waste of time than to do a great job on something that doesn’t matter. Yet, troops of trivial tasks emerge daily from our texts and inboxes. Deadlines must be met, anxious clients need to be calmed, and opportunities to be claimed. The trick to defending against them is knowing what you’ve already said yes to. We must keep our priorities clear and give them the time and effort they demand. The simplest way to do this is with the 411 and Time Blocking.

Continuing our series on the building blocks of extraordinary success, we’ll move from purpose to priority. When our kids were in preschool, I remember getting a bulletin from the director to the parents. Written on an old-school typewriter and photocopied, the headline read: “Poopyhead.” Yeah, it got my attention.

Continuing our series on the building blocks of extraordinary success, we’re doubling down on last week’s core values discussion. On the way home from our annual goal-setting retreat, Wendy and I listened to Mo Anderson on the Empire Building podcast. Mo told a story about getting out of business with someone for violating a company standard. She said there was no debate because “our standards reflect our values.”

Last week, we covered the power of the Three P’s Approach for our new series on the building blocks of extraordinary success. A clear sense of purpose spotlights your priorities and leads you to maximum productivity. But, for many, the challenge begins with formulating your purpose. It feels grandiose. Who am I to have a purpose statement? Where do I even start? Over the years, we’ve found a solution—identifying your core values. Core values can be discovered with a half hour of reflection and serve as an excellent gateway to purpose. You can then use them to make commitments with confidence and to establish standards for your decisions.

I hope you enjoyed our No-vember series. Learning to say no to distractions is the gift you give yourself and your goals. (If you missed these issues, you can find them here, here, here, and here.) As we approach the New Year, the TwentyPercenter will be focused on the building blocks of extraordinary success, beginning with the Three P’s Approach.

Belated Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you enjoyed seeing friends and family. And that you didn’t feel too many regrets after going “feast mode” on the turkey and dressing. Today, we conclude No-vember by tackling the biggest objection to saying no – How do we say no to tasks that must be done? By saying no to giving them unnecessary time with batching.

Many of our readers have shared they are maxed out, tired, stressed, and find their calendars filled with a never-ending list of community, social, family, and client obligations. Because we want to grow our businesses or make people happy, we say yes.

No-vember – 11 Ways to Say No (Without Saying No) | Vol. 72 “When you say yes to something, it’s imperative that you understand what you’re saying no to.” – The ONE Thing Saying no is easy when Bark Twain and Winnie the Poodle play tug of war with our Nike Air Force 1s. The rest …

When you take on too many commitments, you short-circuit your effectiveness. You juggle priorities in various states of completion. Balls get dropped. Deadlines appear in the rearview mirror. Actually doing something well feels like a luxury reserved for others. The solution, of course, is focus. But that is easier said than done. That’s why this year we’re putting the “No” in November. All month, the TwentyPercenter will feature articles on how you can devote more time and energy to the things that matter.

For most of my life, I relished staying up late, reading, and watching movies. When we had our first child, I was on morning bottle duty. Gus was an early riser and ready for his first meal before 6 am. I came to love the morning time. The quiet stillness. Gus’s tiny fingers grasping my thumb and pinkie like handlebars on either side of the bottle. The first light slanting through the windows. He trained me to wake early—a habit I kept long after he started sleeping in. The owl became a lark. And that has made a huge impact on my life.