A cool guide to saying "No" to an invite. How are your 'no's usually?

It is much less painful to offer an immediate, polite ‘no thank you’ than to agree to do something and then later regret it. [By the way, if you find it hard to say ‘no’ to nice people – as I do – try setting up automated ‘canned responses’ for your emails. Having a set text to click saves you having to actually type mean things to friendly people

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And all this agonising – this ridiculous time-wasting – was because it took me another thirty years to learn that if you say ‘No’ in a friendly, chatty way, people accept it with great grace and goodwill, and do not hate you, or send death squads after you, or report you to the Daily Mail. And until I realised this, I found myself resenting perfect

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“Good business advice I received early on:

When someone says no to a request, they usually mean ‘not right now' or ‘not in that way.'

Most people want to help others, but there are many priorities competing for our time.

Don’t take it personally. Ask again later. Ask differently.”