Happy Monday 🌞

If you joined recently, hi 👋 I’m Hailley. I’ve always built systems to help me stay calm and organized — at work (as a marketing leader at Buffer) and at home (as a remote mom of two).

Lately, even my best systems are feeling the strain. For the past few weeks, I’ve been starting my days with around 40 tasks on my to-do list — and that’s just not reasonable. Some of this comes from poor workload planning on my part (read more about my usual system for that here), but a big part is that I’ve been saying yes too often. And my to-do list shows it.

That’s why this week I’m coming back to something simple but powerful: saying no.

I genuinely used to say yes to everything. I’d take on meetings, reply to all of my emails, give people advice or review their work even if I didn’t know them.

And some of that is just who I am — I really do want to help other people succeed and if I can share something I want to. (This newsletter is a part of that desire.)

But saying yes to everything is a poor strategy for achieving things in life.

It was a few years ago but I finally realized I can’t just say yes to everything. It was probably around the time I was having my first baby and started really feeling the importance of having time and space.

I was terrible at saying no in the beginning — I’d waver, or write really lengthy explanations, or still offer to take on a bunch of things, just not do a meeting.

With practice, I’ve been able to say no more consistently.

I’ve fallen out of that routine lately, likely because I’m trying to take too many things on at once. (The name of my future autobiography, lol.)

So this newsletter is a reminder to myself and a way for me to share some more thoughts around the importance of being strict with saying no.

For me, the kinds of things I’ve been saying yes to lately include:

• Requests to work on projects outside of my core focus
• Tasks I could do, but could also delegate or systematize
• Projects that feel like busywork and aren’t driving results

And then I still get lots of requests for meetings. Though, I’ve been pretty good at saying no to meetings for a few years now.

A few things I try to keep in mind when saying no:

• You don’t need to give a long excuse — just be clear and kind
• It’s easier to say no when you’re clear on your yeses (set goals and write down priorities)
• Saying no protects your time, energy, and ultimately leaves space for how you actually want to spend your life

Here’s a phrase I’ve kept on hand the last few years to be fast to say no:

Adapt it to your voice, but don’t overthink it, focus on staying honest with why you can’t take something on and being clear.

Can you say no to a request that comes your way this week?

Here’s hoping your to-do list has a reasonable number of tasks on it this week!

I hope you have a lovely week ahead. As always, feel free to reply if this sparks any thoughts or questions. ✨

See you next Monday,

Hailley

• I wrote about how we paid a candidate to work with us for a day during the hiring process for the Buffer blog. It was a fun experience. I shared it on LinkedIn and it struck quite a chord there, too!
• My favorite app for creating a (reasonable most of the time) to-do list is Todoist. I've loved their product and company for years. Highly recommend if you're in the market for a to-do list. I also share my to-do list setup here.
• Tami from Buffer prepared a month of social media content in one day — her system is really practical if you have been wanting to batch-create some social content.

👋 Come join me on Threads or Bluesky if you use either network. I’ve been really enjoying both of them!

That's all for this newsletter! Thank you so much for subscribing. Reply anytime you want to chat. ✨

I'm happy to offer my writing and this newsletter for free, but if you're so compelled, a cup of tea is always appreciated! ☕️

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