Episode 72: The Freelancers’ Show 072 – Saying NO

The Freelancers' Show

Panel

Reuven Lerner (twitter github blog) Eric Davis (twitter github blog) Curtis McHale (twitter github blog) 

Discussion
01:18 - The Power of “NO”

Getting Things Done by David Allen Instapaper Evernote Omnifocus 

06:56 - Just-in-Time Learning
09:02 - Saying “NO” in Hindsight

Overcommitment 

11:54 - Getting Comfortable with Saying “NO”

Derek Sivers: No more yes. It's either HELL YEAH! or no. Confidence Risk Level 

19:14 - Having a Financial Cushion

Accounting The Freelancers Show 072 - LessAccounting with Steven Bristol 

23:04 - Red Flags That Mean an Instant “NO”

Client Investment Slimy People The Ruby Freelancers Show 054 - Red Flags with Potential or Current Clients with Ashe Dryden Disrespectful Clients 

32:31 - Irregular Clients

Project Minimums Referring Clients to Other People 

Picks

Das Keyboard (Reuven) Kalzumeus Podcast 5: Quitting Consulting Via Productization (Reuven) About the Facebook platform, from Pando Daily (Reuven) Derek Sivers: No more yes. It's either HELL YEAH! or no. (Eric) Filmic Pro (Eric) Jaybird Bluebuds (Curtis) 

Next Week
Book Club: Getting Things Done with David Allen
Transcript
CURTIS: So, am I the leader since I'm recording?

REUVEN: I guess so! [Laughs]

CURTIS: Whoo-hoo!

ERIC: Curtis, leader!

[Laughter]

CURTIS: That's right, you can call me "The Leader" for the whole show.

[Hosting and bandwidth provided by the Blue Box Group. Check them out at bluebox.net.]

[You're fantastic at code, but do you have an action plan to take it to the next level? The upcoming book, Next Level Freelance, will help you optimize your freelance business for happiness. The book is packed with actionable steps to make more money, case studies, tips to find more clients, and exercises for you to establish your desired lifestyle. Extras include: 9 interviews with freelancers who make great money while enjoying great work-life balance, videos on strategies to find quality subcontractors, and videos on making more free time by outsourcing your daily tasks. Check it out today at nextlevelfreelance.com!]

CURTIS: Welcome to the Freelancers' Show Episode 72! Today, we're going to talk about the "Power of No". We have, Eric Davis joining us.

ERIC: Hi!

CURTIS: And Reuven Lerner. I'm Curtis McHale, filling in for Chuck today because he is, I don't know, he's off, probably sitting on the beach somewhere, not doing much. Like I said, today's topic is the "Power of No". As we've been coming up to the bookclub, I've been reading the "Getting Things Done" book and I think the thing that's continually been impressed on me more and more and more is that so many of the issues are all these tasks and 9000 things that are flying at us are just the power of 'No'. I actually been used it yesterday in my Instapaper queue at 97 articles and decided, "I'm never going to read half of these, why they even put them in?" and just said 'No' to them all and dropped down to like 25 actual real articles that I will make time to read. What about you guys? Eric, have you used no or have you, I guess, not over-committed yourself?

ERIC: No.

CURTIS: [Laughs] Thanks!

ERIC: Oh! Yeah!

[Laughter]

ERIC: I have to say that a lot. While you're talking, I open up my Instapaper, and god! Maybe a month ago, I actually went in there and there's a button, I've been afraid to hit it. It basically says, "Delete everything that's aloo in 30 days." I've had Instapaper stuff in there that came from tags that I had in Delicious, which were from 2005-2006 that I've --

CURTIS: I don't know there is that button. That's just on the web view?

ERIC: Yeah.

CURTIS: I manually deleted all mine!

ERIC: Oh, yeah! Look for an "Archive All", it's on the right side. But yeah, I overcommit stuff. I've had times where I've had over a thousand items on my to-do list, and the Getting Things Done stuff, that's not really...