A review by seclement
The Art Of Saying NO: How To Stand Your Ground, Reclaim Your Time And Energy, And Refuse To Be Taken For Granted by Damon Zahariades

3.0

This book is really for pathological people pleasers, so your mileage may vary. I really, really struggle to say no in my professional life, and it is a problem. But I don't do it to please people. I scored pretty low on the people pleaser "quiz" in the book, but the author suggested the strategies would be valuable anyway. A few were, but they are ones I already implement. It is a good reminder to implement them more. For me, the best strategies in the book are to recommend someone more suited to the task (I often get these requests because someone else has done that with me....but I need to get better at saying that I can't either!); have categories of things you say no to (I have just started doing that with peer review....I am in the 97th percentile of reviewers....I am going to start saying no once I reach a certain number in a year); and asking that requesters follow up at a later time (I need to do this more often, as people often resolve a request in the meantime!). But ultimately this book isn't for people like me who just are really interested in a lot of things and enthusiastic about participating in lots of things. For people like me, a book that provides more structured ways of thinking about when to jump on an opportunity and when not to would be good. I have my methods, but they are imperfect. The book is simple and digestible, and easy to find what you are looking for when you want to go back and reference something, but ultimately there isn't enough content. There is a balance between parsimony and explanatory power. This book didn't get that right; at least not for me. Maybe if people pleasing is your problem, this will be for you.