Random suggestions to the newly Too-Popular
[Written in answer to someone's lament that their time was being eaten by requests they were having trouble saying 'no' to.]
Subject: Dealing with popularity.
On the plus side, think how happy you just made all the fans out there lusting for your body!
On the dealing with it side, two suggestions; a real fix (with a possible pitfall) and one fake fix.
Real fix: hire a personal assistant. They keep the schedule, they are the ones who get to say 'No.' to people. The drawbacks are that this requires you to not say 'Yes', but rather "Please speak to X, I don't know if I have time for that on my schedule, but they are paid to know it." If you can't even deflect requests on your time this way then you are doomed, DOOMED I SAY! Ahem, sorry about that. The PA does come with some overhead, besides the cost, and that is that you have to spend some time each day keeping them and the schedule up to date, and that would include estimating how much time various projects are going to require.
Fake fix: Carry a schedule with you (paper or electronic). Fill it up in advance with both real and plausible time sinks. When someone asks you to do something, you can consult your schedule and give regrets, but you already have something schedule that weekend/month/lifetime.
Finally, you ways suspected that the popular kids had different problems than the rest of us. Now you know.
Welcome to Success! Here are your roller-skates and knee pads. Good luck.
Subject: Dealing with popularity.
On the plus side, think how happy you just made all the fans out there lusting for your body!
On the dealing with it side, two suggestions; a real fix (with a possible pitfall) and one fake fix.
Real fix: hire a personal assistant. They keep the schedule, they are the ones who get to say 'No.' to people. The drawbacks are that this requires you to not say 'Yes', but rather "Please speak to X, I don't know if I have time for that on my schedule, but they are paid to know it." If you can't even deflect requests on your time this way then you are doomed, DOOMED I SAY! Ahem, sorry about that. The PA does come with some overhead, besides the cost, and that is that you have to spend some time each day keeping them and the schedule up to date, and that would include estimating how much time various projects are going to require.
Fake fix: Carry a schedule with you (paper or electronic). Fill it up in advance with both real and plausible time sinks. When someone asks you to do something, you can consult your schedule and give regrets, but you already have something schedule that weekend/month/lifetime.
Finally, you ways suspected that the popular kids had different problems than the rest of us. Now you know.
Welcome to Success! Here are your roller-skates and knee pads. Good luck.