10: In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to?

Digging into “Tribe of Mentors” by Tim Ferriss ( see all previous questions here), he asks:

In the last five years, what have you become better at saying no to (distractions, invitations, etc.)? What new realizations and/or approaches helped? Any other tips?

There were a ton of great answers in the book, and here are a few of my favorites.

Kyle Maynard shared a great tip for ranking candidates when sorting through people for a new job opening:

My biggest shift came after listening to a successful CEO talk about his philosophy for hiring people. When his company grew and he ran out of time to interview people himself, he had his employees rate new candidates on a 1–10 scale. The only stipulation was they couldn’t choose 7. It immediately dawned on me how many invitations I was receiving that I would rate as a 7-speeches, weddings, coffees, even dates. If I thought something was a 7, there was a good chance I felt obligated to do it. But if I have to decide between a 6 or an 8, it’s a lot easier to quickly determine whether or not I should even consider it.