If You Wouldn’t Do It Tomorrow, Say No

A simple trick to avoid overcommitment

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You know when somebody asks you to help with something three months from now, and you say, “Sure, no problem!” without thinking twice about it? Then, as the date creeps up on your calendar, all you can think is “Why the hell did I agree to this?”.

This happens to all of us, for a simple reason: the human brain is really bad at seeing into the future. We have no idea what our life will be like in 3 months, if we’ll even have time to help anyone, let alone if we’ll be in the neighborhood, right? But we’re inclined to say yes because we want to help a friend, and we don’t think of the time constraint. Thankfully, there’s a simple trick to remedy this.

If this was happening tomorrow, would you say yes?

Again, 3 months from now is a blank canvas for our brain. Anything is possible. But tomorrow? Now that’s concrete. You already know what you’re doing tomorrow (at least in part), you know if you have time, you even know how you’re likely to feel.

The tomorrow test helps you cut through the fog of optimism our brains tend to create about our future availability and see the request for what it really is: a half day taken away from you. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine to help friends, but by…