As a professional in a certain field, you will always receive a lot of such emails: colleagues from a long time ago, or friends from college, or even the grown-up children of these friends, pathetically express that they want to "delay you for an hour", or "seek your professional advice", or "invite you out for a cup of coffee". Maybe when you first enter the workplace, it will make you feel good if someone asks you for advice or works with your contacts. However, this idea will soon change. When you receive dozens of help emails every week, and it takes half an hour to an hour to deal with everything, you will sadly find that your work efficiency has become extremely low. However, it is quite difficult to judge which help is worth taking seriously. If the person you ask for help is close to you, you must be willing to help; If you don't know each other well or even don't know each other at all, you can refuse directly. But there are many people who belong to the "gray area". You don't want to help them so much, but it seems hard to say no. In this case, you can use the following five ways to refuse or skillfully avoid the other party's request:

1. Ask for more information Sometimes people ask you for help simply by listening to other people's advice. If the person asking for help doesn't know why he or she is looking for you, it will lead to aimless and inefficient communication. This must be avoided as much as possible. Therefore, unless the other party can specify the problem points they want to consult, it's best to refuse. To effectively distinguish between callers, you can respond by saying, "I hope I can help. Can you tell me what you want to discuss and what you need me to do?" Just this small step can help you filter out a large number of people who won't reply. Of course, if they reply, you can guide them to the next step: provide them with relevant information.

2. Share information If you know what information the caller is interested in, you can provide more targeted help. People usually express their desire to communicate or meet by phone at the beginning, and if you don't know them very well, they have to fight for this right themselves: the caller must first prove that he has fully absorbed the public information. If you have discussed relevant content in a blog, podcast, book or video, you can send a link and tell the other party (for example): "the book you want to publish sounds great. I have published some articles on how to successfully sell the new book, which should answer most of your questions. If you still have questions after reading it, you can contact me again, and I am happy to help." If they write back and ask specific questions, it's good, which proves that they have a strong motivation and deserve help. But in fact, after this step, you will filter out 80% of the callers.

3. Invite them to group activities If you want to meet with people who need help, but you don't have time for one-on-one communication, you can invite them to participate in group activities. This method is very efficient, because on the one hand, you can communicate with many people at the same time, on the other hand, the caller also has the opportunity to meet new friends. If you don't want to organize your own activities, you can also invite them to the social breakfast or industry gathering you plan to attend.

4. Postpone acceptance of request Another way to protect your time is to postpone accepting requests. For example, I received more than 50 requests for podcast interviews this year, but I needed a lot of time to write books and launch an online course, so I replied to them: I agreed to accept the interview, but it needs to be postponed for a few months. The other party will basically agree to my request. If you accept the invitation, you must keep your promise. However, if similar invitations are arranged in a convenient period of time, it can greatly improve efficiency and get more happiness and benefits.

5. Direct rejection Some invitations or requests for help are not worth your effort to find a reason to refuse. You have to refuse directly. If the other person and you basically don't meet, can't tell what they want or have a bad attitude, or you are really lack of skills, you should quickly and firmly refuse: "thank you very much for your invitation, but my schedule is full, so I have to refuse. I hope your project goes well." The other person may be unhappy, but if you refuse quickly and politely, they will not find an excuse to blame you. The Internet makes it much easier for people to contact each other, which is a good thing. But now, contacts you don't know at all in LinkedIn may boldly ask to call or meet. You won't have any free time if you give everything you ask. To better focus on your own business, you must know when and how to gracefully refuse requests from others.

As a professional in a certain field, you will always receive a lot of such emails: colleagues from a long time ago, or friends from college, or even the grown-up children of these friends, pathetically express that they want to "delay you for an hour", or "seek your professional advice", or "invite you out for a cup of coffee". Maybe when you first enter the workplace, it will make you feel good if someone asks you for advice or works with your contacts. However, this idea will soon change. When you receive dozens of help emails every week, and it takes half an hour to an hour to deal with everything, you will sadly find that your work efficiency has become extremely low. However, it is quite difficult to judge which help is worth taking seriously. If the person you ask for help is close to you, you must be willing to help; If you don't know each other well or even don't know each other at all, you can refuse directly. But there are many people who belong to the "gray area". You don't want to help them so much, but it seems hard to say no. In this case, you can use the following five ways to refuse or skillfully avoid the other party's request:

1. Ask for more information Sometimes people ask you for help simply by listening to other people's advice. If the person asking for help doesn't know why he or she is looking for you, it will lead to aimless and inefficient communication. This must be avoided as much as possible. Therefore, unless the other party can specify the problem points they want to consult, it's best to refuse. To effectively distinguish between callers, you can respond by saying, "I hope I can help. Can you tell me what you want to discuss and what you need me to do?" Just this small step can help you filter out a large number of people who won't reply. Of course, if they reply, you can guide them to the next step: provide them with relevant information.

2. Share information If you know what information the caller is interested in, you can provide more targeted help. People usually express their desire to communicate or meet by phone at the beginning, and if you don't know them very well, they have to fight for this right themselves: the caller must first prove that he has fully absorbed the public information. If you have discussed relevant content in a blog, podcast, book or video, you can send a link and tell the other party (for example): "the book you want to publish sounds great. I have published some articles on how to successfully sell the new book, which should answer most of your questions. If you still have questions after reading it, you can contact me again, and I am happy to help." If they write back and ask specific questions, it's good, which proves that they have a strong motivation and deserve help. But in fact, after this step, you will filter out 80% of the callers.

3. Invite them to group activities If you want to meet with people who need help, but you don't have time for one-on-one communication, you can invite them to participate in group activities. This method is very efficient, because on the one hand, you can communicate with many people at the same time, on the other hand, the caller also has the opportunity to meet new friends. If you don't want to organize your own activities, you can also invite them to the social breakfast or industry gathering you plan to attend.

4. Postpone acceptance of request Another way to protect your time is to postpone accepting requests. For example, I received more than 50 requests for podcast interviews this year, but I needed a lot of time to write books and launch an online course, so I replied to them: I agreed to accept the interview, but it needs to be postponed for a few months. The other party will basically agree to my request. If you accept the invitation, you must keep your promise. However, if similar invitations are arranged in a convenient period of time, it can greatly improve efficiency and get more happiness and benefits.

5. Direct rejection Some invitations or requests for help are not worth your effort to find a reason to refuse. You have to refuse directly. If the other person and you basically don't meet, can't tell what they want or have a bad attitude, or you are really lack of skills, you should quickly and firmly refuse: "thank you very much for your invitation, but my schedule is full, so I have to refuse. I hope your project goes well." The other person may be unhappy, but if you refuse quickly and politely, they will not find an excuse to blame you. The Internet makes it much easier for people to contact each other, which is a good thing. But now, contacts you don't know at all in LinkedIn may boldly ask to call or meet. You won't have any free time if you give everything you ask. To better focus on your own business, you must know when and how to gracefully refuse requests from others.