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The Top 10 Things You Should Say ‘No’ to for a Happier Life

And how to do it

Danny Forest
12 min readSep 7, 2020
Illustration licensed from VectorStock.com

I’ve been working on a list of things to say “no” to since February 2018, when I first published a simple 41-item list. Seeing how the original version got traction, I expanded and created an 88-item list. It was simply too much, so instead of adding more, I cut the original list down to 31 things and added a lot of ways you can say “no” to each of them.

That’s how the ultra-popular 31 Important Things You Should Say “No” to for a Happier Life came to be. It resonated with a lot of readers, but in my mind, there was always a problem with it— which ones will have the most impacts in my life? Isn’t there a shorter list I can start with and move my way up?

Well, there wasn’t, until now.

In the above piece, I opened with:

“Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

I still stand by that, but you have to start somewhere. That start is this list. For each item, I’ll explain why I chose it to be part of the top 10, how you can get better at it, and link additional resources.

I’m including a table of contents so you can jump to the things that may be relevant to your life. Read…

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Danny Forest
Danny Forest

Written by Danny Forest

Polymath. Life Optimizer. Learner. Entrepreneur. Engineer. Writer.

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