Learning to say no is a vital skill for any talented individual. These 3 strategies have been effective for me: 1. Buffering: replying with a slight delay (24

Learning to say no is a vital skill for any talented individual. These 3 strategies have been effective for me: 1. Buffering: replying with a slight delay (24+ hours) will make interest fade and be an answer in and of itself—while not necessarily resulting impolite. 2. Letting it fall through: If I do not know the source, and they are just doing cold outreach, I think I owe it to myself to avoid wasting energy on something impersonal. 3. Filtering at the source: rebuilding LinkedIn by only accepting and adding people I know and/or I think value my time makes it less likely to incur into these situations. While learning to say no is vital to preserve energy, learning to prevent having to say no is even more vital :)