Chapter 1 - Saying No: The BasicsIn the first chapter of How to Say No Without Feeling Guilty, the authors present the basics of saying no. But why say no? Many times, people are persuaded to do things they don't want to do, simply because they can't find the right words to say no. Another reason people don't say no is because they're afraid of what the person will think of them if they say no. I can understand this, because many times I found myself doing things for people because I couldn't find a good excuse to get out of it. After reading the first chapter, I learned the basic techniques for politely saying no. The first is surprisingly simple: just save yourself more time. If you can postpone your decision to accept someone's request, then you have time to really think about what it will take to satisfy the other person. One of the phrases they suggested was: “I first need to know if I'm working.” As a student, my work schedule is anything but consistent, so this phrase will be ideal for me to use. Another suggestion was to say that you have a “policy” against doing something. This is good because it lets the person know how important it is to do what you need to do. But for me, I don't think that would be a good thing, because my friends wouldn't accept the fact that I have a "politics". The prevention technique seemed like a good thing. I have a friend who, whenever I see him, he always wants to go out to a bar and have a drink. Normally this doesn't bother me, but if I'm going to visit him and I'm not in the mood to go out, he will insist that we go anyway. Prevention would be a good thing in this case, because if I don't feel like going out that night, I should probably just avoid this friend altogether. Lying to someone so as not to hurt them or making an excuse to save face is also a good tactic. If an unattractive girl asked me out, I wouldn't say no to her because I found her unattractive. I would probably tell her that I have a lot of work to do over the next few months and I don't really have time to hang out with her..