Maintaining a sane calendar is hard, especially if you’re someone who likes helping people a lot but struggles to identify who deserves your time and who doesn’t.

I struggle with this a lot. Whoever asks for my help, I say ‘yes’ to hop on a call and later regret finding them under-prepared. I just fail to qualify who deserves my time and help.

This was until I heard from Paul McKellar something that he does to fix it. He has an exciting yet straightforward way of qualifying who is serious enough in their ask and who isn’t. 

Here's what he does –

"Whenever I get a request for help, I just ask them to follow up after some time. It can even be a small follow-up. Most never get back, which eliminates more than 50% of the requests. They were probably not serious or ready enough for my help. 

"But the ones who do follow up are the ones who have done their homework and are now ready for my help. I help most of them. Asking for a follow-up is just my way of qualifying if they’re serious enough and ready to receive my help."

As simple as asking for a follow-up can do wonders in getting you to help the people who are serious enough to receive it. It’ll also save you a ton of frustration and time that you’d otherwise spend trying to help those who aren’t ready or prepared for it yet.

It has solved my problem; now, I can help people without wasting my time.

I had a great time talking to Paul about rolling funds, how to find creative people, the delusion of founders, being a part of the Square founding team, his two-letter Twitter handle, and a lot more.

Let’s hear from Paul himself.

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You can follow Paul McKellar on Twitter (@pm) and Instagram (@pm). Twitter is where he is most active.

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