Language is a tool made of many parts, and one of the most powerful parts is a single word that will get people to comply to your wishes. That word? Because. 

According to Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer, just using the word "because" increases compliance rates by 33 percent. 

Langer experimented by waiting in line for a copy machine and used two different phrases to see which one would help her cut in line faster. She said, "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine?," which resulted in a 60 percent compliance rate. In the second experiment, she said, "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?" The compliance rate for that phrase was 94 percent. 

To determine if the helpful word wasn't "rush," Langer did one more experiment, using a different phrase: "Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?"

The compliance rate for that phrase was 93 percent. 

As you can see, a valid reason is not always needed. The word "because" is enough to sway others to your requests. 

(h/t Cognizance Magazine)

No, there is not a magic potion to add more hours to a day, but here are some good suggestions by blogger Dawn Foster on how to better manage the time you do have in your schedule. We may have seen a lot of these before, but they're good reminders. Unfortunately "decline meetings" is number one on her list. Not to say meetings are not important! But she has a point—maybe decline the ones you may not be an important contributor to. 

I was pleased to find I employ a lot of these strategies already. Getting into work over an hour before the majority of my colleagues is one of the ways I have quiet moments at the beginning of every day to focus on things. What would you add to this list? 

Here's a weekend activity for you: Count how many times you say the word "maybe" when you're deciding on something. I'd wager you say it a lot more than you think you do. 

And it's not helping you. Living in a maybe world is like hanging out in an elevator without choosing a floor to visit. 

"Why then do we so often say maybe rather than yes? For all the obvious reasons, including the fact that, even when we say yes, there is no guarantee that our work will turn out well," wrote Eric Maisel, Ph.D., a creativity coach and author, on the website ArtBistro. "Yes is just a starting point, not a conclusion. After the yes comes the work, with its successes and failures, elations and letdowns. Yes is not pure deliciousness but only the opening without which good things can’t happen. If unfortunate things regularly happen—if we start but don’t finish a project, if we finish it but don’t like it, if we like it but can’t sell it, and so on—it has hard to say yes the next time."

Maisel's advice in the article is to a painter; however, it's applicable to everyone, because we all say maybe more than we should. 

"Each of us knows why we shouldn’t hang out in maybe. Maybe is a state that puts us right on the verge of meaninglessness. Maybe plays to our weaknesses, our anxieties, and our doubts. Maybe annoys us, frustrates us, and disappoints us," Maisel wrote. "Still we regularly get trapped there because of our everyday resistance to mustering our inner resources, pulling ourselves by the collar in the direction of some hard creative work, sticking with that work even in the face of inevitable messes, and then doing something with that finished work other than putting it in a drawer or the attic. That is a lot to say yes too, especially if our goal is to say yes regularly, day in and day out, and not just on good days or in good weather."

Maisel writes that you should kill maybe, and say either yes or no. Take a stand and learn to love decisiveness.