How to politely decline requests to meet?

Just ignore them. On social media, ignoring a stranger is not rude. It's the default. And a perfectly valid strategy for dealing with the volume of people asking for your valuable time.

Obviously, when it's someone you know or important to you, give them the courtesy of a polite decline or say you're very busy and will let them know if anything changes in the future. But for strangers: ignore if you don't want to interact.

"No, thank you."

That's 100% polite. Nothing more really needs to be said.

I'll also add that the ability to say "No, thank you" is perhaps the single most important professional skill you can learn.

Why are you letting strangers add you on LinkedIn? And then meeting them in person, no less?

Sure you can tell them no, but you can also just ignore their cold outreach. I don't have anyone on my linkedin that I haven't met somehow.

"No" is a complete sentence.

That is, you can just say no. You don't owe them an explanation. You don't have to justify your decision. You don't have to convince them that it isn't possible (or reasonable) for you to make it. You can just... say no.

If you want more politeness, say "Thank you, but I think I'll pass".

My 2 cents ... If I know the individual inviting me then a polite 'thank you for the offer / thinking of me, but I must decline.' no more is needed. If you do not know them, i.e a blind invite, then ignoring is more than a reasonable approach, you are under no obligation to respond. Your time, your rules.

In case the problem is only commute time/cost:

- no agenda - no meeting

- suggest to talk on the phone or zoom first

- aggregate multiple meetings at the same day, same place, .i.e. office hours style

- you can schedule a day working out of the coffee shop or coworking place and taking the meetings there

- or say "I'm attending event XYZ at DD/MM, we could talk there"

- if not particularly interested - ask for money in advance, or lunch / dinner at the expense of the inviter (not just coffee)

If you don’t know them just ignore them. At least thank them for their interest but tell them you’re not interested at this time.

"I'm not doing many XYZ at the moment, so will pass." "Appreciate the invite!" [because it sounds like you do appreciate it]

As others are saying the best approach is simply "No, thank you".

Slightly off topic but the more persistent types have been trained/given scripts to (rudely) probe for reasons no matter what you say - as if it has ever been a case of "oh yes, now you've been annoying, I think I will accept your invite"! Personally I have no particular concerns about being rude to that sort, but i find that ambiguous emoji replies work great to shut down further efforts (even better than no response)

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 :)

“Thank you for reaching out, but not at this time”

Just say no unless they have an immediate and definitive way to bolster your efforts and energy. Life is too short. Intense focus is critical to success.

> Recently, I started posting about my work on social media,

Why? What are you hoping to achieve by doing this?

Lay off the social media and get back to doing some real work.

“I get anxious at gatherings and typically prefer not to go, but thanks for thinking of me”