If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to the feed or subscribe to us on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!

When people find out that I work from home, they get the impression that I have a bunch of free time on my hands. “Oh it must be nice to have more time to get things done.”

And then the requests to help them out with things begin. “Can you pick up my son from school on Wednesday?” “Would you mind picking up some groceries for me?” “Working online must be fun; can you help me build a website too?”

At first I had a hard time saying no. It wasn’t that big of deal to buy some extra sugar for my neighbor while at the grocery store. I was going to be in the area when my cousin’s gymnastics class let out, so I could easily swing by and pick her up.

All those little things started to add up though. Pretty soon I was left with no time left to work on my own things and something had to stop. And I was started to resent all of the extra work because there was very little appreciation.

I had to learn how to use the very simple word no. The experts all say that it is best to use an assertive no, followed by a simple reason of why you cannot help. You always want to tell the truth. Making up an excuse that is not true may come back to haunt you later.

For me the truth is very easy. I will generally say “No, I am unable to help as my job keeps me very busy.” And it does. I think being a work at home mom is one of the toughest jobs out there. There is very little downtime involved.

If you do get many requests for help and you can’t help, practice saying no. It can make it much easier when you are faced with a request and you simply do not have the time.

Do people often ask you for help? How do you feel about helping them out? I know that since I have started to say no, that my stress level has been reduced greatly.

Warmly,
Mia