One of the Ways to Achieve Work-Life Balance is to Say NO

If you look back on the time you have spent as an adult, do you feel like you’ve been too much of a people pleaser?

This is often the case with most individuals, both in their personal and professional lives.

One of the ways to achieve work-life balance is to say No.

Learning how to say no is a great way to develop the kind of life you want for increased happiness and productivity.

Start by analyzing your personal commitments.

There are many times when well-meaning friends and family will look to delegate their tasks to you, especially if you work at home.

They often don’t understand that building an online business actually entails work and that your time is just as valuable as theirs.

Most people can’t fathom the idea of actually having to put in the same amount of effort as a solo entrepreneur working from home as someone who works in the corporate world.

Actually, it often takes more effort when you are getting started building your online business from home and you often end up working more to get things going.

But, people will assume that you have nothing to do and that since you are home…you have no reason not to give in to their requests.

Have you been asked to watch someone else’s children, run errands for them, or do someone else’s chores?

Sometimes, they didn’t even have to ask, but you simply suggested it because you felt the need to lessen someone else’s burden.

This may have caused more of a burden on you, though.

Please don’t do this to yourself.

Just because you aren’t working for an employer doesn’t mean that your time means nothing.

You have your own things that are important to get done, both with your online business and with your home life.

Don’t guilt yourself into thinking that just because you have more freedom in your schedule you have to do things for everyone else.

Your life and business matter too.

You will end up neglecting your own life and business because once you volunteer…you will be expected to always be available for everything else that comes up in the future.

So, if you have taken on the tasks of others, it may be time to kindly return it to them to handle themselves.

In the future, you need to stop yourself from taking on everyone else’s problems and learn how to say No when asked if you either don’t have time to do something or simply don’t want to.

And stop volunteering, unless you truly have the time and your life and business are already running well and thriving.

Taking on too much of other people’s needs, whether you were asked to or took it upon yourself to help, will end up causing you to be stressed out.

You will end up feeling resentful and like you have been taken advantage of by others, just because you work for yourself from home.

You might even end up doing things you don’t want to do at all, after already doing other things that you didn’t mind doing.

This will create even more stress and resentment.

Sometimes, just the fact that you are having to do something you don’t want to do can cause stress that interferes with your focus and creativity while you’re trying to work on your online business.

Now, besides learning to say No to non-work related things, you also want to learn how to say No to your online business.

There are some things you may have agreed to with clients or colleagues that you didn’t really feel comfortable with from the start.

For example, you may have agreed to promote someone whose products you really don’t like, but you didn’t want to be rude.

This kind of stress can ruin your entire day, especially if you begin having to field complaints from customers who are disappointed in your recommendations.

If you have entered into a joint venture agreement with another online entrepreneur, and they seem to be unloading all of their tasks onto your plate, you need to be proactive and put a stop to it.

It should be an equal endeavor where both parties are contributing the same to the project.

The bottom line is that it’s okay to be particular about who you work with and what projects you agree to because it is your online business that suffers in the end.

You didn’t decide to work for yourself, instead of a boss, just to end up miserable.

So, it’s okay to say No, when it’s going to affect the quality of your life and business.

Setting boundaries is always the best way to create the work-life balance that you need to be successful.