The Art of Saying No

It’s an all-too-familiar feeling. Without thinking, you’ve already said yes to the last-minute gruelling deadline that your boss has set you. Late nights and coffee-fuelled days loom but it hasn’t stopped you committing to 6am F45 sessions at the behest of your well-meaning albeit overfond neighbour. And then there’s the soirée that you agreed to host at the last minute when, on the verge of a dinner-party-induced meltdown, your close friend decided that squeezing a throng of guests into her shoebox-sized apartment wasn’t such a good idea. Many of us who are well-practised in the art of juggling career with family and personal lives know all too well the sheer dread those three little letters — Y-E-S — often precipitate. Why is it then that we so often say yes when the truth is that agreeing to ‘just one more thing’ can make us feel like our world is about to implode?

Whether it’s a need