By Nicole Williams, www.nicolewilliams.com

Question: I have a million people asking me for favors and because I want to help I always say yes. Then I’m up all night trying to get everything done. How do I say no without making people wary of asking for my help in the future?

Answer: Repeat after me: NO. Explain that you’d love to help (if that’s true) but your schedule is jammed. Think quality instead of quantity. Select a few of the people/things you’d really like to dedicate some time to and go all out, rather than giving the half-assed effort that comes with sleepless nights and a lack of focus. I guess my question is: What would be so wrong with making people wary of asking you for anything and everything? Seems you could use a little decrease in the number of asks—a million is a lot.