Just say no: 13 ways to get out of everything – from extra work to Christmas parties

Do you yearn to set strong boundaries, but are scuppered by a lifelong tendency to people-please? Here is how to stop now

You probably don't need to be told that your life would improve if you could learn to say no". Take a look at your to-do list. Take a look at your diary. How much of that could someone else be doing while you took a bath in epsom salts and listened to a podcast about ghosts? How much resentment and chagrin could you have sloughed off as you rolled around in your acres of uncontaminated me-time?

Natalie Lue, the author of The Joy of Saying No, spent almost the first 30 years of her life saying yes". How did that work out for her? It led to being ill, feeling frustrated and resentful with family, at work, even with friends."