My wife and I have vastly different work experiences.

She drives 20-minutes to her office where she runs HR at our hospital. I walk across the driveway to my office where I support small business owners over the phone.

She spends most of her days in executive meetings. I spend most of my days working on my businesses, creating content, and working with small business owners to help them make their businesses work for them.

She leads a team of 20-something people. I lead a tiny team.

And yet, regardless of how different our work looks, we have one thing in common: we often find ourselves elbows deep in projects we should have delegated from the jump.

If you are like almost everyone I work with, you can probably relate.

Here are three simple things we should all consider before saying YES to a task:

What will this prevent me from doing? Saying “yes” to one thing is saying “no” to everything else, so it’s worth contemplating if there is more important/interesting work that you’ll miss.

Is this a responsible use of my time? It’s easy to take on a task because you “feel bad” that someone else has to do it or that it has to be done at all, but that isn’t a great way to make a decision that will encumber your limited time, energy, and focus. Is this the highest use of you?

Is this an opportunity to teach someone? Don’t let a desire to swoop in and save the day stunt your team’s growth. Sometimes taking on a task is just a way to avoid training someone…even though doing so would be the greatest gift you could give yourself.

Saying “YES” isn’t always the most helpful thing you can do for yourself, your team, or your business, so think (at least) thrice before you do it. 

If you are feeling overwhelmed as a small business owner, download my free Anti-Overwhelm Playbook today. It will help you find the clarity and direction you need to overcome overwhelm and cancel the chaos so you can build your business with complete clarity.