Timebox your requests

This post is short and you should read it right now.

TLDR: when you ask someone to do something, tell them 1) the maximum amount of time they should spend on it, and 2) whether it’s urgent and important enough to deprioritize other stuff.

(And if you’re on the receiving end of the request, ask how much time you should spend and when they need it by.)

That avoids the classic “you just spent the whole day on something that wasn’t worth more than 15 minutes and could have been done next week” scenario.