[mpolichette]

You don't have to say no... Talk to whoever you report to, tell them the things you are working on and align your goals with theirs and prioritize what you should be working on.

When people ask you to do something, tell them where it will fall in your priority list and ask them if they would still like you to come back to them at that point.

I general this works for me, I have product managers come and ask me if I can work out a feature, I say, 'Yeah, I can do that, but i'll have to put off x in order to get to it... is this task more important than x?'

Also, in a similar but different note, at one point as a team lead, I did say no to a project which I felt didn't make sense for our company. It immediately went back up the ladder and turned into career growth for me. So there can be incentive for saying no also!