[evrydayhustling]

This! It's totally true that being anxious to please can be wasteful and long term harmful, but there is a long way between that and "do nothing". Here are some scaled responses to low-value requests:

- Nudge for a better request. Create and refer to a standard for making requests that helps people get past their psychology and into substance before seeking help.

- Ask for impact assessment. It is fair for people to seek help before attempting to resolve a problem if the scale is large enough, but it's important you get info that helps you prioritize. Ask for it.

- Set expectations. Being honest about where helping fits into your priority queue lets the other person plan accordingly, and gives you a way to be responsive without constantly switching gears.

The main reason not to do any of the above is to obfuscate your own process, which is long term harmful to your team relations. On the other hand, when dealing with competitors, unwanted services, etc, "do nothing" is an underused strategy...

[p_l]

The problem is that most of that is work, sometimes considerable work. However sometimes interruptions are impossible to avoid, and also you need to do some of that work anyway.

Generally you want at least the following two tools to handle it:

"interrupt shield" mechanism - it involves having a set time for answering interruptions, and if you have more than one person on the team, having them cover different time frames as the point of contact person.

Setting expectations about time frames for reaction etc and enforcing them. Which means not just making sure you answer on time, but also to ensure you don't unnecessarily overcommit. Do not create an expectation of jumping to it.