[bob1029]

I have an additional trick - If you are the person of whom help is frequently asked, employ a nominal delay before you get into it.

"Sure - let's get on <conference line> in 5 minutes"

I've found this to work well. "hang on I'm going to try 1 more thing". And, then you don't hear from them until tomorrow.

[bluefirebrand]

I use this trick a lot. I tend to vary between 10-20 minutes though.

I also usually give them a starting point.

"Hey I'm in the middle of something. I can chat in 15 minutes or so. In the meantime if you haven't yet, try X, Y, Z"

This helps push them to at least try something so when I ask later "Did you try X Y or Z?" They can have some kind of answer.

[groffee]

I found this in a non-development role, this lady would constantly phone me for 'help' and I found that if I just ignored her (in a nice way) she'd fix it herself in a few minutes.

[Justsignedup]

brilliant idea. i will use this