As a developer, and, in general, as a person, I am what most people would say a 'yes-man'. There is some inherent value in always saying yes to most opportunities that come our way:

• opens up more opportunities for growth: the more diverse things we choose to work on, the better positioned we will be to grow and learn things we otherwise wouldn't, especially, when some of these opportunities lie outside of our sphere of immediate colleagues;

• fosters collaboration with other people: opportunities to do cross-team collaboration are a great way to establish yourself within your team and company and at the same time, it allows you to learn how the organization functions which is always valuable;

• usually can nurture relationships of trust which in turn make more work come your way in a vicious "good" cycle;

However, there are several drawbacks to always saying yes as well. When things don't go as well as expected, it can be tough to be held accountable, and the feeling of "maybe I should have said no, to begin with" starts kicking in.

Besides being a tricky situation when things go wrong, even when they do go right, time is lost due to having to work on multiple tasks at once, or at least more than if we were more selective on what to say yes to.

The trick is to learn how to say no:

• prioritize what is more important to you and focus on those things first;

• accept that you can't control everything and that not everything is your direct responsibility, even if you are familiar with it;

• decide when it's better to redirect people towards more relevant colleagues who know more than you about a given subject;

By learning how to say no, you can better manage your priorities and control your own time!