---
title: "How to say \"No\" and win back your time as a software engineer"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-say-no-and-win-back-your-time-as-a-software-engineer-wkmzo7fsa
source_url: https://read.highgrowthengineer.com/p/how-to-say-no-and-win-back-your-time
type: article
source: "Substack"
published: 2024-08-12T19:40:35.342Z
updated: 2024-11-08T09:39:07.430Z
tags: ["career", "productivity", "work-life-balance"]
reading_time: 10
upvotes: 28
comments: 1
language: en
---

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# How to say "No" and win back your time as a software engineer

**[Substack](https://daily.dev/sources/substack)** · 10 min read · 28 upvotes · 1 comments

## Summary

Sidwyn Koh, a Staff Engineer at Meta, shares strategies on how software engineers can politely say 'no' to save time and focus on their most impactful work. He outlines four approaches: Direct, Redirect, Change Their Perspective, and Stonewall. Additional tips include communicating boundaries, involving managers when overwhelmed, setting focus blocks, documenting knowledge, and balancing when to say 'no' and 'yes.' These tactics help manage responsibilities and maintain a healthy work-life balance.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://read.highgrowthengineer.com/p/how-to-say-no-and-win-back-your-time>

## Community discussion

Top comments from developers on daily.dev.

**@ghost** · 0 upvotes

> This one resonates with me: “You should say no, when you need focus time.” So obvious, but also so hard to do.

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---

Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#productivity](https://daily.dev/tags/productivity), [#work-life-balance](https://daily.dev/tags/work-life-balance)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-say-no-and-win-back-your-time-as-a-software-engineer-wkmzo7fsa)