What do you say to a person who asks "Have you got a minute?" but means "Drop everything you're doing"?

then if its something that don't take all your focus then you could say yes and while you continue what you're doing you listen to the person but when you look the person, fix her eyes for at least 10 seconds and you can also shake your head (yes) but don't forget to also talk with the person.

Well this might be difficult so you can also say no but when you say no be polite and explain that you can't right now because there's other people that are waiting for you to finish this quickly .

It would depend on what I was already working on and what the deadline on that was. If it's something that can be put aside, I would but I'd also tell the person I need to get on that project soon. You have to learn how to juggle things in this world, have to learn how to prioritize. If whatever the boss wanted me to do is going to take overly long, and if it's something that needs to be done but has a little flexibility timewise, I'd ask if it would be ok if I finished my first job (the one I have been working on) first, which I estimate will only take another X amount of time, before I started his project. Or if the boss insisted on his job getting done first and I estimated it was going to take longer then the boss says (bosses don't always have a realistic grasp on the actually meat'n'potatoes end of a project since they don't have to do the work themselves), I'd call the person I had been doing the first project for and let them know the boss just took me off and I won't be able to meet the deadline. You have to negotiate sometimes, often the person will say "ok, I just wanted it as soon as possible but I don't really need it immediately"--meaning they just wanted it back in their grubby hands and there wasn't the dire emergency that they made it out to be initially. If the first requestor says he really needs his project now, I say he can go to the boss and explain that to him; I leave it in his lap to deal with boss--sometimes he will and then you know he seriously needs his project done first; but often he doesn't want to trump the boss even though he knows the boss's project is of lesser need--and he will just have to either find someone else to take over or be patient. I do that when two people of equal rank want my attention at the same time--I let them decide between them which one goes first. It's not my place to choose favorites, but the boss always holds more weight. I have told my boss that I'm already working on a time sensitive project for X and the boss has said "oh, well, when you're finished with that come see me."

Parent: Just ignore it, unless it's a really important matter (in the case of my parents, it's not. Ever. Just taking my time and energy to control me...)

Teacher: Depends which teacher, how important the task is, etc.

Boss: Depends how you're depending on that job... and again, how important is the task.

Always look at the task itself, and things as they are. Is it really important? More important than what you're doing? (Look at it from the Universe's point of view, for the good of everyone... not from yours as an individual). And choose.

You say "Yes, but only a minute." Agree to accomplish whatever they're asking letting them know it will be right after your finish your present task. UNLESS, the consensus is that the new task takes priority.

To a boss or someone in charge of me, I'd smile and say "That's about all I do have, trying to get this done..." to anyone else, I'd say "No, actually I don't."