How do I ask multiple managers for clear priorities without sounding difficult

The cleanest way to fix this is to ask for one ranked backlog and a named tie‑breaker, framed as making them faster rather than limiting your help. Try: "To hit dates across Product, Marketing, and Eng, I need one place where this week's tasks are stack‑ranked 1 to N, and a 20‑minute Monday sort to confirm the rank and tie‑breaker." Offer to run it: "I will prep a draft list each Friday and propose the rank, you confirm on Monday, and if two items conflict during the week [single decider] breaks ties." Make it visible: create a Slack channel like #wk-priorities, post the ranked list with owners and due dates after the call, and pin that message so everyone refers to the same source of truth.

When two urgent asks land, reply with the trade‑off and a request for a choice: "I can finish the launch doc today or the email sequence, not both - the doc is 2 hours and the sequence is 3 hours, which should I ship first?" If there is no response by an agreed window, act and document: "No reply by 2 p.m., proceeding with the demo doc, email moves to tomorrow," then update the pinned priorities post. This both protects you and forces a conscious trade‑off, and you will have the thread as a record if someone escalates.

Ask them to define urgency levels and defaults so not everything is P0: "P0 means within 24 hours, P1 this week, P2 next week, and if a request is P0 please tag it and confirm what moves out." Set boundaries for late pings across time zones: "After 6 p.m. my time I am offline - if something is truly P0, call it out and I will swap it with the current top item, otherwise I will start at 9 a.m. next day," and set Slack Do Not Disturb plus a status with your local hours. To handle midweek churn, propose a quick Wednesday async check where you post any changes to the ranked list in the channel by 10 a.m., they react to confirm or comment by noon, and you adjust once, not five times.

Stop absorbing the blast for them. Send one note to all three: 'I can deliver A or B by Thursday. Who owns priority today?' Propose this cadence: '20 minutes every Monday to set the top three and a tie breaker on call.' Use this line when everything is hot: 'If everything is urgent, nothing is. Confirm which slips.' When they conflict midweek, reply in the same thread: 'Pausing work until I get a single go from X by 2 p.m.' Close with your boundary: 'After-hours work requires pre-approval from the owner of the priority.'

Ask who sets priority, CC all three, and escalate conflicting deadlines immediately.

Just email them all saying 'Hey team, conflicting priorities here - can we hop on a quick call to rank these tasks?'

Schedule a standing meeting with all of them to align on priorities each week. Make it clear you're swamped and need their input to avoid bottlenecks. Suggest something like 'Let's do a 15-minute triage every Monday to sort the week's urgents.' When deadlines collide, reply to both with 'These two are clashing - which one takes precedence?' That way you're not deciding alone and it shows you're proactive. If everything's urgent, push back by asking for realistic timelines upfront.