Many clients do not understand that, no, I really do not have time at the moment to do that small presentation design project, as I am focussing 100% on my coding efforts.

People understand that it is unreasonable to ask for a big project, but that small presentation fix, that should work right? It will only take a few hours.

Here is the problem with those few hours:

• The opportunity cost of those few hours can be huge, since coding a big feature in the app can take an entire day or more. Knowing that you have to spend a few hours on something else means you won’t even get started on it.

• Building on that: this small project might actually be an excuse to put off that major feature update

• Now that I am a bit out of the presentation design flow, what used to take me a few hours, could actually take a lot more time.

• A small design fix is not a big rewarding project, it is likely to be a fix: a small payment, not my best work, in short a distraction.

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