'Give me one second'

It seems to me that when you ask someone asks for help and they say 'give me one second', it is never just one second to get their help. Furthermore, when someone asking for help hears that, I do not believe that they are actually expecting the help in one second. That causes them to continue with what they were doing before and often times forget what they originally asked for.

I have caught myself saying 'give me one second' many times. I try to correct myself and ask for at least one minute. I think that prompts a more realistic wait time which causes my students to actually wait. I have been getting a little better. I started being more direct. I will say something like "I will help you as soon as I finish helping 'Jared'". Sometimes that backfires though. Sometimes (not too often) I will forget and the student misses the opportunity to get help.

All I can say about that is to be persistent. Take some of the responsibility on your own. Ask again and again if you have to until you get what you want. Sometimes people are too busy or too preoccupied to respond to you the first time.