Suppose you are working on a tight deadline and your manager asks you to work on another project. How do you prioritize your work?

Employers ask this question to learn more about how you respond to unexpected increases in your workload. Your answer will also help an employer evaluate how flexible you are, which is an especially important skill in fast-paced working environments.
In your response, give an example of an occasion where you were assigned multiple projects the techniques you used to respond to this situation.

Example

In my last job as an executive assistant, I faced many situations where I had to work on different projects with conflicting deadlines. A few months ago, I my boss asked me to lead our executive correspondence reorganization project, while still having to execute my day-to-day roles.

I made a list of all the tasks that I needed to complete, alongside their deadlines and the size of each task. Then, I evaluated the importance of each task, in addition to the deadline for the task, and prioritized those which needed my attention. I also asked my manager to assign an additional executive assistant to work on the file reorganization project, so that my workload was manageable.

As a result, I was able to fulfill all of my duties and I did not miss any of my core deadlines. My boss assigned an additional assistant to work on the project as well. This situation made me realize how important it is to consistently evaluate the priorities of my task, and to understand my work boundaries.