Managing multiple projects

Working on multiple projects at once has made me realize something:

A list not sorted by priority is a wishlist!

And we all know what wishlists devolve into — dumpsters of disorganized items that you are no more likely to purchase than the next new thing that catches your attention. I might even call them graveyards forever haunted by the items you almost liked enough to buy.

And, you know what? That’s perfectly fine in the context of shopping for clothes, games, and books, or what have you. 

The problem occurs when a backlog of tasks at your job turns into a wishlist.

You most likely already know what I’m referring to. Situations like getting assigned a second (or third, or fourth) highest priority task whilst already working on a highest priority task. And, before you ask, yes — they’re all equally highest priority.

You have to prioritize

The fact of the matter is that you cannot have several highest priority tasks — it is both semantically inane and categorically impossible. At best, you can pretend out loud that you consider all tasks and projects equally important while you perform them in some non-random order.

So, the first and foremost skill you need to master to manage multiple projects effectively is prioritization. 

Take a good hard look at the tasks that need doing and sort them. The benefit of this is that you’ll make some of your clients very happy, while leaving others no less happy than they would have been otherwise. 

How not prioritizing hurts you and your clients

To illustrate this through an example, let’s say your job is to load cargo ships. You have three ships docked, and it takes two days to load each ship. (These numbers are for demonstration purposes only; I know next to nothing about loading ships; don’t @ me!)

Do you switch between the three ships periodically so that they all receive the same amount of attention each day? If so, all three ships would have to spend six days anchored at your harbor, taking up space and making their captains grumpy.

Or, do you prioritize them so that you can focus all your efforts on one ship at a time. In this case, one ship would be fully loaded and ready to go in only two days; another would be ready to depart in four days (which is still much better lead time than if you were to not prioritize); the last ship would be ready on day six.

In this example, to not prioritize would be to placate all three captains at everyone’s expense. By prioritizing, you can make one captain very happy, another happier than they would have been otherwise, and the third one no less happy than they would have been if you had treated all ships as equally important.

As for how you prioritize, that’s up to you. 

Make prioritizing multiple projects easy with project management tools

I find that the best way to manage multiple projects is by using a project management tool to centralize all tasks and visualize my workflow. In particular, I do this through Plaky and its Kanban View option.

My manager at CAKE.com uses the same tool to organize and prioritize work at the team level. When an unexpected high priority task pops up (which is a common workplace reality that you have to be ready to contend with), she’s able to see what everyone on the team is doing and when they’ll be done with ongoing tasks. This allows her to squeeze the new tasks in without major disruptions to the team’s workflow.

If and when major disruptions are unavoidable — I have had to drop a task midway through on a couple occasions — it’s always made crystal clear that the new task takes higher priority.

The takeaway of this rant is that prioritization is the most important tool in your arsenal when managing multiple projects or tasks. 

I’m not saying it’s easy to prioritize — you’re essentially saying no to one thing (or person) so that you can say yes to another. This can be downright uncomfortable. But avoiding to do so is actively detrimental to everyone involved.

I will now put to writing a motivational speech to help you accomplish this:

💪 Just prioritize! 💪

💪 Don’t let your backlog be an unsorted wishlist! 💪

💪 Prioritize! 💪

On the off chance that this motivational speech didn’t do the trick, you can always refer to a more detailed project prioritization guide written by my capable colleague Galina Vasiljčuk , which includes 10 frameworks you can follow, complete with downloadable templates.

#cakedotcom #cakedotpeople #plaky #projectmanagement