In my last post, we discussed prioritization and keeping everything straight when it comes to managing multiple projects simultaneously. In this post, we’ll talk about some of the common pitfalls, what to do about them, and surviving the ebbs and flows of juggling multiple projects.
Managing several projects and clients is often an experiment; finding what works for you, your workflows, and your project teams is key. Figuring out what not to do, modifying it, and moving on is the often the best way to attain that balance. Below are some of the common pitfalls of managing multiple projects at once:
Getting overwhelmed. When you feel yourself getting overwhelmed, it’s critical to recognize it before you panic, shut down, meltdown, or something else. There are some things that can be done for both you and your team when you see people (including yourself) getting overwhelmed.
Delegate! (We’ll go into this more later.)
Aim to accomplish at least a couple tasks per day. A lot of our large tasks can take awhile to complete and can make us feel like we’re not accomplishing anything. Meanwhile, other tasks can pile on and contribute to that overwhelmed feeling. When things are incredibly busy, take some time to finish smaller levels of effort tasks to get them off the to-do list and out of your brain.
Don’t forget to take a break – sometimes stepping away gives you a chance to organize your thoughts and view a problem from a different perspective.
Focus on one thing at a time. In a world of multitasking, you sometimes feel the need to do more. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, give one task your full concentration and then move on to the next.
Don’t forget to take care of yourself. Eat, sleep, exercise, and make time for whatever helps you clear your head.
Not delegating. There are a lot of reasons people don’t delegate. If you find yourself not delegating, take some time to figure out why. There are many reasons why you should delegate as a leader:
You can’t do everything. The chance that you will have the skillset or time to do everything is unlikely. Remember to play to your team’s strengths.
Delegating tasks helps with team building. It can build trust as well as make people feel more committed.
Delegating reduces the workload and stress all around. If you are delegating, you can often help spread the workload around so you don’t have some team members overburdened and others sitting around with little to do.
It can build new skills for you and the team. Delegating is a skill itself. Furthermore, doing so can also help build new skills for your team members. Someone tasked with something new will have to broaden their knowledge and abilities in that particular area – benefitting both them in the long run as well as your immediate project needs.
*Note: When it comes to delegation, remember, you still need to stay involved. This is not a hand it off and forget it situation. Take the time to ensure the task is getting done and done correctly.
Managing by incorrectly prioritizing. There are several risks when you manage by incorrect priority. The most common of which are:
Urgency fatigue.
Less important, routine things becoming emergencies.
You and your team are reactive and tactical instead of proactive and strategic.
Sloppy work.
To help determine the appropriate priority, we’ll use Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important principle. Urgent tasks are defined as demanding immediate attention, but don’t move the project towards its goals. Important tasks are defined as having outcomes that move the project towards its goals. Tasks will go into four quadrants:
Quadrant 1 – Urgent and Important: There are two types of these – foreseen and unforeseen. The goal is reduce the number of foreseen tasks that fall into quadrant one and putting time aside for the unforeseen.
Quadrant 2 – Not urgent but important: These achieve the goals of your work and, in an ideal world, where the majority of your time should be spent.
Quadrant 3 – Urgent, but not important: These are great candidates for delegation and need to be done quickly.
Quadrant 4 – Not urgent and not important: These are often a distraction and should be reviewed for how necessary they are. They should be postponed or removed from the list altogether.
Saying “Yes” to everything. This is probably the quickest way to be hated by your team and get your project to spin out of control. Instead of saying “Yes” to everything, consider saying “No” by not saying no.
By this, I mean, explain the ramifications of any decisions. This can be done by presenting different options on how to fit things in as they usually include an increase in budget or schedule. They can also include a decrease in scope. If it’s not recommended, tell the client why and discuss what problem they’re trying to solve so you can provide alternative suggestions.
Over-promising and under-delivering. This can destroy trust with the client and demoralize the project team. It is one of the biggest killers of projects as a result. Instead, keep the expectations of you, your clients, and your team reasonable. Be honest when working through schedules and let the team (internal and external) know when issues arise. When you are going to the client team, make sure you have options as well as a clear understanding of potential workarounds and solutions.
Forgetting the big picture. Scheduling in a vacuum can cause a multitude of problems on your projects. It increases emergencies, causes resource contention, sloppy work, and overcommitted resources. To keep the big picture in mind, look at overall schedules, keep track of risks for all your projects, know what your resources have on their plates, and remember to schedule smartly. Scheduling smartly includes leaving time for your team members to switch context between projects, deal with emergencies (either work or personal), and other projects.
Other pitfalls include shortcuts, not talking, not setting expectations, burnout, and overscheduling. Taking shortcuts leads to technical debt that will have to be addressed later. Forgetting to set expectations leads to frustration on all accounts. If you are juggling many projects, set reasonable expectations on the client on your availability. Burnout and the tendency to put your head down and just work all the tasks. Consider the matrix of urgent versus important. Focus attention and avoid burning yourself into the ground. Not talking to your teams.
No news isn’t always good news, so make sure to keep everyone apprised of things – even if you don’t have anything. Letting people know you haven’t forgotten them goes a long way. Overscheduling your team. Give people time to context switch, have a break, and realize things go wrong (people get sick or injured!).
There are plenty of other pitfalls, but those are the ones I’ve seen most frequently. Now that we’ve discussed pitfalls, let’s talk about a little about handling the ebbs and flows of project work.
In my experience, project work generally goes in waves. Sometimes, it will feel like everyone wants everything at the same time. During crazy times, it’s important to:
Know your priorities. Having a solid understanding of your priorities takes the stress out of the question “What should I be working on first?” You already know because you are familiar with your priorities.
Understand what you’re agreeing to when you say “Yes.” This goes back to the pitfall of saying yes to everything.
Anticipate change where you can.
Communicate and set expectations. If you get an email you don’t know the answer to, there is nothing wrong with saying “I don’t know; let me research it and get back with you on Tuesday.”
Don’t forget the big picture.
Organize your workflow. Figure out what works best for you to keep that list of things that need to happen. Keeping that out of your head makes it so you don’t have to spend cycles trying to remember things and worrying about dropping them.
Know your team’s strengths and lean on them during busy times. Leave some time for learning, but if you’re in a true crunch, lean on your subject matter experts.
Take advantage of your down time. Use this time to review your projects and familiarize yourself with their details, priorities, risks, and timelines.
Practice Makes Perfect …
Despite being faced with a multitude of difficulties associated with managing multiple projects, it’s important that you don’t panic. It may be easy to be overwhelmed at first, but the more you do it, the more comfortable you become. Managing more projects helps you figure out what to do and even generally expect for your next project – and practice makes perfect!
By following the aforementioned do’s and don’ts, you’ll be able to mitigate common problems, keep your clients happy, and help your projects take off and succeed. Follow these rules, get things done, and start moving towards your project goals today!
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