How To Manage Multiple Projects
Whether you run a blog alongside a day job, freelance alongside a 9-5, or maybe you're a creative entrepreneur balancing multiple projects and workloads; keeping on top of everything and managing your time can be quite the juggling act. As a multi-passionate creative entrepreneur, I spread my work week between running an online lifestyle magazine, blogging, and building a freelance career consulting for other creatives. Alongside that I'm also working on some side projects (and trying to have a life in the process) so finding ways to stay organised and manage multiple projects has been super important for me lately. I think I'm finally feeling on top of things though, and today I want to share four steps I've found to make all the difference when it comes to staying on top of various workloads:
Multiple Calendars & To-Do Lists When you're juggling various projects, separating them into their own calendars and to-do lists is one of the best ways to stay on top of things. It's far too easy for deadlines to be missed and key steps to be forgotten if you can't separate your different workloads, so setting up multiple calendars and keeping a to-do list for each project can really help you to stay focused and on track. I have separate calendars for everything; my blog, ALO, freelance projects, side projects, general business maintenance, and a personal joint calendar with Alex as well. If you use Google Calendar you can chose to view each project separatly or all together for when you want to have a general overview of upcoming deadlines which always helps me to plan ahead.
Build A Weekly Schedule This is something I've only recently started doing and it's made such a huge different to my productivity levels. I used to just plan my workload a day at a time, but now I spread tasks throughout the week and pin point different days to focus on specific projects. This way each project can have enough of my attention, and I can build a weekly schedule that allows me to get more done. Bethany shared an awesome post on How To Create a Weekly Schedule that's an awesome read.
Discover How You Work Best This is huge for when it comes to balancing multiple projects. Some of us work best splitting our day up between multiple workloads - a few hours on one project, then a few more on a different one. For others, having specific days to completely lose ourselves in one project is how we work best and finding the best routine for you is super important for when it comes to utilising your time. Do you get bored easily? Or do certain projects/workloads need daily attention? Maybe for you splitting your day in half to focus on two or three major tasks is the best way to go. If you like to work a little more intensely though, and if swapping between projects throughout your work day is a little too chaotic for you, then building your weekly schedule around specific days for specific projects probably will suit your workflow much better.
Have Deadlines, Action Plans, & Regular Check-Ins Balancing multiple projects and workloads can be super stressful. Keeping on top of two websites, freelance client work, and personal side projects and behind the scenes business plans can sometimes leave me feeling stretched far too thin. The only way I stay on top of things is by having action plans, regular check-ins with where I'm at with each workload/project, and being aware of any looming deadlines. Accountability keeps us on track, and whether that's through a colleague or just the standards and deadlines you set for yourself, checking in every now and again just to see how everything is doing can be super helpful when trying to stay on top of things.
I'd love to know your best advice for managing multiple projects?
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