Ask HN: How Do You Juggle Multiple Projects?
If you have a handful of projects you're interested in, do you cycle between them in increments- power through them in sequence, or approach them some other way?
I'm reflecting on how I approach my handful of projects; currently I change focus each day on a 4 day cycle between 4 different projects. While it feels like I'm maintaining 'multiple irons in the fire', it also feels like I'm spinning my wheels to some degree.
Reading second hand accounts of the corporate world on HN, the industry standard seems to be focusing on one thing at a time with dedicated teams - but I'm unsure if that's due to it being the best way to get the most out of a handful of workers with varied aptitudes and motivation levels - or if it's the best way for human minds to focus productive attention, hands down.
I'd appreciate anyone's thoughts on this topic, especially in the context of self employment.
Do you rotate to keep your motivation alive, or because of other reasons (e.g. let a topic simmer for a few days, so you get inspired / or reducing risks by gaining more information or knowledge over time)?
Because multitasking is the worst possible.
Let's say you want to finish A which lasts 5 units of time/effort, B which lasts 7, and C which is 6.
Compare Sequential vs Multitasking
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AAAAABBBBBBBCCCCCC
ABCABCABCABCABCBCC
Sequential: A done at 5, B done at 5+6=11, C done at 5+6+7=18
Multitasking: A done at 13, B done at 16, C done at 18.
And, that doesn't count the task switching costs.
So choosing multitasking only makes sense when you gain something by waiting, or have external constraints. In the context of self-employment, keeping your clients happy and calm with (the performance of) steady progress (even if it costs more than faster completion, if done in a more efficient way) may make it worth if you have to take multiple concurrent jobs at once, e.g. if you need to involve them in decision making that stall your progress.
Theres no external constraint of customer relations or motivation management in the current project juggling cycle. I adopted it because I was simply frustrated that I wasn't making progress on A when working on B, and vice versa. Now, I can quell that frustration by saying "Well, A's going to be addressed in 2 days, it's all good"
I assumed to be avoiding the penalty of task switching, I'm not well read on the topic but I assume it's more pronounced trying to do X different tasks per day, than segregating one focus per day with a sleep in between them.
That being said, your comparison of time/effort ratio is very apt. Frequently I've found myself having to temporarily halt the cycle in order to focus on cranking out one project that needed much more attention before some date. The rates of each project progression are not equal, and a simple split does not address this at all.
The fear of focusing on one project at a time instead of juggling them is that each project's completion is probably on the time scale of many months- so to neglect all other projects in favor of one- for chunks of a year at a time, seems like it would be very stress inducing.
Maybe it's a good case to consider some compromise between the extremes, something less frequent than daily switching, perhaps weekly, biweekly, or more is a more appropriate time scale to approach this with.
I make games and write novels. I categorize my projects into two buckets.
1) Primary: I plan to take this all the way to the end and release it. 2) Exploratory: I like this project idea, but I know there is a ton to figure out, and I am not ready to fully commit.
I only allow myself to have 2 primary projects (1 game and 1 novel). Whenever I'm bored or stuck on my primary projects I dabble in N amount of exploratory projects. This allows me to not get overwhelmed when I go off chasing some other idea, and it allows me to not go all in on the exploratory projects.
Overtime I know what my next Primary project will be, because I have a stronger sense of what I need to do to get it done by dabbling in it previously.
If I paid people I would want them solely focused on finishing one project. Because once you hire them, their time really is money, and you will want to make that money back.
For me, the key to effectively stopping/starting projects is to make is rock solid stable in terms of development experience and testing. Things like dev containers so you can build without any errors, running a test suite, deployment automation, etc.
When I didn't have this, I often times gave up when resurrecting an old project!
I give myself permission to work on projects slowly. And I give myself permission to work on projects obsessively.
I give myself permission to start new projects on a whim. And I give myself permission to abandon projects.
The work is the reason I work on projects. The work itself is the project that matters. Not admiration of what I make. Not despair of it either.
My discipline requires remembering these things. I am working on my discipline. Good luck.
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Edits:
I give myself permission to work on small projects.
I give myself permission to work on projects solely for my own direct benefit.
I give myself permission to work on projects that make me happy.
I hope to eventually get to at a place of luxury to where I can be so whimsical with my creative direction. Projects for personal pleasure, exploratory nature, or high risk of abandonment may have some % chance of uncovering something unique and fruitful, but those dice rolls cost a lot of real world hours
dice rolls cost a lot of real world hours
Those hours are how you learn craft.
I described a hard road.
Excuses are easier.
I don’t do well with more than one focus. I stick with one project and focus at all times. There are plenty of things I’d like to do, but whenever I try I end up putting most of my effort in one and it takes over my mind even when I’m working on the other project.
I don't. I could never make it work.
Just all in on one project for several years now.
Single threaded with Timesharing intervals if needed.
Yea, it's difficult. One project a day, I alternate.