Generally speaking, entrepreneurs are no strangers to handle multiple projects at the same time. However, that doesn’t mean they enjoy it or they’re great at it. Most of them make huge efforts to handle all the workload, meet deadlines, see projects through to completion and push their business forward. And even if they do succeed to keep everything under control, they usually have poor results or end up on the brink of burnout.
The reality is that entrepreneurs are no magicians. They only have 24 hours in a day to get things done, just like the rest of us, with a hectic schedule and millions of responsibilities they need to manage. It takes a lot of hard work, energy, commitment and discipline to keep track of all the moving parts in each project, find solutions to all the challenges that arise along the way and still have a personal life. And the smaller their team, the more hats they have to wear, so the struggle is real.
But if there’s no sorcery involved that can make the process easier, how do the few entrepreneurs that handle multiple projects at the same time successfully do it? If you’re an entrepreneur yourself and want to find out the secrets to project juggling,
Let’s see the best strategies to handle multiple projects.
1. Centralise your projects
If you want to stay organized and never lose track of the tasks you’re working on, you need to make it easy for you to find and access all the relevant documents and details related to your projects, from schedules and budgets to invoices, to-do lists and statuses. That’s going to be incredibly difficult if not downright impossible if you have your projects scattered all over the place and you’re using a variety of different tools that are not compatible with each other to handle different operations.
Therefore, the solution is to do the exact opposite and bring everything together in one place by using a multi-project platform. These platforms provide a variety of useful features, including expense tracking, client billing, project analysis, employee onboarding, a great system for online timesheets, document signing and so on. Centralising your work will give you a bird’s eye view over all your ongoing projects, so you’ll be able to plan and manage every step of the process more efficiently.
2. Set clear goals from the get-go
Inconsistencies are also a huge problem when you have to split yourself to handle multiple projects. You might get great results in one place or in a certain phase of the project and then deal with issues and delays somewhere else. It almost feels like walking on quicksand – you never know what’s going to work and what’s going to fail or when.
A simple way to fix these issues and ensure that your handle multiple projects run smoothly from start to finish is to create a unified workflow that you can apply in each specific situation. This involves setting clear goals from the very beginning, outlining every step of the process, establishing deadlines, delegating tasks and responsibilities and making sure everyone understands and is comfortable with their roles. This should help you minimise downtimes and lags, and avoid unexpected situations.
3. Set your priorities straight
When you’re a busy entrepreneur, all your tasks seem urgent and important, but are they? Although handle multiple projects require your time and attention, chances are they have varying degrees of importance. You just need to figure out which is the right order so you can allocate your time and effort accordingly.
If you do that, you might come to realise that you don’t have to start everything at once and you can postpone certain tasks, so you can focus on more urgent matters that have a bigger impact in the grand scheme of things. A lot of business owners mistakenly start with the easiest parts first since they’re more approachable when the smarter strategy is to tackle operations in the order of their importance so you can invest your time and energy in what matters most, and leave the less significant tasks for later.
4. Delegate tasks
There’s some truth to the saying if you want something done right, do it yourself, but when you’re running a business and you have to oversee various ongoing projects, living by this motto is not just impractical but can also be extremely damaging to your company. Even if you are the one who holds the reins, you shouldn’t do everything yourself. This will drain you of all your energy and set you up for failure.
That’s why you have a team of people working for you, to help you out with all the tasks that need to be carried out on a daily basis. If you don’t have anyone you can trust to take care of important work, you should hire more competent professionals. When you delegate the right tasks to the right people, you make sure the job is done right and on time and you also have time to focus on the things that require the utmost attention.
5. Compare and adapt
If you’re already using one single platform to handle multiple projects, it’s going to be easy for you to draw a parallel between them and see where they overlap and where they diverge. Overlaying your projects allows you to identify the phases when you’ll be most busy or nonworking times, so you can make small adjustments wherever possible to balance your workload and prepare for what’s to come.
When you know exactly what to expect at every stage of the process, you can make timely decisions, such as supplementing your workforce during busy times or moving resources from one place to another as needed.
It’s certainly not easy to handle multiple projects at a time, but it’s not impossible either. As long as you prepare properly and make use of smart tools and strategies, you’ll be able to keep all the balls in the air with ease.
