One at a time

A listener asks how to tackle multiple projects

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is about how to tackle multiple projects when
they all need to get done. You have a long
time to do them, but not a lot of focus time. Recently,

(00:25):
I heard from a podcast listener who's a college instructor.
Over the summer, she noted her workload was lighter, but
she always had projects she needs to accomplish. By the
end of August, she had new courses to design, old
courses to tweak, research projects, and curriculum to write up.
Her question, how should she plan her time to complete

(00:46):
several projects over the course of a few months. Would
it be better to work on each project simultaneously, putting
in a bit of time each day to each project,
or should she focus on one project at a time
and only start a new one when the others were completed.
As she noted, many people have this experience of feeling
like you have plenty of time in her case, three months,

(01:08):
and then having the season slip away. You end without
accomplishing as much as you wanted. In her case, she
also had the situation I know many listeners are coping
with right now two small kids at home all summer,
so these projects needed to be tackled around whatever time
she could seize. I think the biggest challenge in this
case is that you can always feel like you should

(01:29):
be doing something else. So here was my advice. Make
a list of exactly what needs to be accomplished over
the summer. In her case, maybe there would be three
big projects, designing a new course, completely revamping an old one,
and doing a research project. Then she could assign each
of these a portion of the summer. YEP, I believe

(01:51):
in doing one thing at a time. Maybe she would
revamp the course during the first three weeks, take four
weeks to design the new course, and then devote the
next four weeks to her research project. The reason to
do one task at a time is that you can
focus all your energy on its completion. When you do that,
you can make progress even in interrupted bits of time.

(02:13):
You can also relax because you're not constantly thinking you
should be doing something else. When you're working on revamping
one course, you know that there is time to design
a new course, but that is in July, not now.
It will get done in turn. As for making progress
in bits of time around childcare. This two can be
frustrating if you're unsure what you should be doing, so

(02:36):
I recommended that this listener break her big projects down
into small steps and then organize these by what she
could get done in tiny bits of interrupted time and
what would require focus. She could aim to do one
focused thing a day, either during nap time or in
the morning before the kids got up or after they
went to bed, or when her partner could cover. She

(02:57):
could also assign herself a handful of smaller tasks that
didn't require much time, such as sending an email or
mailing a form. When she got through those tasks each day,
she could then relax. There would be time to do
other stuff later, so she could enjoy being with the
kids instead of constantly thinking she should be doing something else.

(03:19):
If she did one big project at a time and
broke each project down into doable steps, with a short
list of steps assigned each day, I suspect that she
would feel like she'd had the most productive summer ever.
And if you do the same, I think you will too.
You can do a lot in a few minutes, but
only if you know what you need to do. Plan

(03:41):
this out fully focus and you'll be unstoppable. In the meantime,
this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making
the most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to
hear from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,

(04:03):
or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook
and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod. That's b E the
number four, then breakfast p o D. You can also
shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i
heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out
with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward

(04:25):
to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.