Most people recognize that when you’re answering email while walking your dog and listening in on a meeting, you’re bound to lose effectiveness. Whether it’s that awkward silence when your boss asks for your input and you didn’t hear it—or you stepping in something not so pleasant because you didn’t realize your dog had done his business right in front of you.
The limitations of multitasking present themselves in an obvious fashion.
But as a time management coach, I’ve seen that it’s not just trying to do too many small things at once that can trip you up. I also see people dramatically reduce their effectiveness when they try to do too many large things at once—a tendency I like to call “macrotasking.”
Macrotasking can look like remodeling your kitchen while switching jobs and also having a baby. Or it can look like redesigning your company’s website while also launching a podcast and hiring for multiple key leadership positions.
It’s technically possible to do multiple large projects at once. But macrotasking can leave you in a state of paralysis because you’re not quite sure where to start. And even if you do begin, you can end up with many projects that linger on for far too long because you don’t have the focus to complete them.
If you find yourself overwhelmed by all of your open endeavors personally and professionally, here are three steps to move forward more effectively and efficiently.
Limit Your Starts
The first key to effective macrotasking is limiting how many new projects you start at once. If you have a really large item, such as a remodel or launching a new product, avoid beginning other major projects at the exact same time.
The initial phase of any project has a high startup cost of completing research, framing out what needs to happen, getting the right team in place, and making strategic decisions on direction. Most people can only do this effectively in one or two key areas at once.
After the initial direction is set and you can potentially delegate out the ongoing work, then you can turn your attention to kicking off another major project. But trying to start three or more of these at once can backfire. It can either slow you down because you aren’t giving any one of the projects the attention they need, or it can cause you to make poor decisions because you’re not giving yourself the space you need to be thoughtful.
If the idea of limiting the number of projects you’re starting is anxiety inducing, map out your projects over the coming quarter: “In October, I’ll launch the remodel, in November, I’ll look into starting a podcast, and in December, I’ll do strategic planning for a rebranding.” Having a place to put your project ideas so you know when you’ll get to them can help with focusing on accomplishing what’s in front of you now.
Leave Space for Implementation
Ideas are amazing. Strategic planning is great. But implementation is the only thing that truly leads to results.
If other people are doing the majority of the work on projects, macrotasking can work when those projects are in the implementation phase. You’ve set the direction, now others are executing and can move multiple workstreams forward concurrently.
That being said, you’ll still need to leave space in your calendar to review the work and provide feedback. That might look like having weekly project meetings or blocking in recurring time to look at whatever has been sent to you and answer questions.
If you’re the primary person responsible for implementation, macrotasking will be more difficult. In my experience as a time management coach, I typically don’t see people able to move along more than two to three large projects when they are the person doing the heavy lifting.
If you find yourself in that situation, you’ll need to pace yourself. Each month, define what are the two or three projects that you can really move forward and focus on them. Then you’ll need to accept that the other projects may progress much more slowly, or might need to wait until an upcoming month to receive your attention at all.
Bring Work to Closure
By following the above two pieces of advice, you should be able to bring projects to completion on a consistent basis. But a tendency that I’ve seen in macrotaskers is that they really enjoy starting things, but don’t find it exciting to complete them. That can leave them with a multitude of almost-done projects that haven’t made it across the finish line.
If you find yourself in that situation, you may need to create a rule for yourself that you can’t start anything new until you’ve wrapped up some of the old items. Then pick a few close-to-completed projects to get your devoted attention. Most likely when you decide to do this, a myriad of ideas will pop into your mind of new things to do. Resist the urge to start on them and instead write them down on a list for future months.
And if you’re finding even with your best of intentions to focus on completion, you’re still not getting projects completely done, get help. That could look like having a coworking session with a colleague where you commit to getting specific work done, partnering with a coach to hold you accountable or hiring more help. There’s no shame in needing support to get projects to closure.
Macrotasking is possible with the right approach. By using these three strategies, you can get multiple large projects done without getting overwhelmed.