Self-Organization Strategies to Tackle Multiple Projects

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Half the year has gone by. The difficult time to self-assess has come round. If you suffer from multiple-ideas or never-ending-project syndrome, your list of ideas and projects has grown exponentially over the past months, yet check marks next to those ideas and projects are nowhere to be found.

Creative minds might lack a robust budget, ample resources, and sharp focus, but never ideas, never passion. Share on X

Managing multiple ideas and a project list that keeps growing and growing should be a daily priority. If left unattended, it has the potential to become an overwhelming mountain of what-ifs, a ticking bomb of self-sabotage. You don’t want that. That list had value. You want those idea-seeds to turn into project-trees and your intangibles into tangibles.

The key thing to remember is every idea and every project has valuable potential at its core.

Let’s assess that expansive list and tackle it head-on with two of my favorite strategies to take overwhelm down:

Do like Caesar.

When that list of ideas and working projects start getting out of hand, cut it in chunks! Divide and you’ll conquer, is as simple as that. This can be done by implementing a priority system or grid to place each idea in its corresponding bucket, each project in it appropriate timetable. When we attempt to bite the whole pie, when we are constantly looking at the big picture of things we have not accomplished, anxiety, negativity, and self-sabotage start kicking in.

Aim for MVP.

What’s the minimum level of quality your product (project) has to achieve to make it viable to the public, your visitors, followers, customers, and clients? Once you’ve prioritized those projects, work on the first thing on your new and improved list until you achieve MVP. Then, put it to the test and move on to the next project.

Other simple creative tactics to tackle that never-ending project list:

• Edit: To leave room for what’s really viable to grow we need to weed out the ideas and projects that are simply not worth our attention, focus and time. We must assess our ideas and projects objectively or ask a friend or colleague for feedback, this way we could begin testing the validity and viability of ideas and only keep those that go through a gantlet of research, experimentation, and feedback.
• Mash: Ideas and projects that come to us independently have an amazing way of coming together. Assess which ideas in your list could actually be part of a single project, which projects could actually be different versions of one and the same! When we assess our ideas and projects through a big picture lens and aim to make connections, we can get new sparks of inspiration to happen.
• Delete: Don’t be afraid to say goodbye to an idea or project. Be ready and willing to shed that which no longer serves you, drags you… There’s no shame in turn around when you have a feeling (or know for sure) you are going in the wrong direction.

Every single project on your list can be achieved with a bit of flexibility, imagination and creativity. If you let them evolve, mash, they might become even better than you originally anticipated!

Recommended Tool: Trello