3 Tips For Managing Multiple Projects Successfully

By Ayodele Oyebade,

Managing multiple projects at the same time can be very challenging, if this is your first time of taking such a role. You will have to deal with multiple stakeholders, multiple deadlines and multiple deliverable.

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My first experience managing projects was overwhelming, because I was practically all over the place, switching from one project to another without a prior skill of program management. I was simply trying to play superman and it was stressful.

Sounds familiar, fortunately, there is a better way. Here my suggestions to help you manage your initial multiple projects.

1 Define each project

The first thing that needs to be done to make your multiple projects successful is to lay a strong foundation for managing them. For this, you need to define them in detail separately. Define the goals, the expectations, responsibilities and plan at the very beginning.

2. Prioritize.

Resist the temptation to immediately delve into the easiest project. Rank the projects in order of impact and value.

 There may be instance where there will be conflicting priority, when every project sponsor will tell you that they want their project done like yesterday. To solve such a problem, you need to be able to recognize the difference between what is urgent and what is important. You must also know how to communicate the project ranking to your stakeholders

3 Focus

You must do everything to stay focused. Pick one task and focus on it intensely. All the projects will be calling for your attention at the same time, If you have to multi-task for reason of time constrain, don’t try to juggle tasks from different project, let them all be of same project. Yes, you are working on multiple projects simultaneously, but you cant get the tasks of the different projects mixed up in your brain.

Focusing will get the best out of you and make a success of your projects.

I wish you the very best on your projects

Ayodele Oyebade