Early Warning Signs that You Have Too Many Projects Going On (Supposedly Simultaneously) by Meggin McIntosh, PhD

I recently presented a webinar, Hunks, Chunks, & Bites. Here is a question from one of the participants and my answer:

Are there early warning signs for having too many projects on the go? Or is it simply the need to notice that my bite sizes are getting too big that will hint to an imminent choke point… Feeling crazed with how much I need to get done and my to-do list has flown out the window – fancy realizing that just now…

Answer:

I love this question.   And yes, early warning signs.  Brilliant. 

1. You are reading this article because you think this might be you. 🙂
2. One or more of the following interrupts a good night’s sleep:
   1. You stay up far too late working on your projects – frequently.
   2. You have trouble falling asleep because you are thinking about all your projects.
   3. You dream – have nightmares, is more like it – about one or more of your projects.
   4. If you wake up in the night, you have trouble going back to sleep because your brain starts racing thinking about the projects you have going on.
   5. You get up early nearly every day with the hope that if you start in early – before other things start happening – you’ll get “caught up.” 
3. You have the feeling that you are “scattered” in your attention and thinking.
4. You look at your project list, which is as complete as you can make it, and feel sick to your stomach.
5. When you schedule time to work on your projects, you not only don’t have enough time but the sheer number of different projects you are trying to fit in is staggering.
6. If someone asks you what you’re working on, you have a brain-freeze moment because you can’t remember. 
7. You know that if you mapped out all your key projects on a whiteboard, you would need a whiteboard that is much larger than your dining room wall.
8. The number of projects you are working on during a given week (or trying to work on during a given week) exceeds the number of eggs that would fit in a regular egg carton.  Truthfully, once you get out of single digits, you’re probably in trouble. 
9. You have a sneaking suspicion that you are more than a little over-committed and that one long weekend would not be enough for you to dig out (although you would welcome a long weekend where you could work uninterrupted).
10. If you could clone yourself and have a second you – same skills, talents, expertise, and education – you would feel like your project list could be adequately tackled, albeit it with a great deal of determination and focus – from you and your clone.

Do you have 1 or 10 or 100 projects that are unfinished – and you REALLY wish they were complete?  The popular 2-part webinar “Hunks, Chunks, and Bites: Get Your Projects Planned So You Can Get Them Completed!” offers structures and strategies for conceptualizing and completing your projects.