Early Warning Signs that You Have Too Many Projects Going On (Supposedly Simultaneously)

Recently, someone who had taken the Hunks, Chunks, & Bites class (about getting your projects planned and completed) asked if there are early warning signs for having too many projects on the go and it seemed that the best answer to this was to write a “Top Ten” about those early warning signs.

Here’s how to know that you are at risk of overwhelm from too many projects going on at the (supposedly) same time:

1. You are reading this article because you think this might be you. 🙂
2. Your sleep is interrupted by one or more of the following:
   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 do fall asleep, you wake up in the night and then 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. Your project list makes you feel sick to your stomach.  Anytime you take a look at it (as you know you should) a feeling of nausea hits or you have to grab the antacids because of the pain that hits your gut.
5. Trying to schedule is problematic for a couple of reasons.  As you attempt to 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.  You just stare at the person dumbly.
7. You’re looking at whiteboards that are larger than your dining room wall.  This is because you have heard that mapping out all your projects would help you – and you realize that this isn’t going to happen on a 3 x 5 foot whiteboard.
8. The number of projects you are working 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 as far as truthfully considering the number of projects you can actually focus on with any clarity and hope of making progress.
9. You have more than a sneaking suspicion that you are more than a little overcommitted 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. You wish the whole cloning thing would hurry up.  That’s because you’re imagining that 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.

Folks, if you read this and didn’t laugh – it’s because it’s not funny to you.  It’s because it’s describing too much of what you’re living right now.  There are some solutions, which is the good news.  Please don’t give up hope.  It can get better – if you take some little steps to make little changes (nothing drastic).

This site is filled with solutions (free tips for you) and so search and find some help here.  Other options include individual coaching and small group coaching so if that’s something you’re interested in, please reach out.

The best classes to access for some straightforward answers now are Strategies for When You Are Seriously and Scarily Behind and Hunks, Chunks, & Bites.  There are others, but I don’t want to overwhelm you with suggestions.

If this answer helped you, or you have more questions, feel free to check out the webinar Hunks, Chunks, & Bites (How to Get Your Projects Planned). This special 2-part class is for those who are ready to reliably plan their projects and conquer their to-do lists.