I am a freelancer with +15 years of experience in the multimedia design field and sometimes I struggle with the following:
- I have several projects, and most of the time I can do them in a sort of multi-tasking way (like I do parts of project A, then parts of project B and so on).
The problem is really when the priorities change (because of the client asking for something else on a different project that I'm not working at the time) and I have to swap project importance and also
swap the project I was working on.This has probably to do with "real" project management, since I should stick to the "plan" and even with a new request I should tell the client to wait, but unfortunately I can't do that, since my "trademark" is availability and clients love to be "pampered", i.e. I try to please, and if the current project can be put on hold, I will do it, and take the newer request.
- What I have found out is that if a project is very big, I can't really just work on it until the end, because I have other projects, but sometimes it does feel like concentrating on just one project at a time would be best, because it them would pave the way to the others.
- The main problem I face with the multi-task way is that sometimes I'm working on project A, but am worried about Project B or C. And sometimes I close the email, phone and any other means of comm. and concentrate on the project I feel that is stuck and was "blocking" the other ones, until I finish it!
Finally the question:
Is it best to concentrate on just one project? (and put every other on hold)
Or is there a better way to solve the priority swapping (and focusing on the project at hand) and achieve a nice multi-tasking pace?
multitasking reasearch
. The New Atlanis article give a good overview. However, the APA articleIs Multitasking More Efficient?
may be more important in this case. – BillThor Sep 18 '11 at 00:19