For many of my clients it's almost a badge of honor on how many projects they are working on simultaneously. One Project Manager recently bragged that he's managing 15 projects. How does that work? I mean, let's say that one of his projects runs into an impediment that he needs to remove, how can he be responsive? The answer is that of course he can't. And so, that project is stalled.
There's a lot of research that shows that working on two projects decreases productivity by about 40%. That means that in a 8 hour day, you get no more than about 5 hours of work done. It's a staggering 95% reduction in productivity if you work on 5 projects. That's about 30 minutes of productive work a day. The reason for the drop in productivity is switch time -- the time it takes to get into a task after you switch from another. For thinking work, like business analysis or programming, it takes 30 - 45 minutes to get "into the zone".
So, stay focused -- and work on one thing at a time for as long as you can. It'll get stuff done faster!
There's a lot of research that shows that working on two projects decreases productivity by about 40%. That means that in a 8 hour day, you get no more than about 5 hours of work done. It's a staggering 95% reduction in productivity if you work on 5 projects. That's about 30 minutes of productive work a day. The reason for the drop in productivity is switch time -- the time it takes to get into a task after you switch from another. For thinking work, like business analysis or programming, it takes 30 - 45 minutes to get "into the zone".
So, stay focused -- and work on one thing at a time for as long as you can. It'll get stuff done faster!