Re:Why Working On Tasks In Parallel is A Pipe Dream
by minouye on Saturday April 02, 2011 @04:40PM
(#2400895)
Speaking personally, the biggest challenge with multiple projects is the ease with which you can switch from one to the other and still feel productive. Encounter something unpleasant that needs to get done? Switch and work on the other project. I've done this in the past and the results are (a) everything moves slower, (b) I have less motivation to tackle the stuff I want to put off, and (c) there is a very high switching cost (in terms of time) that I pay.
Multiple projects are good (and critical for me personally) but they definitely come at a cost. I think I'd prefer a plate spinning analogy to juggling. Focus on keeping one plate spinning and only divert your attention when another plate is about to fall. If you try and touch every ball frequently (with the juggling analogy) its hard to make substantail progress.
Working on multiple tasks (or even large, meta-tasks) at the same time sucks. However, working on multiple, completely separate and independent projects at the same time is great.
Look at the most successful people out there and you'll find that one common property is the seemingly endless number of projects they are involved in at any one time. Having your fingers in a lot of pies is definitely a way towards success - far from the "pipe dream" this article declares.
Progress in your work-life can be measured in the number of balls you can juggle without dropping them. Of course, one of the key skills to acquire in order to do this is to learn how to delegate parts of those tasks - but the central ability is still that of handling more than one project at a time.