Too many projects? Here's how I deal

Your focus matters. Where it goes, things happen…and the opposite is true.

When I get too spread out on projects and tasks, it can take some time to get back to the important stuff if I don’t take the time to refocus.

This was recently an issue and I wanted to talk about why it matters - and what you can do.

Why Your Focus Matters

It’s easy to get overloaded with tasks, projects, and random to-do’s.

I want to say yes to things (that’s another subject..).

I want to work on cool projects.

Over time things creep up and it can start affecting my output to the point where I feel a bit overwhelmed and if I don’t take steps to fix that my output will suffer - either in quality or quantity, or both 😒 

When you notice that this is happening, grab the opportunity to fix it before it becomes a real problem.

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How We Can Refocus

Here's a simple two-step approach I use when I realize I’m getting spread too thin and need to figure out what to focus on:

1. List it out: Write down everything you're working on. This might seem obvious, but it's surprising how many times we operate with a vague sense of "too much to do" without really knowing what "too much" consists of. Seeing your tasks on paper can help you:

   • Identify what's truly important
   • Spot areas where you're spread too thin
   • Have a clear picture to discuss with your boss or team if you need to redistribute work

2. Use the Focus Finder: This is a tool I've adapted over the years to help quantify and prioritize tasks. Here's how it works:

   • List your tasks or projects
   • Rate each one on a scale of 1-5 for:

   • How excited you are about it

   • Short-term return on investment (ROI)

   • Long-term ROI

The Focus Finder helps you see your projects and ideas with more clarity. By taking the time to assign scores you are helping yourself find out what really matters, is important, and can have the largest benefits.

Remember, this tool isn't about perfect precision. It's about giving yourself a framework to think through your priorities. A task with high excitement and good ROI will naturally rise to the top, while low-scoring items might be candidates for deletion or delegation.

Once you see what’s most important you can reorient your daily tasks and work to delete or delegate the less important work.

Extra Extra

• I like my own quarterly review which is a bit more in depth but doesn’t take a lot of time…however, I recently saw Sahil Bloom’s quarterly review outline and took some notes.

One quick question 👋

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P.S. Looking for resources to improve your productivity? Check out the tools I use right here.