If you’re like most you have a to-do list with plenty of big stuff to complete. Key word here is BIG. These are time consuming items and you have a few of them and you have some bandwidth to get it all done.
One thing a day is boring
Spending eight hours a day (minus email, calendars, and the random meeting) on one thing leads to extra breaks, welcomed distraction, and not working much on that one thing at all.
“I’ve got all day,” you think to yourself while searching for a video online to fill the room with enough noise to help you work on the task you’re not working on.
Working on eight things a day is impossible
You need time to break apart these complicated projects. Multitasking is a myth. You have to zone in on the task. Too many things in a day will break the zone.
Target Two
You have a big backlog of time sucking projects. Each project might take multiple days and no amount of sucking it up is going to help you get it done today. Pick to projects or tasks from your list to work on today. You know you’ll take breaks for coffee, lunch, a standup meeting, and a couple of calls. You are not going to have four hours today for each task.
The reason to target two items is to break up your day into sections. You won’t be as bored and you will make some headway on each one of those things.
Weight it all carefully. Tomorrow you may work on those two projects again or get some work completed on other projects. You will move the needle forward on each of those projects.
And what more does a project manager want to see more than continual movement on all of the things!