Trying to work on multiple content projects at the same time and struggling to keep all the damn balls in the air? It can require some expert-level project management skills to do so OR you can simply watch this video for my top 5 strategies for how to juggle multiple content projects at once.

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I’ve been a professional project manager in the marketing and communication space for almost 20 years. From multi-million dollar campaigns to itty bitty micro projects, there are a handful of strategies I come back to again and again no matter what the scope of the project may be.

But before we cover those, I think we need to do a little myth busting…

Since the soaring popularity of books and concepts like the 12 Week Year or the 90-Day Year (Which, don’t get me wrong, I still love), there’s been this glorification of mono-tasking. And yes, it’s undeniable that if you’re able to focus on just one thing, you’ll get it done faster. But for a lot of people, narrowing their focus to just one project at a time is unrealistic and might not work for their brains. I’m one of those people.

So if you’ve ever had to defend the number of projects on your plate (and, kudos to you for being intentional with what you take on and what you don’t), this video is for you.

How can you get almost the same level of progress on on your projects, while juggling multiple of them?

Here are 5 ways you can juggle multiple content project at once if you need to ↓

Strategy 1: The Project Briefing (Shortcut to Juggle Multiple Content Projects at Once)

Strategy #1 is to create a project briefing for any project you’re working on. When you’re jugging multiple content projects, the biggest time suck is the time you lose switching between projects (also know as context switching) and it isn’t just the opening and closing of tabs and tools, it also takes a beat to get into the mindset of that project and re-orient yourself to what’s going on.

A project brief helps because anytime you’re starting to work on that project again, you can spend 3 minutes reading through it to quickly get up to speed on the purpose of the project, that latest status update and easily find all the links you need to get (re)started.

My free Content Project Planning Template has a project brief front and centre on the first page (Psst – you can grab yourself a copy in the description) but it really is a simple tool I come back to again and again especially if I’m needing to keep track of a lot of different projects.

Strategy 2: Leaving Breadcrumbs with Next Actions

Speaking of context switching, the 2nd strategy for juggling multiple content projects without losing momentum or wasting time is to make your very next action really easy to find…

I like to do this a couple of ways. The first is to make sure that whenever wrap up work on a project, that I identify my next 1-3 actions the next time I work on. That way, I don’t have to spend anytime thinking about what’s next. I call this leaving breadcrumbs for yourself, like a Hansel and Gretel find your way back approach. If it’s writing, sometimes I’ll even write the next first line of the piece of the content or section so I have a headstart (after all, for most of us, getting started is the hardest part).

The second thing I do is try to group like tasks together as much as possible. So even if I’m working on a bunch of different projects at the same time, where can I reap the benefits of batching by grouping together similar types of work or actions that build upon each other. This might look like themes day or categorizing all of your tasks into types for easy sorting and filtering.

Strategy 3: Create More Finish Line Finishes

With that being said, another thing I like to do, which is strategy #3, is to create more finish line finishes.

What I mean by that is try not to stop mid-way through an action step. To do this, I like to make sure I’m breaking up my project into bite-sized actions that can be tackled in 60 minutes or less (ideally 1 Pomodoro – so 25 minutes)

Not only do I get super motivated by checkmarks (like checking things off makes me the most happy), it also lets you use the each of the 3 implementation strategies perfect for multi-content project situations like the margins method, daily content habit or project sprint.

Watch the 3 Hacks I cover in this video here >>>

So even though you’re working on a lot of different things, we’re able to set up a situation where you’re finishing a lot of things too instead of feeling like you’re endlessly slogging through a to do list with little in the way to show for it.

Strategy 4: Commit to the Time (Not Necessarily the Outcomes)

Speaking of motivation, strategy #4 is to commit to (and celebrate) the time spent, not necessarily the outcomes.

This might be controversial or counter-intuitive to everything you’ve previously heard about productivity and being focused on the outcomes.

Yes, the outcomes are important. They’re the whole reason for the any of these projects, right? But if you’re working on multiple different projects at the same time, it’s going to take longer to finish them. Not necessarily more time spent, but definitely a longer time period to getting it done (Like 1 week instead of 3 days, depending on what you’re working on).

So IF you’re struggling to get started, or you’re getting frustrated by the seeming lack of the progress, one way to combat that is to focus on the time spent. I like to break these down into my daily pomos (aka the number of pomodoros, 25 minute blocks, that I spend exclusively focusing on 1 task).

So instead of creating an unrealistic project plan, it’s more about setting a goal for the number of pomodoros, I’ll spend on each project daily or week.

Here’s an example. Say I’m working on a new funnel. It includes the freebie, the follow up sequence and the salespage for the offer (for this example, anyways). I might set a goal to spend 2 pomodoros per day on each project for a week. By the end of the week, I’ve spent roughly 5 hours per project and made a whole lot of progress too.

Strategy 5: Find Accountability to Help Juggle Multiple Content Projects at Once (On Your Terms)

The final strategy here for juggling multiple content projects is to find accountability … and, more crucially, accountability on your terms.

What works for me – in my face, check-ins, might not work for somebody else who prefers a more hands-off approach of I’ll get back to you when I get back to you style of accountability.

Some things to consider when seeking out your own accountability for your progress on your numerous projects are:

• What type of check-ins work for me? Am I someone who wants regularly scheduled check-ins, impromptu pop-ups or maybe no check-ins?
• Do you need any expertise from your accountability source? Would you benefit from the know-how of someone who might have more experience than you do implementing these types of strategies? Or is peer support A-Ok?
• Where do you like to stay accountable? A project management tool, 1-1 calls, in person.
• What “extras” would make staying accountable even easier and more likely to happen – like rewards, a visual dashboard showing your progress, coworking, on-demand Voxer support and feedback?
• In an article by Forbes, it was highlighted that having accountability can increase the likelihood of achieving goals by up to 95%. I’ll pop the link in the description and hopefully that highlights how much of a difference having accountability can have!

Want my FREE template for planning your content projects?

if you want to grab my content project planning template that is built specifically to help you juggle multiple content projects at once, grab it below ↓