Learn how to manage the juggle and keep all your projects moving forward.
Your manager might not say it, but more projects are coming your way. It might not be written in your role profile, but your boss expects you to juggle several things at once.
In today’s project economy, more work is delivered through initiatives layered on top of operational responsibilities. In my research for Managing Multiple Projects, only 15% of respondents reported managing just one project. Everyone else was balancing two, five, or more initiatives at the same time.
Managing multiple projects requires more than good scheduling. Talking about managing multiple projects is my happy place! It demands prioritization across competing objectives, visibility of resource constraints, and disciplined decision-making at both project and portfolio level. This page brings together practical strategies, frameworks, and tools to help you coordinate parallel workstreams without losing control of scope, deadlines, or stakeholder expectations, and an insight into my book that delves deeper into this topic.
There’s a lot of information on this website and online in general about building effective stakeholder relationships — so if you want to take this topic further, I recommend Managing Multiple Projects: How project managers can balance priorities, manage expectations and increaes productivity (although I am slightly biased as I wrote it!).
Published by Kogan Page (Second Edition, 2025), this book is a practical ‘how to’ guide. As my role changed at work, I took on more projects and realized that the project management training I had done didn’t make sense for delivering multiple projects in parallel. The ‘traditional’ teachings of project delivery assume you’ve got all the time you need to do all the things, and that you (and all your stakeholders) are only focusing on the one project.
That’s not real life, as I understand it, and I know from talking to lots of project managers, and doing a couple of deep dive topics into this subject, that most project managers are in the same situation. We need practical tips on how to juggle all the work, keep governance going while not getting bogged down in documentation, and ensuring that everything keeps moving, even the small, low priority projects.
Most training teaches you how to run one project well — not how to combine and consolidate, merge project plans, status reports and meetings, and deal with competing deadlines across several initiatives.
That gap is where stress, overwhelm and burnout creep in.
Managing multiple projects is not about simply repeating the single-project process several times. Overlaying the same governance, reports and schedules across every initiative just adds bulk to your workload without necessarily adding value. You need a different way of thinking about your work — one that helps you:
If you’re new to juggling several initiatives — or you’ve suddenly realized your calendar looks impossible next month –start here!
The first shift is mindset: stop thinking of your projects as isolated streams of work. Start seeing them as a personal portfolio. In a multi-project environment, you’re typically dealing with:
As I wrote in the book, every day becomes a balance between advancing your own To Do list and supporting others with theirs. Before you worry about what project management tool to use, start with clarity.
List everything you are responsible for: projects, operational tasks, mentoring, reporting, governance, admin. This becomes your consolidated workload. When you can see it all in one place, you can finally have informed conversations about priority and capacity.
Not everything on your task list can be top priority. Techniques like MoSCoW, ICE, COST or the Eisenhower Matrix can help you structure your thinking. Prioritization is not a one-off decision, it’s a weekly discipline.
Talk to your team members, and make sure you’ve got paths for resource allocation to get sorted when you need it.
You can’t manage time — time management is just about using the hours that you do have in the most productive way. Instead of maintaining separate mental models for each project, look for opportunities to:
Multi-project management is about reducing friction between projects, not increasing administrative effort. However, it’s worth noting that budget tracking is normally the one place you can’t consolidate, as your finance team will still need per-project time tracking or financial reports.
Workload is one of the biggest contributors to burnout. No productivity system in the world can compensate for structurally unrealistic expectations. If your workload is genuinely too high, evidence-based conversations with your manager are essential.
If you want a structured framework for doing this properly, the five-part Portfolio–Plan–People–Productivity–Practices model in Managing Multiple Projects walks you through it step by step! There are some ‘how to’ guides below to help you get started.
How do you start to get your work under control when you are juggling several projects at once? That’s the question I answer in my book, Managing Multiple Projects. The starting point is knowing how all the different parts of your workload fit together so you can manage them in an efficient way. And do…
Copy what I do to manage your tasks, resources and time across several projects at once! This article shares loads of tips for staying on top of lots of different projects at once.
There has always been a tension between running the business and changing the business. As a project manager, my work leading change has often felt like it’s got in the way of my colleague’s ability to run the business. Project leaders are regularly told that ‘run’ takes priority: keeping the lights on is more important…
Here’s a collection of videos from me and some of my favorite creators on the topic of managing multiple projects. I’ve done a lot of webinars and talks on this topic for a range of podcasts and organizations. Maybe I could do one for you?
These are the questions I get asked the most often!
There isn’t a universal number. The right volume depends on complexity, stakeholder load, resource availability, and how much operational work sits alongside your projects. Two highly strategic transformation initiatives could be more demanding than six small process improvements. The real warning sign isn’t the number, it’s whether you can see your full workload clearly, prioritize confidently, and maintain quality without consistently working late. If you can’t, the issue is capacity, not capability.
Yes, but they are closely related. Portfolio management typically happens at an organizational level and focuses on selecting the right projects. Managing multiple projects is about executing several initiatives personally and balancing your time, attention, and stakeholder relationships across them. However, applying portfolio thinking to your own workload — treating your projects as a personal portfolio — is one of the most effective ways to regain control.
It does, doesn’t it?!
A single large project has intensity, but it usually has one sponsor, one core team, and one primary timeline. In a multi-project environment, you are juggling competing sponsors, overlapping milestones, part-time resources, and different stakeholder groups, all at once. The cognitive load increases dramatically because you are constantly context switching.
It’s not that you’ve suddenly become less organized. The environment itself is more complex. That’s how it feels to me. Having to switch between projects multiple times a day can be draining.
Early signs of burnout include persistent, ongoing fatigue, declining confidence in your own work quality, being irritable about small issues, and a feeling that you’re always ‘behind’ even when you’re working hard.
If that sounds like you, or if you regularly struggle to disconnect outside working hours, or your calendar leaves no room for thinking time, that’s another signal. Burnout rarely arrives overnight, though. It builds up overtime when workload, expectations, and recovery time (i.e. taking breaks and prioritizing self care — you do that, right?) are consistently taking second priority to work. It’s far easier to try to address it early than trying to recover later.
Below you’ll find in-depth articles covering the realities of leading multiple initiatives at once, because if you’re making project management your career, this is one aspect you can’t ignore! This archive explores topics like:
Some articles focus on tactical skills like dependency mapping or resource negotiations. Others address the emotional side of juggling expectations and maintaining confidence when you feel stretched.
Use this archive as your reference library. Dip into the topic that reflects the challenge you’re facing right now, and apply one practical change at a time. A smoother workload and better work/life balance is coming your way!
What are the key challenges when working on multiple projects simultaneously? How do you prioritize work when everything is important? I asked 570 project managers these questions (and more) to find out what life is like in 2024 for project managers leading multiple projects, to follow on from my research on the same topic in…
The highly anticipated shortlist for The Business Book Awards in partnership with Pathway Group 2023 has been announced for top business books published in 2022. Authors, publishers, and business figures gathered in London last month for the shortlist reveal party to celebrate the incredible breadth, diversity and quality of business books published last year. Now…
I’ve been waiting to share this with you… and today’s the day! I wrote a new book! It’s called Managing Multiple Projects: How Project Managers Can Balance Priorities, Manage Expectations and Increase Productivity And it’s not just any book. I wanted to write a book to help busy project managers – like you – juggle…
Check out this free webinar on how to manage multiple projects. Learn tips and strategies for all project managers to make progress on your projects.
Watch my free webinar training on the 3 critical skills you need to manage multiple projects. Learn the skills you really need to juggle all your work! “There’s another project I’m just waiting to hear about,” said my sponsor. I silently groaned. I was already managing a couple of projects and while I probably could…
Six real project managers share how they stay on top of multiple projects. Their tips will help you manage your own workload and stay organised! There’s things in here that I had never come across before that will change the way I juggle my workload. It’s great to learn from each other!
Last week’s webinar was awesome! I truly appreciate every question, comment and social media shout out. I knew this would be a popular topic – but this really blew me away! (As you can see by the ridiculous smile on my face when I look at the chat and see all of your comments!) I…