Matthew Cornell

I was reading the classic article "Beware the Busy Manager" by Bruch and Ghoshal (Harvard Business Review, Feb 1, 2002 [1]), which shares some surprising results from research into what makes effective managers. I strongly recommend reading the entire article, but for this post I'll focus on an interesting tidbit I found about the number of projects successful managers had. In talking about the two key dimensions (focus and energy - there's a nice summary here) they found that:

Because they have a clear understanding of what they want to accomplish, they carefully weigh their options before selecting a course of action. Moreover, because they commit to only one or two key projects, they can devote their full attention to the projects they believe in.

It was this last point that surprised me. In the modern personal productivity work I teach, a project can run the gamut from a small two-step one ("install office shelving") to very large ones ("apply for the NSF grant"), with most clients having between 20 and 100 of them. Clearly not all of them are "key." But what's the "right" number to manage?

Here's another bit of information: In the article Slow Down, Brave Multitasker, and Don't Read This in Traffic, a recent study found that:

For the [executives studied], the optimum workload was four to six projects, taking two to five months each.

The point being that a relatively small number of key projects - with less multitasking [2] - was better.

Finally, in the Time/Design training I took (see Some thoughts from attending Time/Design's trainer certification), the focus for action is at a maximum of 60 days out, a horizon that seems natural to me. The thinking is that anything farther than that should go on your Someday/Maybe list.

Here's how I put it on a recent forum:

I'm coming to believe that having too many projects is itself overwhelming. [...] Implications for GTD? Well, first we have many more projects, due to the fine-granularity definition of "project." Also, we track all projects from work and life. Combined with the 60 day idea, this leads me to wonder if it would be reasonable to "cap" the list around 20 or 30? Just playing here!

Of course the number varies, depending on the person. For example, I tend to be on the lower end, as otherwise I become overwhelmed, but I know others whose tolerances for more activity are much higher. However, I suspect we might be more productive having fewer projects, with only a few key ("big") ones.

How about you? How many projects are you comfortable with, and how many are "key" ones? Do you adjust according to your energy or mood? How?


References

• [1] Available via subscription or pay-per-article at Amazon. The original is here.
  
• [2] In his book CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap! Strategies for Handling Your Fast-Paced Life, ADD expert Dr. Edward Hallowell calls ineffective multitasking frazzing. He says most of us fraz, and it's a trap. However some people (esp. those with ADD) can do better work when provided with some extraneous sensory input (e.g., music).