[Music] how many projects can a project manager manage this question popped up a few weeks ago and i tried to answer it during a live stream when i had a coughing fit so it may have been missed whilst my throat was trying to kill me there's no single correct answer to this i know a lot of project managers prefer having one project to focus their entire attention on but i know that others like to have more variety and feel they perform better when there's multiple projects going on at the same time i've even heard of project managers claiming to be running over 70 concurrent projects which i find a little questionable maybe there's some difference in how we're defining project or managing in that situation i vaguely remember reading a suggestion that we in life should try to manage one more thing than we can comfortably handle at any given time as this forces us to stretch and grove but more recently i've read about how deep focus on one task can significantly have better outcomes than multitasking which despite the myths we're actually bad at more on that in another video subscribe so you don't miss it i think what it really comes down to is time and focus some projects are less demanding than others some are less demanding at different points in their life cycles so it's possible to overlap work but it's really important that you're able to compartmentalize the work so that one project doesn't distract you whilst you're attempting to focus on the other that can be tough if there's challenges on one or more projects additionally we're now more aware of the impacts of sustained stress on our mental health the problem is it can be difficult to identify the warning signs of stress in ourselves i suggest whether you're running one project or dozens take some time to understand what an optimal version of you looks like and what a stressed version of you looks like and then check in with yourself at regular intervals to see which version you're closer to if you start identifying your stress levels are too high for too long and you can't manage them internally then you should start to look at the external factors that are driving it it could just mean that you're doing too many projects if you're working longer than scheduled hours for long periods consider that to be a warning sign too and just remember that no project is worth breaking yourself for
