How to Manage and Track Multiple Projects (Without Losing Your Mind)

Do you often feel like you’re being pulled in multiple directions as a project manager?

When resources are scarce and task deadlines pop up one by one as if out of the blue, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and unsure of how to handle your various projects and coordinate the planned work effectively.

Add to that the constant information overload and ever-changing project requirements… And how can you ever keep everything under control without resorting to multitasking or micromanagement?

Luckily, with the right tools and methods in place, you will keep your head above water and ensure that all your projects are run and delivered in the best way possible.

In this article, we’ll explain how to manage and track multiple projects at once using a thought-through strategy. It will help you streamline your workflow, boost productivity, and achieve your goals with ease.

1.    Make Use of a Centralized Workspace

A centralized workspace is a single platform where all project-related data, tasks, and activities are stored and managed.

Such a platform provides a unified view of all the ongoing projects, enabling managers to easily monitor and review progress, identify challenges and bottlenecks, and make informed decisions. It helps to make sure that every party involved in a project has access to up-to-date and accurate information, which promotes transparency and collaboration within the team.

Furthermore, a centralized workspace ensures consistency and standardization across work processes, which is particularly useful if any of your projects involve remote employees and other stakeholders who work from different locations. With all the information stored in one place, it becomes easier to keep everything and everyone in line.

How to:

To get a centralized workspace for your team, choose the right digital platform that meets your workflows and needs just perfectly.

Consider which features are most important for your team:

• Do you need a built-in messenger and a file-sharing functionality or will a simple task tracker be enough?
• Will you integrate the platform with any other online tools?
• Should it have mobile access, etc.?

Once you have found the best software to host your workspace, you will have to set it up, customize it according to your preferences, assign user permissions to employees, add all project information to your account, and make sure that everyone is aware of where to find this information, and how to update it when necessary.

But wait before committing to software too soon!

Try it out during a free trial period to rest assured it’s truly the best for you. And if you don’t know where to start, why not check out actiTIME – this user-friendly time tracking solution offers a wealth of features that make managing multiple projects a breeze.

actiTIME has a super easy set-up process. Within a few clicks, team managers can create multiple projects and tasks, assign them to team members, and set up their own PTO tracking rules, billing rates, cost of work rates, etc.

In addition to that, actiTIME offers online access via desktop, Android, and iOS devices, allowing your team members to log their time and progress no matter where they are.

Using actiTIME as a centralized workspace you will streamline your project management activities and achieve project success. So, sign up for a free trial today and watch your team’s productivity and efficiency soar!

2.    Set the Right Priorities

In a fast-paced environment with a plethora of responsibilities and deadlines, project managers must identify the most significant tasks that require their immediate attention. By focusing on such critical tasks and to-dos first, you will ensure that your time and resources are appropriately allocated, and you can tackle the pressing issues head-on, without being bogged down by minor details.

Besides, when dealing with multiple projects, it is inevitable that tasks may overlap or clash with each other, resulting in conflicting deadlines or resource conflicts. By setting the right priorities you get a chance to navigate and resolve such conflicts promptly and effectively, without compromising quality or missing deadlines.

How to:

• Identify the most critical projects and tasks: This involves analyzing the goals and objectives of each project and determining which ones are most aligned with the overall vision and mission of your organization. Once you have identified these critical projects, you can then allocate your resources accordingly.
• Prioritize based on urgency, impact, and feasibility: Urgency refers to how quickly the project / task needs to be completed. Impact refers to the project’s potential impact on the organization, while feasibility refers to how realistic and achievable the project is with your current resources.
• Reassess your priorities as new projects come in / circumstances change: Regular reviews and assessments guarantee that your team stays on track and that resources are allocated to the tasks and projects that are most critical at any given time.
• Use Gantt charts or Kanban boards: These tools allow you to visually map out the progress of each project and prioritize tasks based on their due dates and importance.

3.    Always Have a Plan

A good project plan provides structure and direction to your team, helping it to achieve the desired outcome in an optimal way. It allows you to stay organized and keep track of all the moving parts while improving communication within the team.

Besides, project planning assists with anticipating potential issues that could arise down the line. By having a thought-through contingency plan in place, you can mitigate those risks and keep your projects under better control.

How to:

• Set objectives and goals: This will help you to establish the scope of the project and make sure that everyone involved is on the same page. For better results, formulate measurable, achievable, and realistic goals for your team.
• Define the scope of each project: This can be done by breaking each project down into smaller, manageable tasks, and it will help you easily track performance progress and see whether all the critical milestones are met.
• Estimate resources: It is necessary to determine the human, financial, and technological resources needed to complete the project successfully. Figure out if you have the right tools, skills, and talents to complete each task, and then allocate them appropriately considering your priorities and the overall scope of the project.
• Establish project workflows: Create clear and concise workflows for each project, detailing the sequence of tasks and dependencies required to complete the planned works. This will help you move from one project activity to another with more confidence, determine any bottlenecks or roadblocks on the way, and keep everything in check.
• Consider risks: It is impossible to eliminate all the risks that may interfere with your work processes. Still, you can identify potential ones and have a plan of how to tame them and avoid any serious harmful consequences.

4.    Manage Workloads Wisely

Balancing workloads essentially means distributing tasks and responsibilities equally among team members to ensure that no one is overloaded or overwhelmed.

When employees are forced to handle too much work, it can lead to stress, exhaustion, and burnout. This, in turn, often leads to lower productivity, missed deadlines, poor quality work, and a negative impact on overall project success.

That’s exactly why smart workload management is key.

Moreover, effective workload allocation allows organizations to optimize resources and boost efficiency. With a well-balanced workload, your team can avoid bottlenecks and have a greater chance to complete all tasks and projects on-time and to a high standard.

How to:

• Estimate time for each task accurately: This will help you to understand how much time an employee is likely to spend on each piece of work and schedule it in an efficient way. Your time estimates should be realistic and based on past experience, similar projects, or expert judgment.
• Allocate tasks fairly: By distributing workloads evenly, you can make sure that no employee is overburdened or underutilized. Besides, equal treatment of employees is one of the best ways to keep them satisfied with the workplace, which is key to better individual and team productivity.
• Match tasks with employee skills: Assigning each task to an employee who has the required skills, knowledge, and experience will help you to complete it effectively and efficiently. This lets you avoid delays, rework, and errors, which can impact project timelines and budgets.
• Predict workforce availability: Review historical data on employee absences and use it to identify periods when a particular employee or team may be unavailable or when additional resources may be required.

To succeed with the latter task, consider applying a leave management system like actiPLANS. It gives you tools to track different types of employee absences in a streamlined way and provides access to a wealth of data for accurate workforce availability predictions. Besides, it integrates seamlessly with actiTIME, which fosters a much smoother project and team management experience.

Sign up for a free actiPLANS trial to check it in action yourself.

5.    Track Project Progress Regularly

Progress tracking is an ongoing process that begins during the planning phase and continues throughout every stage until project completion. It involves:

• Monitoring and documenting project performance,
• Analyzing how actual results align with planned outcomes,
• Identifying any deviations,
• Taking corrective actions if necessary.

Without regular tracking and monitoring, it is easy for a project to fall off track and result in significant delays, cost overruns, and the risk of total project failure.

It is particularly challenging to manage multiple projects simultaneously, as it can be confusing to keep track of the progress of highly versatile tasks effectively without a proper tracking system in place.

How to:

• Make a project timeline: Your timeline should visualize the expected duration of each task and set milestones for the end of each project phase. You can use a Gantt chart or other project management tools to visualize the timeline and monitor your progress against the milestones.
• Track and measure key performance indicators (KPIs): Determine what metrics you will monitor, how often, and who will be responsible for tracking them. Ensure that the KPIs are specific, measurable, and relevant to the project goals.
• Conduct regular project status meetings: Such meetings should bring all stakeholders together to discuss the project’s progress, identify issues, and adjust the timeline as necessary.
• Use project management software: Investing in project management software can help track progress smartly. Choose software that meets your specific project requirements and allows you to customize features to track essential project metrics accurately.

If you’re looking for a solution for real-time progress tracking across multiple projects, actiTIME is a great choice – it allows you to see what’s going on with all your diverse teams, customers, and tasks via the same platform quickly and easily + save time and effort that you would otherwise spend on tracking progress manually.

actiTIME also lets you compare task estimates versus actual results and gives you an accurate idea of how each project is performing compared to your initial plan.

Plus, with actiTIME reports, you can identify productivity trends, pinpoint performance issues, and measure team progress across multiple projects. This helps you identify areas where your teams are excelling and where they could show a bit better results, allocate resources in a more effective way, plan projects more precisely, and ultimately, achieve superior project outcomes.

6.    Keep Communication Lines Open

Effective communication is a key component of project success, especially when juggling multiple projects:

• It ensures that all team members are aware of their roles and responsibilities for each project: This helps prevent confusion, duplication of efforts and missed deadlines. By keeping everyone on the same page, you will empower your team to work more collaboratively and attain better project outcomes as a result.
• It allows project managers to stay informed about each project’s progress: By regularly receiving updates on project activities, challenges, and successes, managers can address any issues that arise, adjust timelines as necessary, and allocate resources appropriately. This can help prevent projects from falling behind schedule or exceeding budget limitations.
• Open and constructive communication can also foster a sense of transparency and camaraderie among team members: By providing regular updates on project developments, team members can build trust and respect with each other, which can lead to stronger working relationships in the future.

How to:

• Set communication guidelines: Encourage open communication and collaboration while emphasizing the importance of respecting each team member’s time and workload.
• Utilize collaboration tools: Shared calendars, project management systems, and communication platforms will help keep everyone in the loop and minimize confusion.
• Schedule regular check-ins: Daily meetings are great for reviewing project progress and discussing any challenges or roadblocks. This will provide an opportunity for everyone to collaborate and problem-solve together.
• Foster a positive team environment: Such an environment encourages team members to share their ideas and perspectives openly. It promotes innovation and creativity within the team and strengthens communication and collaboration.

7.    Adopt Automation Tools

Automation tools are real game changers for businesses managing multiple projects at once. These tools can help streamline processes, reduce manual labor, and improve overall efficiency. By automating various tasks, you can focus more on strategic tasks and attain much better work results in the end.

• Automate progress tracking and reporting: You can create automated reports with up-to-date data on project progress, which makes it easier to monitor project timelines and budgets. Automation tools also allow project teams to quickly identify potential schedule slippage or budget overruns, enabling them to take corrective action faster.
• Streamline repetitive tasks: This might include automating email notifications, creating templates for frequently used documents, and using bots and AI to answer routine inquiries. With less time spent on repetitive tasks, team members can focus on more strategic activities like devising new solutions and developing unique ideas to drive project success.
• Improve team communication and collaboration: For instance, you can set up automatic email notifications to update your colleagues on task progress, remind them to attend team meetings or review critical project milestones. Consequently, such automation helps to ensure that everyone knows what’s going on, which reduces the risk of misunderstandings and delays.

How to:

There are plenty of different automation tools on the market today, from simple employee scheduling solutions to advanced business intelligence tools. Your task here is to decide what kind of processes you want to automate and pick a tool that does just that.

For example, if you’re looking for a way to streamline time and progress tracking in your projects, you can benefit from adopting Time Management Assistant. This handy browser extension automatically tracks every minute you spend online and then seamlessly exports the collected data to your actiTIME account.

Time Management Assistant can also be used as a personal productivity management tool. And the best part, you or your team members are free to choose which online activities and websites they want the extension to track and sync with actiTIME to share with managers and other colleagues.

In other words, this automated extension allows you to get super accurate data on project progress and lets you save time and effort by getting rid of manual data entry. Plus, it ensures impeccable data privacy and confidentiality for employees – and that’s the very definition of a win-win situation!

Download your Time Management Assistant today.

8.    Stay Agile

Unpredictability is the norm in most projects. Changes can occur at any time, and if you’re not prepared for them, it can be challenging to stay on track.

By adopting an agile approach, you can create a flexible and adaptive framework for managing these changes more effectively. Whether it’s a shifting deadline, a budget cut, or a new requirement, the agile methodology enables you to pivot quickly and adjust your plans accordingly.

So, what is the agile methodology about?

Agile project management is an iterative and incremental approach to managing projects. It emphasizes flexibility, collaboration, and customer satisfaction throughout the work process.

The agile method is particularly suitable for projects with complex or rapidly-changing requirements, where traditional project management approaches may not be that effective.

How to:

• Create a product backlog: This is a prioritized list of features and requirements that need to be delivered in the project. Involve your team members and stakeholders in creating this list.
• Break down the work into sprints: These are fixed periods of time during which the team works on a set of features from the product backlog. The duration of each sprint can vary depending on the project, but it’s usually between one and four weeks.
• Conduct daily stand-up meetings: Such meetings are short and focused + designed to keep everyone on the same page. Each team member should explain what they are currently working on, what they plan to do during the day if they are facing any obstacles, and how much time they need to complete the task.
• Review and refine the product backlog: At the end of each sprint, the team should review the progress made and update the product backlog. This is an opportunity to add, remove, or reorder items on the list based on what has been achieved so far.
• Hold a sprint review meeting: Once the work for a sprint is completed, the team should hold a sprint review meeting. This is an opportunity to demonstrate the finished work to stakeholders and get their feedback, which can later be used to make improvements.
• Conduct a retrospective: This is a meeting that takes place after every sprint or at the end of the project. It’s an opportunity for the team to reflect on the project, discuss what went well and what needs improvement.

Conclusion

Managing multiple projects can be very challenging and overwhelming, indeed, but the above 8 tips are sure to help you lighten the burden.

Key things to remember:

• Staying organized and in the know is essential to getting ahead with your projects – without it, you might find yourself doing more work for no reason.
• Allocating workloads evenly, fairly, and without stressing out your employees is one of the best ways to ensure high team productivity and an undisrupted work process.
• Having a project tracking system like actiTIME is also invaluable, as it allows you to easily manage tasks and monitor progress with the help of automation.

Now, take a deep breath and give these tips a try – we believe they’ll assist in getting your projects done on time and under budget.

And when you’re ready to amp up your project tracking capabilities even further, consider adopting actiTIME – its handy project management features and automated time tracking tools won’t leave you disappointed!