# My Bane - Multiple Projects

By Randall Degges · October 13, 2012 · https://rdegges.com/2012/my-bane-multiple-projects/

> I'm awful at juggling multiple projects. Here's why that bugs me, and why I'm letting passion and motivation pick my daily work instead of importance.

![Bane Sketch][]


This topic is something that's been floating around in the back of my mind for
the past several years.  My weakness, fatal flaw, bane, whatever you want to
call it...  Is that I'm awful at doing multiple things.  Really awful.

*Whew*, just saying it makes me feel a little bit better.

Every single day I open up my laptop, turn it on, and stare at the screen for a
good 10 seconds or so before diving into whatever it is I'm doing: working on
[my startup][], working on [GitHub projects][] I've created, reviewing pull
requests, reviewing feedback for [my book][], working on one of the other 50+
projects I've got going on at any given time...  **UGH**.

During those 10 seconds, I'm completely destroyed by a tidal wave of thoughts:

-   Oh no!  I didn't review that pull request from that library I wrote.
-   Oh no!  I need to finish up the new billing stuff on the website before our
    user emails go out!
-   Oh no!  I need to rewrite this chapter of my book after getting some really
    awesome feedback.
-   Oh no!  I've got a big talk coming up that I have to work on in the next
    several weeks.
-   ...

As soon as those 10 seconds are over, however, I regain my composure, remember
the most important thing I need to be working on, and start attacking it.

What really bothers me, however, is that day after day, month after month, year
after year--I still think about all the things I need to do, should be doing,
could have done, and want to do--*constantly*.  It's as if somewhere inside I'm
paralyzed by my options, ambitions, thoughts, and goals.

I **know** that I want to do all of the things I've got on my mind.  These are
all things I've thought about, started, worked on, and set goals for.  These
are all things that I really *love*, and want to see become successful, kick
ass, and enviable projects.

And even though I'm able to maintain focus--working on the most important
things every day--it still bothers me to no end that I'm unable to dedicate as
much time, commitment, and energy as I want to each of these projects that I
love so much.

I'm beginning to think that at some point, importance just doesn't matter
anymore.  If I feel really excited about working on my book, then I'm going to
work on my book.  If I feel really motivated to write that sexy new billing
interface for my users, I'll do that.  If I feel like pushing the new product
launch back two days so I have time to clean up, isolate, and publish that
awesome python library which allows me to remove duplicate code from the
code base, then I'm going to do it!

From now on, I'm going to make a conscious effort to stop letting importance
dictate my life, and instead let my passion and motivation drive my daily work.

Instead of suppressing my urge to hack on my favorite projects, I'd instead
like to use my passion to get shit done, feel happy with myself, and build
awesome stuff. 

**NOTE**: Just to clarify, I'm not the type of person to work on a million
separate ideas at a time.  I have a relatively small list of projects that are
really meaningful to me, which is what I'm talking about in this article.


[Bane Sketch]: bane-sketch.png "Bane Sketch"
  [my startup]: https://web.archive.org/web/20120516003024/http://www.opencnam.com/ "OpenCNAM"
  [GitHub projects]: https://github.com/rdegges "GitHub"
  [my book]: http://www.theherokuhackersguide.com/ "The Heroku Hacker's Guide"