It's no secret that our 9 to 5 and 5 to life schedules can go from 0 to 100 real quick. A few to do's can quickly multiply into a laundry list of items that can have the calmest person in a frenzy. Procrastination, impostor syndrome, and anxiety about making things happen can stare us in the face all day then creep into bed with us at night. As I sit and write this it's 2:28 am and my mind is playing double dutch as payback for being a sloth over the weekend. Pound sign balance.

For those of us that manage multiple projects in our careers and side hustles, we understand the difficulty of attempting to navigate it all and navigate it well. As Summer 2018 kicks off the uptick of social gatherings and travel plans add an addtional layer to an already busy life that you have to manage as a career driven entrepreneurial social butterfly. At times it can seem that you start to get the hang of it then more items get thrown in for you to juggle. Next thing you know you feel like a full-time circus act for doing too much and dropping the ball. In the words of philosopher Homey D. Clown, "Homey don't play that," and neither should you.

Here are five things you can today to help manage all of your projects.

Identify all the things you are juggling and where you are falling behind. Knowing what you are working for and how you work best is important to the game of life. Is one ball heavier than the other? Are you throwing around dead weight? This can include friends, family, relationships, projects, etc.
Create an actionable plan. Prioritize your tasks to understand what you have to do immediately, soon, and later. This will help you identify what your schedule/work needs to look like based on the impact they have. Your Priority Matrix can help clarify where you need to spend your time.

2. Get a planner. The Day Designer which can be found at Target or on Amazon is my personal favorite. As someone who is always on my phone I can tell you that I still miss stuff that I forget to write down. Visualizing what I have to do helps with the aforementioned prioritization as well as being able to create daily checklists.

2b. Use highlighters or colored pens to color code what things are. Apply the same colors to your physical calendar that you have on your digital calendar if applicable. For instance, If I have a meeting in red on my Outlook/Google Schedule then it's in red pen or highlighted in my planner.

3. If you are super digital and paper is just not your thing (even though I will HIGHLY recommend it) try tools such as Asana, Trello, and Evernote to keep things all in one place. I have used Asana on multiple occasions to manage items for simultaneous projects. Being able to break things into smaller pieces and seeing things complete can motivate you to continuously do it.

4. Get a circle of people that can help hold you accountable. It's critical to your sanity. You can't depend on them to make sure you get every task done because they are working on their own passions as well but you should be able to send a text or quick email and say, "can you make sure I do these two things this week?" Do that for your friends as well! Ask them what 2-3 things they need to do to knock it out of the park this week.

5. Be willing to not only sacrifice your time, but be selfish with it. If I know there is an event or outing on Thursday that I want to go to, then I know that the rest of the days of the week I will have to work smarter to be efficient. If I'm traveling I work on planes. I'll go into the office an hour early to get work done in order to save me an hour in the evening that I need for personal projects. Be aware that you will also have to be selfish with your time just not with other people but also your self. There are plenty of dope things happening around you at all times but you can't nor should you do them all. I'll try to convince myself to do things that I know good and well I don't have time to do or that are a complete waste of time. Work Brittany has to be selfish with social Brittany. If you've never told yourself to chill out or take a seat try it a time or two.

5 Tips To Juggle Multiple Projects This Summer