Every academic I know is drowning in unfinished projects. I feel like this is a natural job hazard for us, given the nature of our appointments. We have almost infinite freedom to choose the task that we want to work on, but with this freedom also comes the responsibility to categorize, manage, and prioritize the different tasks that we have picked.
Otherwise, you end up in a scenario where your literature review is 80% done and never makes it past the finish line. Or you’re stuck with your data analysis for the second paper that you started three months ago, but you can’t seem to get it to completion. Or even worse, you have a grant proposal due in six weeks but you haven’t made any progress. Sometimes, your collaborator is waiting on your conference abstract that you’ve promised and they still haven’t seen any updates from you. As you ponder these unfinished tasks, somewhere deeply buried inside of your desk drawer lurks this almost-ready manuscript that just needs one more revision before you submit it. And you’re afraid to even look. If all of that sounds familiar to you, then the problem isn’t that you are lazy or disorganized. No, academia rewards starting new projects but never teaches you how to actually finish the existing ones. And then, you end up in a situation where they’re all competing for your limited time and mental energy. So today, I’m going to share the 7 ways I’ve learned to juggle multiple research projects without losing momentum on any of them . Simple strategies that helped me get the grants done and submit the papers without giving in to the pain of unfinished business.
Let’s walk through each one.
1. Create a project pulse check every Monday morning at 9 AM
This is the simplest hack that I know, but you really have to commit to doing it regularly. Otherwise, it will not be effective. Start every week by spending exactly 15 minutes reviewing the status of every active project on your plate. This completely changed how I manage my research pipeline. Open a simple spreadsheet and list every project you’re working on (or use the tracker I provide to paid subscribers this week). Next to each one, write three things: what phase it’s in (data collection, writing, revision, etc.), what the next concrete action is, and when you last touched it. If you haven’t touched a project in over two weeks, it’s dying. Either schedule time for it this week or officially pause it. And hey, there’s no shame in pausing projects but there’s massive guilt in letting them silently die while pretending they’re still active. Make a choice and stick with it.
The trick is to realize at the right time that most projects only need 2–3 hours of focused work to move to the next milestone. So there is usually never that mythical full week of uninterrupted time that you keep waiting for. Just get it done with the tiny window of working time that you have available to you right now.
2. Batch similar tasks across all projects on the same day
Whenever I first came across this idea, it seemed completely counterintuitive to me, because all of my projects would be completed in a linear, waterfall fashion. And I’m somebody who is familiar with agile and iterative, cyclical project management. Here’s the main idea: stop trying to make progress on one project at a time. Instead, batch similar work across multiple projects.
Ok, let’s unpack what I mean by this. Dedicate Tuesdays to all data analysis across every project. Wednesdays are for writing new content. Thursdays are for editing and revisions. Fridays are for administrative tasks like formatting, references, and submission systems. Of course, you are free to assign the days and tasks according to your schedule and whatever works for you. This is just an idea of how you could do this.
When you batch similar cognitive tasks, your brain doesn’t waste energy switching between different types of thinking. You can analyze data for Project A from 9-11am, then seamlessly transition to analyzing data for Project B from 11am-1pm, because you’re already in analysis mode. It’s an easy way to maintain momentum on five different papers simultaneously without having to switch to different brain modes in between.
The key is protecting these themed days religiously. That can be really tough sometimes. No meetings on Writing Wednesday, no email on Analysis Tuesday. You get the main idea.
3. Use the minimum viable progress rule for every project
Never let a project go more than seven days without making some form of progress, even if it’s just 15 minutes. This is crucial for keeping momentum on any kind of tasks you’re working on it.
I discovered this principle after too many of my projects died from neglect and I couldn’t quite figure out how I forgot about some of them. Here’s how it works: every project on your active list must receive at least one touchpoint per week. This could be reading one paper for your literature review. Writing one paragraph. Cleaning one dataset variable. Running one statistical test. The progress doesn’t have to be significant . It just has to exist. Don’t let a psychological barrier build up, because this will happen if you haven’t looked at a project in weeks and can’t remember where you left off.
Set a recurring Friday afternoon slot to quickly hit any projects you haven’t touched that week, even if you only spend 10 minutes fixing a typo or reorganizing a folder.
4. Build handoff packages for your future self
Every time you stop working on a project, spend 3-5 minutes creating a note for your future self about exactly where to pick up. I know this sounds annoying at first, but trust me, over time this is really helpful so that you’re not confused if you actually haven’t touched a project in a while.
This is the single most powerful technique for maintaining momentum across multiple projects. Before you close that manuscript, write: “Next steps: revise paragraph 3 of discussion, add Nacke 2024 citation to intro, check Table 2 formatting.” Before you leave that data analysis, note: “Just ran regression, need to check assumptions next, see diagnostic plots in folder X.” These breadcrumbs save you the 20-30 minutes you typically waste trying to remember what you were doing when you return to a project. I keep these notes in Apple Notes with a project name in the note, so I can search for it (I also recommend a hashtag like #nextsteps to organize things a bit). I’m a fan of just searching stuff in Apple Notes on any device and finding it instantly.
This is one of those techniques that seems tedious in the moment, but when you’re actually picking the project up in the future, you’ll be really grateful that you put in the extra effort.
5. Establish hard boundaries for project creep using the 90% rule
This is one of those things you usually learn the hard way. Many projects take an exorbitant amount of effort at the very end to push them across the finish line. So when one of your projects reaches 90% completion, ban yourself from starting anything new until that project is submitted.
Embracing this rule, really gave me the biggest productivity push. We all know the last 10% of any project takes 50% of the total time (stuff like formatting, final revisions, dealing with co-authors, submission logistics). It’s tempting to start something new and exciting when you’re stuck in these boring grindful final stages. Don’t. When any project hits 90% done (full draft complete, data analyzed, just needs polishing), it becomes your only priority until it’s out the door. Yes, you maintain your weekly minimum viable progress on other projects, but you cannot begin any new ventures. This creates urgency to actually finish things instead of accumulating a portfolio of 15 projects that are all almost done, just because you fell into the trap of the next shiny new thing.
One of my tricks for this is to write a Post-it note to myself on my monitor that says, “Get this sucker submitted!” This keeps me honest and puts some pressure on myself.
6. Develop a project triage system for unexpected urgencies
Prioritizing is one of those things we don’t think about enough because not all of our deadlines are created equal. You really want to know which projects can be dropped when you’re hitting a crisis with one of your projects or—you know — life in general.
Rank every project as either “critical path” (directly affects your degree completion or job security), “high value” (important but not existential), or “nice to have” (interesting but optional). When your supervisor drops an urgent request, or when life happens and you lose a week to illness, you know exactly which projects to pause. Critical path projects never stop. High value projects get minimum viable progress. Nice to have projects go on official hiatus until the crisis passes. This system prevents me from panicking when, all of a sudden, I see that a grant proposal isn’t quite done yet and really needs some final triage work before the deadline. I know exactly which projects I can put on pause and which ones I simply cannot.
Keep this ranking visible and update it monthly as your priorities may shift.
7. Track your project velocity to predict realistic timelines
A lot of the time when we take on new projects, it’s a little bit of wishful thinking when it comes to the time budget that we’re allocating to it. So we really want to measure how long things actually take us, not how long we wish they will take us. Be realistic about everything.
Start logging how many hours each project phase actually requires. Writing a discussion section? Track it. Data cleaning? Track it. Responding to reviewer comments? Track it. After three months, you’ll have real data about your working speed. This kills the planning fallacy that makes you think you can write a full paper in a weekend (don’t believe the AI influencers touting that non-sense). When you know it takes you 40 hours to write a first draft, you can accurately plan when to start. When you know revisions take 15 hours, you stop promising your advisor you’ll have it done by tomorrow.
This data becomes invaluable for deciding whether you can realistically take on that new collaboration or if you should focus on finishing what you’ve already started. It saves you a lot of headaches down the line.
Find project management systems that work for you
One of the things to keep in mind here is that juggling multiple research projects doesn’t mean you have to work harder or find more hours in every day. You only have to focus on creating systems that maintain momentum on everything while you also get things actually finished. I’d recommend to pick one of these strategies and implement it this week. Just make it a habit. And once it’s a habit, you can add another one. Within two months, you’ll be managing multiple projects like the prolific researcher that you’re meant to be. My best of luck to you.
P.S.: Curious to explore how we can tackle your research struggles together? I've got three suggestions that could be a great fit: A seven-day email course that teaches you the basics of research methods. Or the recordings of our AI research tools webinar and PhD student fast track webinar.
The Academic Project Dashboard
A simple template for project tracking:
