If you’re going to have a busy desk, it’s clutch to know how to change gears.
One thing I’ve found invaluable in planning my work is to tackle things in batches & groups. Specifically, handling projects in groups of 2-3, more projects can roll simultaneously if they are like types — ie working on 3 WordPress things at a time, 3 straight React things at a time, etc. Then, running through a list of 4-5 tasks on each one to move the needle notably. If I only focus on one thing at a time, I can hyperfocus and burn extra time. Knowing that I’m running through more than one project keeps me aware of tasks and time for all of them, especially with this exercise.
A list on paper, 2-3 project names, 4-5 tasks per project. That’s a block.
The tasks should be high enough priority that in each block, each project can maintain good velocity, we are hitting real goals on all three projects in each block. This is best for shorter projects, but I’ve also found this approach workable if one of the projects is a longer-term build, this can help to maintain velocity there in parallel with shorter turns and faster ships.
I also like looking at tasks without hard barriers for time. I would consider “a block” to be a solid day in the code mines, but sometimes that level of productivity happens over 2 days, or 3. I’ve had better luck with maintaining velocity on a long range projects when keeping them in the mix with other, faster projects. Not saying it works for everyone, but it works for me.
I work as a solo / full-stack / lead developer on a lot of projects, and this strategy keeps me effective on several things at once because it holds these items accountable to each other, and me accountable to each of them. Important things stay on the radar, get more prominence in blocks across weeks and months. Smaller things, sketches and experiments also get their time in the mix.
I need to be effective on each of these, so the tasks need to be reasonable in terms of time required. This also means that there will be larger items, a deeper piece of dev or research, that takes a full day of time. There are also client engagements that do require a very strict framing of time, but in my experience, having good discipline in the batches & tasks approach can still accommodate this.
Again, this won’t work for everyone, but if you also find yourself burning too much time on something that should take less, this might help. Don’t grind your gears, level your velocity and maintain speed.