The study found that when a person is working, it is best to have five projects on hand at the same time

Juggling multiple projects is the norm for most jobs these days. In fact, according to recent research, more than 80% of employees work on multiple work projects at the same time.

Such work arrangements that require employees to wear multiple hats are common . According to the survey, 59% of the respondents have 2 to 5 projects at the same time, 11% have 6 to 10 projects, and 15% are working on more than 10 projects at the same time. Companies will ostensibly say that allocating employees across multiple projects is to increase productivity, but it’s really just saving the business time, money, and resources.

In fact, this way of working not only has a negative impact on employees and related projects, but it is not necessarily beneficial to the company. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, excessive job demands, occupational stress, and job satisfaction have been hotly debated (you’ve probably heard of the phenomenon of “ silent resignation , ” where employees just want to stay and get paid , so they just meet the minimum work requirements), multi-project work is an important issue worth thinking about.

After several years of observing hundreds of employees at a large multinational company, we found that juggling five or more projects at once made it harder for employees to keep working on schedule. However, fewer than five projects won’t take full advantage of all the productivity of your employees.

When there are fewer projects at hand, employees are more likely to waste work time with nothing to do. If other team members didn’t deliver the tasks at hand on time, employees could have moved on to other projects while they waited.

Working on multiple projects at the same time can drive workers from all walks of life to develop more effective ways of working. For example, engineers can deploy automated queuing processes, and surgeons can develop more flexible prioritization plans when faced with multiple patients . That is, when employees work on multiple projects, they design solutions more creatively and get more done in less time.

Therefore, too few projects is not a good thing. How about too much? We found that employees with more than five projects may suffer from poor concentration and strained brain capacity, for example, it is difficult for people to concentrate on the task in front of them and not think about other tasks. Some people call this phenomenon “attention residue,” and there is evidence that it exists when a person is doing everything . According to this new finding, the next time your boss asks you to hold a Zoom meeting to discuss a new project, you should think twice before accepting it.

While five projects may be the ideal situation, not all employees and companies can make such an arrangement. Our research also points to three key conditions for better participation in multiple projects.

1. Professional ability matching

Employees are more productive when they are proficient at a task. Think about it, if a worker in the logistics industry has a relevant educational background and rich supply chain work experience, he can use the existing common working methods in all projects without re-exploring new methods. Likewise, an engineer who knows a certain type of software inside out can more quickly grasp the requirements of each new project related to that system.

2. High project similarity

Similar projects may also require nearly identical solutions that can be reused over and over again. For example, a copywriter who has three or four projects aimed at similar audiences at the same time can use the same template or tool to perform certain tasks.

3. Colleagues cooperate in place

According to our research, if employees on several projects all know each other, it saves a lot of grinding time for introductions, misunderstandings, and clarifications. Colleagues who know each other can also rely on shared experience and directly use the best solutions they already know.

In short, participating in too many projects not only damages the physical and mental health of employees, but also affects the progress of projects and the development of the company. Too many projects can hinder employee productivity, lower morale, and can lead to burnout . Therefore, business managers should improve the way of time allocation, and should not overburden employees.

This creates a win-win situation for both the employee and the company. Companies can still arrange employees to work on multiple projects, but in order to balance productivity and employee needs, they can assign more and more specialized employees to projects that colleagues are familiar with and have similar needs. This is the ideal state of corporate teamwork .