Quote:
Originally Posted by Liffer
I think that I for the time being can do a weekly review on all of my projects but will absolutely think about spreading them out if (or when?!) they become too many to handle all at once.
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I would argue against the spread out approach but instead offer this suggestion on handling a once a week review with hundreds of projects. I currently have about 850 projects of which abut 500 are on hold and the remainder are either pending, stalled or active. I do a once a week review but I do it by status of project.
So I first set the project selection to be stalled projects. In my case any project without a next action needs more intensive thought so I like to do those first. I really define the project actions before considering the review done.
Second I look at pending projects. Again, for me, I like some sort of heads up that a project or batch of projects is going to suddenly become important before I get to the day that they do, so seeing what's coming up and their start times is important. This review goes really quickly as all I am really doing is reading the project name and looking at the start date so I am mentally prepared.
Next I look at active projects. These are the ones I've been working on since last week or wanted to work on but weather or other events conspired to prevent me from doing anything. As I review each one I make sure the actions are still accurate. If one of these needs to be put on hold I do that but do not mark it reviewed at this time.
Last to review are the on-hold projects. I put all my projects in folders by area of focus so if I am really short of time I can avoid doing any major review of on-hold projects that are in my hobby folders. What I do is bring up the projects on hold, look at that folder only, select all of them and wholesale mark them reviewed even if I haven't really read in detail each one.
Similarly I know that certain areas of focus I need to review on-hold projects carefully because I may need to get one going sooner so for most work related areas I do read each on-hold project to be sure it's not going to blow up on me. If I think it needs to be active I mark it active but NOT reviewed and move on.
Lastly I go back and do a review of all remaining projects. That allows me to shift my focus to the newly activated ones and be sure they are clean and ready to be worked on. I can also review the previously active but now on hold projects and again make sure that is the right place for them.
A full review like this will take me about 45 minutes for about 850-900 projects.