Photo by Terrance McNally

Was trapping my wife recently in a conversation about time management and multitasking and what I should do about advancing the various writing projects I’m working on that are in various states of development.

Do I stick with my tried and true approach of  focusing (obsessing) on one thing at a time and seeing it through to its next stage of completion? Or do I challenge myself and split my writing days in half, one project in the morning, another in the afternoon? Or, do I split the week up, odds are for Project A, evens for Project B? Or, do I keep all my computer files open and set an alarm for 15 minutes, and every time it goes off I work on something different all the while putting on the special hat I’ve picked out for each project?

Interestingly, my wife and I do not have similar conversations when it comes to my ability to vacuum the apartment or clean the bathroom.

Anyway.

Obviously there’s prioritizing involved. Is any project on a deadline? And a passion test. Is this short story about the opening of a Ziploc bag lighting my fire today? But mostly this is a general process issue. Very subjective and every writer’s going to have a different approach.

So what about it, fellow writers or other creative types out there? Are you more like me or do you multitask? How many projects do you have going simultaneously? Do you split time in each day/week to work on more than one project?

And of course, most importantly…do you wear special hats?