How to prioritise when working on multiple high-visibility projects with limited time

Question

Hi everyone,
As we plan for H2, multiple high-visibility projects have been assigned to our team. Due to limited resources, we’ve been split into virtual groups, and I'm expected to contribute to multiple projects simultaneously.

The main challenge is prioritisation. When I ask my manager, the response is usually “everything is important,” which makes it hard to focus. I want to avoid a situation where I’m spread too thin and end up underdelivering.

Would love your thoughts on:

How do you prioritize when everything feels urgent?
How do you manage bandwidth while still setting realistic expectations?
Any frameworks or tactics that have worked well for you in similar situations?

Thank you

Alex Chiou · Accepted Answer

One tactic you can try to absolutely force the issue is to explicitly ask a question like this: "If I don't have enough time and I absolutely have to backlog one of my projects, which one would you recommend I drop first?"

If your manager won't tell you anything, I recommend going to your product manager and tech lead. It's not only the manager who should have a sense of prioritization.

You should also make the calculation that I talk about in this lesson of the productivity course: https://www.jointaro.com/course/maximize-your-productivity-as-a-software-engineer/finding-the-best-things-to-work-on/

I would be incredibly surprised if the predicted impact of every project you're working on is exactly the same.

How to prioritise when working on multiple high-visibility projects with limited time

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