Best ways progessing many sametime projects with optimum efficiancy

[pelule]

some general excuses
Some general excuses at the beginning. I believe it’s a must to prevent any misunderstandings.

• as I am not a natural English speaking person, I apologize in advance for any error (typing, gramma, expressions). I promise to improve..
  A good friend of my, born in the UK, corrected my in the past, but he moved to Australia, thus I have no “teacher” anymore.
• I have searched for a good location here in the forum to start this thread. That's my best suggestion.
     As I am absolutely confident, structure is a must for a successful search, I tried to follow that rule as good as possible.
     If the master of structure (admin) like to move it, just go ahead and message that new location.
• I am quite busy, thus it may seem time to time, I do not read/respond to a myself initiated thread.
     If someone need an immediate replay, please send a notify (PM). Later below you will find the reasons.
• Sorry for such many text in the beginning. But I feel it is required, to prevent to mislead people here in the community.
     So they may concentrate on their own targets and do not waste their time.
• Someone may get the impression I am searching for a new employer – a clear “NO”.
  I am also not interested in business partnerships. Thus please do not contact me with that intention. You will not get any response.
  Nevertheless I love work with a team, so if someone ask to accompany me on an interesting non-profit project, he is highly welcome to ask.
• If one has any doubt regarding asking a specific question he is kindly invited to read my “profession” below. It may help for that decision.

Last, but not least

• It is clearly not my intention, to blame someone or to disrespect other persons or meanings.
  If one have understood me in that sense, please “in dubeo pro reo” - it may caused by my limited English.
  It should also kept in mind, this kind of distance communication has a leak of information by default.
  This will not change as long as our brains are not organized like Borg (yes I am a fan of Star Trek)

my know-how /profession
To understand the background for starting this specific thread, please refer to “motivation” below and my “forum introduction”. Here I have also listed my so far experiences in electronics. https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/new-member-please-introduce-yourself/msg1060005/#msg1060005

motivation/why to start this thread
I still believe I am trained on handling many projects and priorities in multitasking. But deep in myself I have a nice little voice saying: “there is still room for improvement”.
There may someone out there, who may have a similar problem or even better a good idea to further optimize. Thus I started this thread, I am thinking of already a long time.

”The Projects” or “who can handle all that”
As of today I am working on 10 major project (for some already more than 2 years) To work on one single project only, from the start to the final end is absolutely impossible – it simply does not work with me. Too much other/higher priorities prevent that. But on the other hand, I do not want to stop/skip some project – too interesting (“I want them all and I want it now” as Freddy Mercury in this great song).
Thus for each new and interesting potential project I sit down a while and ask myself a master question:

• Is it interesting enough to spend some of my limited resources or does it help to finish other projects faster or more efficient, does it potentially fit to one of my “future projects”?

If there is not a clear YES to that question – I note that idea in my list “for later” and stop thinking about it. This list of “future projects” increases steadily.

“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.” (Henry Ford)

If I have decided to go with it, next is to split it into “subfunctions”.
The split follows the some quite simple rules:

• P1: could it divided at this state without making parts or all impossible (don’t waste prior investments)?
  Example: a 100h logging test can’t be stopped at 10h and continued later, you need to start again at the beginning (10h wasted).
• P2: is the “so far” project already useable (earliest possible return of investment)?
  Example: my “GPS Disciplined Rubidium Oscillator” is already a high stable 10 MHz Rubidium Source, just not yet disciplined be the GPS.
• P3: does this state of project require another “subfunction” to be finished (the critical path)
  Example: for a project I need a 28Ch logic analyzer, thus my 16ch-LA need to be extended to 32ch (the material is ordered and delivered already).
• P4: Are there phases in the project with “unobserved” activities (force of split)?
  Example: a long term drift testing. This can be done in parallel; during that time I am able to continue other parts/projects (like the front panel).
• P5: does the so far project increase the WAF value (WAF = women acceptance factor, 0…1)
  Example: my lab is limited in space, thus I need to move “project”  out of it time to time. My “Temp-Chamber” is during that time used as additional fridge and thus I am allowed to place it at another location.

It’s easy – you just have to follow one strict rule: document each important steps (where are you, what is next)
This also is will be the base of your design documentation at the end.

To be continued ..