Too Many Projects? The 10-to-15 Rule Will Save You!

A practical project-listing method—capped at 10 to 15 active items—can restore focus by turning vague commitments into clear, time-bound outcomes. The core idea is simple: every active project needs a dedicated “place” in a project list, and that list must be small enough that progress stays visible week to week. Too many projects quietly kills momentum; too few can leave someone stuck when a task stalls, fatigue hits, or external factors intervene.

The process starts by generating a comprehensive inventory of current commitments. Instead of judging ideas immediately, the method has people brainstorm everything they’re working on—then mine other sources for additional project signals. Email threads can reveal ongoing work (like drafting an article with a collaborator or handling estate-planning paperwork with a lawyer). Calendar events and recurring items can surface larger goals hiding inside routine life (a visit to a kiteboarding school becomes a “learn kiteboarding” project; meetings about a home studio lead to an article about what was learned building it; a recurring fitness routine becomes a manageable project only if it has a defined outcome). A to-do list also serves as a trapdoor for “invisible projects,” such as taxes, home additions, reading goals, or time with a child.

Once the list exists, the 10-to-15 rule becomes the filter. The sweet spot matters because it balances two failure modes. With more than about 15 projects, visible progress becomes unlikely, belief erodes, and projects get abandoned. With fewer than about 10, motivation can’t always compensate for real-world stalls—so the list should include enough alternatives to switch to when one project hits a wall.

If the list is too long, the method recommends identifying “false projects” and removing them. Dreams, hobbies, and open-ended areas of responsibility often sneak in because they feel important, but they lack the structure required for project management. Dreams have no deadline; hobbies may have no concrete outcome; areas (like health, family, finances, or career) are ongoing responsibilities that never truly “finish.” The method also flags “mega projects” that are too big to manage as a single short-term item—writing a book, for instance, is treated as a collection of smaller sub-projects (finding an agent, securing an editor, developing a proposal). The fix is to replace the oversized item with a near-term, completion-based sub-project such as increasing book pre-orders.

After removing false projects and breaking down unwieldy ones, the list should land inside the 10 to 15 range. If it still exceeds 15, the least urgent items should be pushed to a future list to reduce distraction—or used as a prompt to renegotiate commitments and learn to say no. The end state is a project list with clearly defined, short-term outcomes and no open-ended placeholders that blur priorities.