Your time and attention are under constant attack. People, jobs, emails, calls, and countless forms of media and advertising compete for your precious brainpower. Among these distractions are what we'll refer to as “side projects,” which might spring from your own inspiration or might come by way of a friend who seeks your expertise.
To stay focused and avoid being overcommitted, it’s important to have some criteria for deciding which side projects to take on and which to turn down. Saying no to a project can be especially hard if it's something that you find particularly interesting or that your friend really needs help with. Doing so requires actively monitoring the use of your time and emotional bandwidth.
Here’s a formula that I’ve begun using to help me consider possible side projects in an objective context:
Personal Bandwidth Required x Duration / Potential Benefit
This is a simplified form of a cost-benefit analysis that an entrepreneur might use to evaluate where to invest their opportunity cost. I use the phrase "personal bandwidth" to describe a combination of time and emotional energy. How much time a project takes is not necessarily a sufficient measure unto itself – plus, it's hard to estimate as a single metric. By thinking in terms of Personal Bandwidth, you can ask yourself the right question: Instead of "Do I have time for this?" you ask, "Can I afford to put my heart and soul into this for as much time as it will require?"
Let's look at an example of this formula applied to a real side project of mine from earlier this year:
Case Study: Organizing an Unconference
I had helped to put together the 2008 BarCampNYC event, and when it came time to begin planning the next event, the main organizer stepped down. (If you're not familiar, BarCamp is a free, volunteer-organized unconference for free thinkers and innovators, where the attendees are also the presenters.) A few folks suggested that I take the lead, so I had to decide if I should invest the time I knew would be necessary to do the job.
Looking at the above formula, both sides of the equation were fairly heavy: On the one hand, organizing a BarCamp event would take a lot of time and energy. On the other hand, running such an event could help me get my name out there and forge closer relationships with some great people. It was a close call, but ultimately I decided that the potential benefits of participating would make my time and bandwidth investments worthwhile.
Looking back on it now, did I make the right call? The event was a huge success, organizing it was a lot of fun, and I got to build relationships with a fantastic group of people. The time I spent was substantial, but I don't think it took me so much away from my other main projects as to be a significant detriment.
In this case, then, it was a worthwhile side project to undertake. Other side projects I've undertaken over the years were not so valuable, and a bigger drain on resources. If I had taken some time to really consider the consequences of committing to them, I might have avoided an inefficient use of my personal bandwidth.
What side projects do you have on your plate right now? What's looming on the horizon? If you apply a critical lens to these projects, which do you think are truly worth your precious time and energy?
*** This post comes from Tony Bacigalupo, co-founder of New Work City, a co-working space in New York City, co-author of I'm Outta Here, and a partner at Shift 101, a workspace consultancy. Tony’s fieldwork feeds into the knowledgebase of the Behance Team, who run the Behance Creative Network, the 99% productivity think thank, the Action Method project management application, and the Creative Jobs List.
