Why Diving Into 7 Projects at Once Is a Trap
Last month I gave myself a challenge: focus on seven different side projects in parallel. A new module for Hesapciyiz.com, an update for Spamkalkani.com, extra features for Islistesi.com, plus a few ideas for this blog… On top of that, evolving my AI-driven content pipeline and pushing forward a Knowledge Graph experiment I was trying. The picture was a knot of pure chaos. Trying to give each project even a minimum slice of time, I noticed I wasn’t going deep on any of them.
This is a familiar movie for me. I’ve burnt out before juggling several projects at once. I forget what I last touched in which project, which bug I was hunting, which feature was supposed to ship next. That kills productivity and corrodes motivation. The operational load of the 13+ Docker containers I run on my own VPS is already heavy; piling seven side projects on top, the system effectively starts crashing.
Personal Take: A Manager in the Middle of Chaos
I know what running a project means — especially when you do it alone. A few weeks ago I was right in the middle of one of those stretches. Seven projects on my plate, trying to focus on all of them simultaneously. The result? A complete disaster. I struggled to remember which project I was in, which bug I was chasing, what the next step was. My brain was trying to teleport to ten places at once and failing every time.
This isn’t new for me. I’ve dived into seven projects before and limped back full of regret. While I was already wrestling with state corruption on my GitHub Actions runners, focusing on a single side project was hard — now imagine seven. Trying to keep up with that many things while also keeping the existing systems alive (Astro build OOMs, Cloudflare cache strategies, system logs) is, frankly, impossible.
So Why Do I Keep Going Down This Road?
So why, despite all the downsides, can I not stop diving into multiple projects at once? The answer is simple: a hunger to learn and the urge to explore the potential in different domains. Each project is a different learning opportunity for me. With Hesapciyiz.com I dig into financial calculation algorithms; with Spamkalkani.com I explore Android system-level integrations; with the blog I test AI content generation; with the Knowledge Graph project I focus on data structures.
Each of these projects gives me a different skill. From managing Docker containers on my own VPS to automating CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions, I gain hands-on experience in many areas. Sometimes I run into surprises like my Astro build going OOM, but solving those problems makes me stronger. I learn to build sturdier systems out of the very problems I create. These experiences are far more valuable to me than the theoretical knowledge of corporate consultants.
Trade-offs and Lessons Learned
Of course, there’s a price to taking on this many projects at once. The biggest one is time and energy. When you can’t focus enough on a project, your progress slows. That eats into motivation. For example, last month I got OOM-killed because I held a self-imposed sleep 360 for too long — sometimes even my own rules trip me up. These moments remind me to manage resources more wisely.
But one of the most important lessons I’ve taken from the process is that you don’t owe every project the same effort at the same time. Some need attention; others can run in passive mode. For example, the automation in my AI content pipeline lets me intervene less. These “set it and forget it” projects free me up to focus on the more active ones. This is not “corporate consultant” tone — it’s pure field-earned wisdom.
Conclusion: Learning From the Chaos
In the end, diving into seven projects at once is generally a bad idea. The burnout risk is high, productivity is low, and focus is hard. But for someone like me — constantly hungry to learn new things and explore different domains — these challenges are sometimes unavoidable. What matters is not getting lost in the chaos, pulling lessons out of it, and drawing a smarter roadmap. Maybe in a future post I’ll share which of these projects I scaled and which I dropped. For now, I keep learning and experimenting. Has this ever happened to you?