How do you juggle multiple projects?

This week's Assembly asked
"How do you juggle multiple projects?"

We've gathered the key points and notes from the session, so you can refer back for future reference, or if you weren't able to join, learn from your fellow freelancers.

There's no single right model

People in the room spanned the full range, from one big chunky project at a time to deliberately maintaining four or five simultaneously. What matters is whether the model fits how your brain works and what your type of work actually demands. Strategy and research tend to need deep immersion; content and copy can flex across more plates at once. The starting point is knowing which kind of work you do, and being honest about what that requires of you.

Projects rarely stay the shape they started

What looks like heads-down execution at the outset can quietly become client-facing consulting, stakeholder management, and end-of-day catch-ups before you've noticed the shift. When the brief expands but the budget doesn't, you absorb the difference. Building contingency into your estimates is just accurate scoping.

Nobody should be billing 100% of their time to client work

Running a freelance business takes real time: admin, invoicing, business development, keeping your skills current. A more honest ceiling is around 80%, and that's before factoring in any actual rest. Several people in the room had carried agency habits into freelancing, where 120% utilisation had been treated as normal, and were still unlearning it. The number you're working to is probably the wrong one.

Clients need to know when, not everything

As long as a client has a clear picture of when their work will be delivered, what else is happening in your schedule is largely your business. Where it goes wrong is when that clarity is missing, and a client discovers late that their deadline was always competing with something else. Transparency about timelines builds trust. Everything else is optional.

The day rate conversation is overdue for a rethink

A strong thread in the room was about the limits of time-based pricing, particularly as AI compresses the hours tasks actually take. Pricing by day rate rewards speed over quality, and creates the uncomfortable situation where getting faster at your job means earning less for it. Project-based pricing, where clients buy the output, better reflects the value of expertise. Several people in the room were actively trying to move in that direction, and finding that clients who push back hardest on it are often the ones least worth working with.

Your trusted network is part of your capacity

When projects stack up or scope expands beyond what one person can handle, knowing people you can bring in is what keeps things manageable. A handful of people with complementary skills, or even similar ones, who you'd be comfortable working alongside. The people in the room who'd done this said it was one of the better decisions they'd made, practically and personally.

Thanks for coming along!