Poll: What is the highest number of jobs you've had going at the same time? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "What is the highest number of jobs you've had going at the same time?".
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| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 12:50
Spanish to English
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| I don't remember | Oct 29, 2018 |
I know that I may sometimes have more than one or two jobs going at the same time, but I just get on with the work to meet the deadline, and I don't bother counting exactly how many. I don't know who would be interested in minutiae like this.
As it happens, whenever I run out of translation work, I've usually got some articles pending revision for a journal that I work for, with a very flexible deadline, or for one of my other clients. However, I delivered the last four of those las... See more I know that I may sometimes have more than one or two jobs going at the same time, but I just get on with the work to meet the deadline, and I don't bother counting exactly how many. I don't know who would be interested in minutiae like this.
As it happens, whenever I run out of translation work, I've usually got some articles pending revision for a journal that I work for, with a very flexible deadline, or for one of my other clients. However, I delivered the last four of those last week, mainly because they were asking me to bill for them already, so this week I haven't got anything in reserve. Then again, that isn't a problem, because I have to undergo a vehicle inspection sometime in the next couple of days and that always takes time.
[Edited at 2018-10-29 11:35 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I don't remember | Oct 29, 2018 |
Perhaps it's about the maximum number of unique jobs/projects booked at a given time.
Between six and ten, maybe?
As long as there is at least one job in my backlog booked at any given time, I need not know more.
And if there is none, then it's time to shorten my to-do list.
Philippe
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I think that's about right. It could be more; certainly not less.
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EvaVer (X) 
Local time: 12:50
Czech to French
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| I don't remember | Oct 29, 2018 |
...but when there are more than 3, I find it very stressing. I don't think I ever handled more than 6.
| | | | | Depends what you mean | Oct 29, 2018 |
I work with small jobs most of the time, so I very rarely have more than a couple actually in progress.
There may be one bigger job in the background while I send off an urgent half-page press release, or a book, and I take on work from regular clients as well.
I often have a queue of jobs lined up for the next week. When I worked in-house, there was a group who worked together on huge projects, which might take them several months to complete. My section did the small jobs, ... See more I work with small jobs most of the time, so I very rarely have more than a couple actually in progress.
There may be one bigger job in the background while I send off an urgent half-page press release, or a book, and I take on work from regular clients as well.
I often have a queue of jobs lined up for the next week. When I worked in-house, there was a group who worked together on huge projects, which might take them several months to complete. My section did the small jobs, which the freelancers hated - there was too much administration. I teased the others one lunchtime by saying I had already met three deadlines, so now I only had two to finish before I could go home... They could not understand how I coped with the stress.
On the other hand, I never celebrated with champagne, a meal in town and a couple of days' holiday in lieu of overtime when I met a deadline on time!
[Edited at 2018-10-29 11:42 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Ventnai
Spain
Local time: 12:50
German to English
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I may have a large number of jobs lined up but I calculate the time I need for each one and the delivery date and time I can offer. Scheduling might cover two weeks or so. I currently have three programmed, one short and two which will take a day each.
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I work regularly with small jobs (less than 1,000 words) for some of my long-standing customers and occasionally with very big jobs for other clients (over 50,000 words). Often everything happens at the same time: as a freelance translator it’s not easy to have a control over the workflow. Now and then sticking to various deadlines requires extreme juggling... Right now I have just two jobs: a small one (2,000 words) scheduled for today and a longish one (15,000 words) scheduled for next Monda... See more I work regularly with small jobs (less than 1,000 words) for some of my long-standing customers and occasionally with very big jobs for other clients (over 50,000 words). Often everything happens at the same time: as a freelance translator it’s not easy to have a control over the workflow. Now and then sticking to various deadlines requires extreme juggling... Right now I have just two jobs: a small one (2,000 words) scheduled for today and a longish one (15,000 words) scheduled for next Monday.
[Edited at 2018-10-29 10:26 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Vera Schoen
Sweden
Local time: 12:50
Member (2008)
German to Swedish
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I work best when I'm only concentrating on one translation at the time, but happens very frequently that I have several translations waiting to be translated.
| | | | Agneta Pallinder
United Kingdom
Local time: 11:50
Member (2014)
Swedish to English
+ ...
| I said 2, but could have been 1 or 4 | Oct 29, 2018 |
I would not actually work on more than one project at a time, but I could have others already booked in to be done later.
Right now I'm expecting a new job tomorrow morning, then another next Monday, then a further one a week later. But each will be delivered before the next one gets started.
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I usually have 4-8 going, mainly because I work as an LVC (Linguistic Validation Consultant) for two organisations and the projects come in and out for validation during the process of translation, backtranslation, proofreading, reviewing etc.
Am I the only one in that situation?
| | | | DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
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| I din't use to count | Oct 29, 2018 |
Now if it's about translation jobs only, I usually try to keep about five projects simultaneously and under 10 concurrent activities (reading/ rewriting/ rechecking/ researching/ paraphrasing/ updating, and so on).
While some five parallel jobs may seem a bit intensive, I found that even switching to various text types keeps my performance optimal
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| 3 At The Same Time Was Way Too Many... | Oct 29, 2018 |
...since they were all book projects, one over 900 pages long!
Even though I was granted extended deadlines (in one case, grudgingly), my sleep (ruminations over translation issues) and health suffered greatly.
It took about a year to recover from all the residual side effects of shingles, which is a disorder caused by too much stress, after I came down with it while all of that work was going on.
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Barbara Cochran, MFA wrote:
...since they were all book projects, one over 900 pages long!
Even though I was granted extended deadlines (in one case, grudgingly), my sleep (ruminations over translation issues) and health suffered greatly.
It took about a year to recover from all the residual side effects of shingles, which is a disorder caused by too much stress, after I came down with it while all of that work was going on.
I also had shingles (the worst pain I’ve ever experienced) two years ago during part of the summer (8 weeks), but according to my doctor it wasn’t stress related, my immune system was down for a different reason.
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 07:50
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
I usually have one or two larger projects scheduled, with a certain due date up ahead, and several small projects coming and going all the time. There is a virtual sticky note with these projects on the top left side of my screen. The number of items there varies from zero to 10, but the most common standard there is 3 to 5.
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