
Ask HN: How do you switch between projects simply, quickly and efficiently? - supacruz
I work on multiple projects at once, mainly saas &#x2F; web apps. I do everything: sketching, designing, developing, writing, marketing, etc.<p>For each project I need to launch multiple apps and documents: a few terminals (let&#x27;s say task runner and server), at least 1 browser window, an IDE like Sublime, and maybe Sketch, or a spreadsheet, or some evernotes, etc.<p>Because I&#x27;m working on 2 to 3 different projects in the same day, switching a lot between them, I prefer to keep ALL the apps and documents open for all those projects. All. At the same time.<p>Which is, if you ask my laptop (more specifically, its RAM), a bad idea.<p>Now I have 2 (unsatisfying) solutions:<p>1. close all apps and documents for projects which I&#x27;m not actively working on. Then, few minutes or hours later, spend multiple real minutes opening all the apps and documents related to that project, so I can pick up work where I left it (hoping I didn&#x27;t forget what I was doing, but that&#x27;s another issue).<p>2. be a lot more organized and focus on 1 single project per day. Heck, that would still mean I have to switch apps every day. So let&#x27;s say I need to focus on 1 project per <i>week</i>. I&#x27;m not sure I can do that. I know, context-switching is bad, etc. but I can&#x27;t see myself working on <i>1 single thing per day</i>.<p>Am I simply bad at organizing my work? Should I try sticking to 1 single project per day? Does anyone else have the same issues, and need to do a dozen different things every day, on different projects?<p>What solutions do you have to switch between projects simply, quickly and efficiently?
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supacruz
What I've tried so far:

\- setting up shortcuts / shell scripts to quickly open my terminals + apps.
That's cool for the first few days, then scripts are obsolete because no, I
don't need to open Sketch anymore, and the command to run the server has
changed again, and... ok, I'll just launch everything by hand.

\- same solution but a bit more elegant with
[https://github.com/TomAnthony/itermocil/](https://github.com/TomAnthony/itermocil/).
Same issue.

\- this one is definitely a win: I set up different tab sessions, ready to be
opened in 1 click, with this Chrome extension:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/edacconmaakjimmfgn...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/edacconmaakjimmfgnblocblbcdcpbko).
This answers only a small part of the problem though.

\- use multiple desktops (macOS): all apps related to the same project are
grouped on the same workspace. I like this a lot, making it really easy to
"switch context" between different projects. But that doesn't solve at all the
performance issue.

