This was a very big issue in my previous place of work. It really got to me, to the point that I actually quit and found another job. So, speaking from personal

This was a very big issue in my previous place of work. It really got to me, to the point that I actually quit and found another job. So, speaking from personal experience, it will also severely affect your programmers' morale if they just spend all their time doing little things on many different projects, rather than work on something big and worthwhile. The solution: Get proper project management practises in place. Split up a project's work in quantums of atleast 3 days. Don't discuss other projects when your programmers are busy working on something. po has an interesting point. Don't take very small projects which don't fit in your schedule. Another approach would be to talk and upgrade small projects to bigger projects and quote more time for them.