TRACON controller reported separation was lost when working combined positions with heavy traffic.

Attributes
ACN	879948
Time
Date	201003
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.TRACON
State Reference	US
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	DA20-A1 Katana
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Departure Approach
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Person 2
Function	Approach
Qualification	Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Conflict Airborne Conflict Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

I was working the radar east position with no final controller. The traffic picked up unexpectedly with arrivals and departures. I was in the process of a debriefing for a final controller trying to split the positions. Between coordinations; arrivals/departures; position relief briefing; and higher traffic complexity; I got distracted with aircraft X and aircraft Y. When I observed the situation I took immediate action to separate the aircraft in the best manor I thought practicable. [We need to] get a better understanding when the traffic will pick up and split the positions accordingly and in a timely manner.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: TRACON Controller reported separation was lost when working combined positions with heavy traffic.

Narrative: I was working the radar east position with no final controller. The traffic picked up unexpectedly with arrivals and departures. I was in the process of a debriefing for a final controller trying to split the positions. Between coordinations; arrivals/departures; position relief briefing; and higher traffic complexity; I got distracted with Aircraft X and Aircraft Y. When I observed the situation I took immediate action to separate the aircraft in the best manor I thought practicable. [We need to] Get a better understanding when the traffic will pick up and split the positions accordingly AND in a timely manner.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.