I was recently assigned a task of managing a small project.The project has some technological aspects but the job is mainly doing managerial things: scheduling, making sure people do what they are suppose to, going to a lot of meetings, etc. Basically, it's not how the average programmer or even a team leader would like to spend his time.Since I am not going to sneak out of this, I have found myself wishing I could teleport myself to some point of time after the project has ended. After pondering about it some more, I reached the conclusion that I hate working like that and I can't allow myself to work on a project that makes me think this way. I have to make the most out of this project.So my goal is to make the most out of this unwanted project. How do I do that?I thought about writing every day a What I have learned today list, that will help me see clearly that I am learning from this and not wasting my skills.Do you have any recommendations on what can I do?
How to get the most out of an annoying project
project management
I like your suggestion of making a list of what I have learned today, but I would also say that it might be a good idea to create certain goals and objectives for your self that you can track your progress with during this project. That way you keep your eye on the goals instead of the frustrating aspects that are demotivating you at the moment. These goals could be things like fixing x number of issues per week, reaching project mile stones, your team completing x number of y per day, etc. Another thing you could do is try to think of technology solutions that will make your management work easier. For instance work on a really cool Excel spreadsheet that manages and tracks certain variables about the project and reports on it in fancy graphs. This will give you a technological distraction while adding value to your management work and impress your superiors all at the same time. You could also perhaps think of new and innovative ways to slice and dice management data that you have / make use of in this project, or present feedback reports in an innovative new way that perhaps sheds new light on something. I know this is a bit vague but its very difficult to be specific if I don't know enough about the job or the project.Lastly I think that developers are problem solvers by nature and we (usually) get satisfaction out of solving problems. So talk to your team and ask them to make a list of their top 3 frustrations in this particular project or in the team that YOU could help them with. Sure some will be outside of your control so forget about those, but try to put some focus on making changes or doing things different that will solve problems for your team. I'm sure that will bring a good amount of satisfaction.Hope that helps.