I'm managing a project? Now what?

Whether I'm cooking a sumptuous Indian dinner, trying to run five errands while I'm in town for a client meeting, or preparing for two weeks of sun-drenched, rum-punch-filled vacation, I can't help but plan things in detail and check things off until everything is perfect. During darker moments, I assume people call me a perfectionist, hard to please, obsessive-compulsive, or any number of less complimentary terms. When I'm full of myself, I think I'm organized, get the seemingly impossible done, and herd cats with the best of them. The rest of the time, I accept that I'm simply a project manager.

I know lots of people who are organized and get things done. So I'm not surprised when they, like me, end up with projects to run. I assume that they have their own crises in confidence and ask questions like Why does my boss think I can do this?, What am I supposed to do?, and Now, what the hell do I do? I empathize with the guy who supervised the construction of the Great Pyramids when he found out what he was doing the rest of his life.

Project managers have bigger problems than moving 20-ton stones, keeping thousands of slaves productive, and making sure the Pharaoh approves of his eternal resting place. We have to learn how to manage projects as well as how to use Microsoft Project to do so. It's hard enough when the person sponsoring the project isn't quite sure about the desired result. It's darn-near impossible when we're knee-deep in Project wondering what effort-driven scheduling is, exactly, and why we can't assign people to tasks the way we want.

I've figured out the answers to some of these questions. However, I know that whenever I think I know all the answers, something blindsides me without fail. So, I plan to share a few things I've learned about managing projects successfully and enlisting Project in the effort--with appropriate humility and deference to the project management gods.