Managing Projects in Wartime. Sketch #1

It’s probably worth sharing with colleagues from other countries what it’s like to manage projects during a war. I can’t promise to do it regularly, but from time to time, I’ll write about project management under war conditions in the “War” category.

Today’s topic is a standard working war day for a project manager. But before diving into it, I must remind you that this war did not start on its own. It was launched by russia under the rule of its deranged dictator, putin. Ukrainians never sought this war and did nothing to provoke it. The truth is simple: if russians stop attacking and go home, the war ends instantly. If Ukrainians stop fighting, Ukraine will cease to exist—our culture, language, and people will be erased systematically.

A Standard Day for a Project Manager in Wartime

You wake up and realize—you’re alive. That means you’ve been given another day, a chance to make it count. You use it for productive work, for helping the armed forces, for earning a living, for connecting with loved ones, and, of course, for resisting the occupiers.

A morning jog, a coffee, a cigarette… and you’re already at work.

Everyone makes the most of these ‘gifted’ days in their own way, but almost everyone understands that any given morning could be their last. That’s why the ‘project manager’ steps in—a superhero for whom ‘time management’ is just one of their many superpowers.

You hold a strategic focus: business development, project execution, and—above all—contributing to victory. But before any of that, you prioritize survival. First, your own (remember–“put on your oxygen mask first”). Then, the survival of your loved ones. Then, your team. Only after that do projects and business come into play. It’s like a hybrid of the Eisenhower Matrix and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs—adapted for war.

Working Between Air Raid Alerts and Shelters

God bless COVID-19! Most of us learned to work remotely. That experience is now a lifeline. You have multiple workspaces—some more comfortable but less secure, others safer but less convenient.

Your smartphone has an air raid alert app, and your tablet runs a personal airspace monitoring system (see the image above). During the early days of the full-scale invasion, when an alarm sounded, you’d immediately leave a meeting or training session and rush to a shelter. Now, you watch the skies with one eye and keep working with the other.

But sometimes, things unfold like in the picture on the right. In those moments, you just think, ‘Fuck tham all!‘ and keep working, watching through the window as our missiles and shells soar into the sky, and our Cossacks take down enemy drones and missiles.

At the same time, you keep track of activities in the country’s airspace and monitor enemy movements to anticipate potential threats and prepare for what may come in the next hours or even minutes.

During brief pauses—perhaps while waiting out an air raid in a shelter—you catch up on the latest news and contribute where you can: donating to Sternenko’s ‘rusocut,’ supporting Prytula’s satellite purchases, Kovalenkos’s buggyies, and more.

Everything else is almost standard project management.

The Evening Routine: A Toast to Survival

At the end of the day, you pour yourself a glass of whiskey—to steady your nerves, to help you sleep, to mark the survival of another day. Of course, the terrorussians don’t always let you rest—this image is a glimpse into the nights of every Ukrainian watching the Monitor channel.

But if the sun rises tomorrow, it will be another day to fight, another day to manage your projects, and another day closer to victory.