Organization/Productivity/Time Management

The 3 D’s of Productivity or How to Work Smarter not Faster as an Engineer

October 26, 2015 By Anthony Fasano

This is a guest blog post by Skye J. Coleman, PE

These days, the modern engineering office is filled with cubicles stacked right next to one another. Two monitors sit on each desk and low-profile dividers barely separate one person from the next. For 8 to 10 hours a day, Monday through Friday, engineers young and old sit pensively at their assigned work station, cranking away at their to-do lists trying to meet or beat their next deadline.

If you’re an engineer in one of those offices, I hate to tell you… but your work output is pathetic.

Chances are, most of those deadlines will not be hit and if they are the resulting project work will only be partially finished. Distractions and fires from previously “completed” projects will take priority and the proverbial can will be kicked down the road to construction phase services where you’ll have to answer immediate RFI’s from the field distracting you from the design project assigned to you at that time. [Read more…] about The 3 D’s of Productivity or How to Work Smarter not Faster as an Engineer

Skyrocket Your Productivity with These 5 Apps for Your Smartphone

October 19, 2015 By Anthony Fasano

productivity

This is a guest blog post by Dave Willenberg, LEED AP

Eighty million and eight hundred thousand.

The Apollo Guidance Computer did a great job of putting people on the moon, but that’s how many of them you’d need to match the processing speed of an iPhone 6 (in instructions per second). In terms of overall performance, that little chip inside Apple’s latest flagship could guide 120,000 Apollo 11 missions at the same time.

That’s a lot of small steps for man…

…but no giant leap if it’s only used to check Facebook on your lunch break.

That comparative supercomputer in your pocket is a tool which offers infinite ways to boost your productivity. Why not unleash its potential?

Whether you’re part of an engineering team or a fellow solopreneur, fire up your app-store and start increasing your efficiency with these 5 smartphone apps for productivity. [Read more…] about Skyrocket Your Productivity with These 5 Apps for Your Smartphone

Effectiveness vs. Efficiency: Picking A Productivity Mindset That Boosts Your Results

October 12, 2015 By Christian Knutson, PE, PgMP, PMP

productivity

“Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.” – Peter Drucker

Our mindset drives everything we do. In Carol Dweck’s book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, the reader is introduced to two mindsets: fixed and growth. From her research, Dweck has shown the mindset with which a person operates will determine their success in learning new material, dealing with failure, assimilating new skills, and defining success.

A similar two-track mindset exists in productivity as well, and the one we pick to apply will determine the level of impact we have in achieving long term success and overall accomplishments.

Effective vs. Efficient Productivity Mindset

Here’s a quick explanation of effective and efficient productivity mindsets: [Read more…] about Effectiveness vs. Efficiency: Picking A Productivity Mindset That Boosts Your Results

Don’t Leave Anything for Chance When Engineering Your Workflow Routine

October 5, 2015 By Anthony Fasano

I spent a very long time, writing down the tasks I wanted to do each day in a notebook as the main part of my workflow routine for a long time. I finally realized a few things one day that made me question my approach. I would forget to do things that I have to do on a regular basis, and there was a lot of chance in my approach which assumed I would remember everything. [Read more…] about Don’t Leave Anything for Chance When Engineering Your Workflow Routine

5 Things You Can Do To Increase Focus in Your Engineering Career

July 13, 2015 By Christian Knutson, PE, PgMP, PMP

One of the challenges I hear about from a lot of engineers is how to stay focused when there are so many distractions vying for their bandwidth. I can relate, the same problem exists for me! I think that any engineering professional today is going to have to come up with ways to protect their “space” so that they can generate quality focus time on the tasks before them. This is really important for doing work that requires the minds full engagement. I remember doing design work early in my engineering career and how frustrated I would become when I was interrupted by a phone call or someone stopping by to chat. It became even worse when later in my career when I sat in a cubicle farm. Trying to concentrate on writing a report or putting a presentation together with ringing phones, conversations all around and unfettered access to anyone walking by nearly drove me insane. So how do you create the space necessary to be focused?

Before I get into the five things you can do to increase focus in your engineering career I have to ask: do you want to increase your focus? I ask this because some of these suggestions will require you to not be immediately responsive to another person’s desire to communicate with you. You may also have to learn how to tell people “no” when they want to stop by to chat. And you will also need to train yourself to be focused on single tasks. If you’re willing and able, then here are the five things you can do to increase focus in your engineering career: [Read more…] about 5 Things You Can Do To Increase Focus in Your Engineering Career

Why Working Less on Your Projects Can Improve Engineering and Project Management Efforts

July 6, 2015 By Anthony Fasano

There is a stereotype in the engineering world that I would like to disprove and that is, to be successful in your engineering and project management efforts you have to work a TON of hours. I think this is totally false, and I think that this stereotype is causing a lot of engineering and project management professionals to burn out.

I recently had a discussion with a very successful engineering company owner and he actually told me that he tries to do the opposite. He hires really good staff, so that he can work less and enjoy life more. Yes, he actually said that.

I believe that one way to improve the quality of your engineering and project management work is to work less. Yes, work less. Here are 5 reasons/steps why and how you can improve your engineering and project management work by working less.

Boost Your Engineering Focus By Eating A Frog Every Day

June 29, 2015 By Christian Knutson, PE, PgMP, PMP

“If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” ~ Mark Twain

Normally I end my articles with a quote, but this time I’m starting with one instead. We’re focusing on, well, focus this month. This quote does an awesome job of reminding us of the importance of prioritization in our lives. Most days we’ll have a challenging or tough task that we need to accomplish. When one of these is on our task list, Twain’s reminding us to knock-it-out immediately.

When we do the hard stuff first thing in the morning, every other task we have to deal with becomes easier. I believe there are two reasons for this:

We’re rested and better able to concentrate on tasks/matters that require our full mental attention and energy.
Emotionally, once the hard stuff is done, everything else is a cakewalk in comparison.

Boosting Your Focus

Learning Can Rapidly Advance Your Engineering Career – Here Are Four Steps for Learning and Implementation

September 15, 2014 By Anthony Fasano

I am a fast mover to say the least, and over the past few years, I think this has hurt me some. Don’t get me wrong, I get a lot of stuff done; however, I think at times I rush decisions just to keep a fast pace, and some of those decisions don’t best contribute to my goals.

To remedy this, as of recently, I have started to attend a lot of in-person conferences and training events. In a short time, this has proved to be career and life changing. While the events have contained some very valuable learning sessions, most of the big takeaways for me have come from conversations with successful people. Here are some lessons I have learned about learning, and most importantly about applying what I have learned: [Read more…] about Learning Can Rapidly Advance Your Engineering Career – Here Are Four Steps for Learning and Implementation

How to Avoid Getting Caught Up in Career-Development Details as an Engineer

April 16, 2014 By Anthony Fasano

Here’s a HUGE challenge engineers face in their career development: they get caught up in the details of day-to-day tasks and forget to look at the big picture and how all of their actions affect it.

This is totally understandable. Our job as engineers, from a technical standpoint, is to make sure that all of the details are addressed. Not doing so could potentially result in catastrophic failures. The challenge becomes avoiding that mindset in our career- and personal-development efforts when it will hurt us.

Examples of Thinking Small [Read more…] about How to Avoid Getting Caught Up in Career-Development Details as an Engineer

Engineering Productivity: How and When to Break a Task Up into Smaller Steps

March 18, 2014 By Anthony Fasano

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I often write about efficiency and productivity in the workplace, as I believe lack of these things is the leading cause of engineers working too many hours.

I believe that one of the most important aspects of being productive is the ability to focus for a long period of time, which can be difficult in a world full of distractions. Two different systems allow me to sharpen my focus, work more productively and generate high-quality results.

First, I set aside a certain time of the day or week to do certain tasks. For example, I usually write blog posts early Friday morning, at 5:30 a.m. By doing this consistently, I know that that is my time to write and only write. I focus intently on that task and don’t let anything else get in the way. [Read more…] about Engineering Productivity: How and When to Break a Task Up into Smaller Steps

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