Engineering Management Institute

getting things done

Seeing the World With an Entrepreneurial Point of View

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This is a guest blog by Patrick Sweet, P.Eng., MBA, PMP, CSEP

EntrepreneurialWhen I was an undergraduate engineering student, my favorite professor was a brilliant man named Dr. Peter Gregson. While I would never call him eccentric, he definitely stood out from the rest of the faculty. He was one of the few professors in the department who actually made things. He had developed products and built companies to sell those products throughout his career. This gave him, in my mind at least, a lot of credibility as an engineer and as an educator. Unsurprisingly, one of Dr. Gregson’s mantras was on the importance of having an entrepreneurial mindset. Whether you work for yourself or for someone else, seeing the world with an entrepreneurial point of view can have a profound impact on your career as an engineer. Ultimately, engineers who learn to think like entrepreneurs are better innovators, solve bigger problems, and are more productive than their colleagues.

Focusing on the Problem

As engineers, most of us are trained to master “solution space.” In school, we’re handed assignments and asked to solve for x. The problems that need to be solved are literally packaged up and delivered to us.

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

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TECC 150713 FocusOne 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

Boost Your Engineering Focus By Eating A Frog Every Day

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TECC 150629 - Frog“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:

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

Boosting Your Focus

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