Engineering Management Institute

goal setting

Time Management Tips for the Young, Overwhelmed Engineer

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This is a guest post by Matthew Douglas

Time ManagementOverwhelm. Seems like the common state of the fellow engineer. But if you have a family at home, overwhelm doesn’t quite fit the description needed. If you are anything like me, the common day is filled with work, kids, and cleaning, which all add up to exhaustion if we are being honest. But alas, if we want to succeed, we have to find a way through the burnout.

Society operates on a level that is not very forgiving for those with other obligations that occupy their time. Just think about it: daily, you most likely have to juggle a mixture of work, school, kids, career development, finances, etc. The point is it takes a lot to be an adult and if you are newly graduated, welcome to the party. 😀

But you don’t have to live like this. This doesn’t have to be your portion. Although you may have a lot on your plate, there are ways you can change and habits you can implement to have more control over your life. Here are five tips you can incorporate into your daily routine to improve your efficiency:

Tip #1: Get Some Rest

Now you may be thinking, what does rest have to do with time management if you’re spending your time resting in the first place? Well, it is important to get as much rest as needed because the lack of sleep causes a domino effect on your body. Every major function of your body requires that your body rest to function properly. On top of that, your cognitive abilities are affected drastically. So working smarter and not harder is the way to go — you want to ensure you’re getting the proper systems in play that will allow you to get better rest and be more productive.

Tip #2: Plan Ahead

This is an important one. Planning gives you the chance to have some adaptability. Simply speaking, the further ahead you plan, the easier it will be to see upcoming problems.

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Shift Your Focus to Shift Your Relationship with Goal Setting

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This is a guest post by Jeff Perry, MBA

Goal

“You are your own worst critic.” We hear this a lot, but does it have to be true? Do we always have to be so hard on ourselves as we try to make progress and reach new goals?

Goal setting, resolutions, making progress, and reflection are things many people do at the turn of a new year (we’re getting close right now). Yet many people set goals only to not reach them and get demoralized and stop trying.

So how do we find happiness in our lives and careers?

The answer: Lack of happiness, frustration, burnout, and dissatisfaction are driven mostly by focusing on The Gap — the difference between where we are now vs. the ideal that we want to be true. This focus gets us spending so much time feeling that sense of lack — “I’m not good enough, I don’t have enough, things will never be how I want them to be …” And on and on.

So how do we turn it around?

Focus on The Gain — the progress we’ve made, how we have improved, feeling gratitude, and more.

What Are The Gap and The Gain?

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TCEP 227: 2023 Goal Setting Tips for Engineers: Sprints Instead of Marathons

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2023 goal setting In this episode of The Civil Engineering Podcast, I provide you with a three-step framework that you can use to ensure that your teams are more focused in 2023 on impactful and achievable goals.

Engineering Quotes:

2023 goal setting

2023 goal setting

Here Are Your 2023 Goal Setting Tips:

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Goal Setting: The Meaning of Failure and Success

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This is a guest blog by Gina Covarrubias

failure and successWhy should we set goals — to obtain success, achievement, or happiness? And how are we supposed to manage failure when our goals fall short? In this post, you will discover newfound insights to help you answer these questions!

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Understanding and Optimizing the Long Game That Is Your Engineering Career

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This is a guest post by Jacob Valentien, PE 

Understanding and Optimizing the Long Game That Is Your Engineering Career

As I reflect and think about the various blog topics that I could write about for the Civil Engineering Collective, I wanted to start off by summarizing one of the biggest concepts that I see young engineers struggle with in their first few years after graduating college and starting their career. The issue is that your engineering career is quite the long game, and it has only truly started. Engineering school is step one and obtaining your professional engineering license should be the step where everything accelerates (and not slows down).

Establishing a challenging and rewarding engineering career is very important to me, and I hope to break down some foundational concepts so that you can set off on your own challenging and rewarding engineering career. I think the following four major components are most critical to take into consideration for your career development:

  • Mindset
  • Experience
  • Continual learning
  • Goal setting

You can find tons of content on each of these topics from all kinds of sources, both internally focused on the engineering field and externally. I think there is value in immersing yourself in these topics early and often to continually remind yourself of the value of each.

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How To Write SMART Goals, Courtesy of a Moose

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This is a guest blog by Pamela A. Scott

SMART GoalsSeveral years ago, we took a family vacation to Maine. Being a savvy professional, I set official goals for the trip. I wrote them down, of course. Goals aren’t real unless you write them down.

I shared my written goals with a peer group. I even wrote them down in the visitors’ registration book at a Maine information center.

“Goals for Maine trip: to get a green tourmaline ring and to see a moose.”

Before I tell you what happened, let’s look at how to set goals using the SMART method, a tried-and-true model for goal setting. And very fitting for this time of year.

SMART goals

Identify Your SMART Goals

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Prioritizing Your Goals – the One Step Most Professionals Fail to Take

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The topic for our December 2020 Civil Engineering Collective session will be goal setting as many professionals start thinking about their goals for 2021. In the session, we will walk through three steps that you can take for effective goal setting. However what I’d like to cover in this post is an important step that you must take after setting goals, PRIORITIZING YOUR GOALS.

So let’s assume you followed the three-step goal setting process and you now have ten goals that you will be working on for 2021. How do you decide which goals to work on when?

Firstly, I recommend that you try to organize your goals by the amount of time it will take to achieve them. For example, studying for a certification exam could take 6 months, while reading a book or learning a new computer program could take four to six weeks. While the task duration shouldn’t be the only factor considered when prioritizing your goals, it may help deciding when to pursue each goal.

Once you’ve organized your goals by duration, next you should consider the impact that achieving each goal will have on you, your career, and those around you. I recommend classifying these by “low impact” or “high impact.” For example, if you were to achieve your professional engineering license (P.E.) that would most likely have a high positive impact on your career and also great benefit to your company. However, reading a book on communication skills, while it may help you, probably would be lower impact than a PE license.

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Goal Setting: Think Big, Be Mindful

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This is a guest blog by Michael Burns, PE, PgMP, DBIA

goal setting

What a cool topic for my first EMI Blog—Goal Setting—as publishing and mentoring have been on my list of career objectives for many years. Writing my first draft, I realized it was January 4th, my father’s birthday and the time of year where resolutions and goal setting run rampant. My parents, school teachers who raised me in Boulder, Colorado, often limited their advice to philosophical statements like, “We are who we are becoming.” As a kid, this lack of concrete guidance frustrated me, as I sought clear direction for a successful life. Thirty years into my civil engineering career, as a parent, mentor, mentee and friend, I hold dearly to my parents’ guidance, accepting that we are who we are becoming is step one in balancing our desires against life’s events.

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Do You Have the Resourcefulness to Earn a 30% Pay Raise This Year?

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This is a guest blog by Jen Bunk, Ph.D.

Pay RaiseHappy New Year! It’s goal-setting season. How much value do you want to add at work this year? Do you know the EXACT percentage raise you want to earn? And do you know how to earn it? For many of our clients, earning a 30% pay raise is a stretch goal they aspire to achieve. 

But the question is, how do you get there? 

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Career Management – What Engineering Professionals Should Know

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This is a guest blog by Mary Jane Riccardi MBA, SPHR

Career ManagementManaging a career is not always an easy task. Maybe you are fresh out of school or just starting your engineering career. Or maybe you have several years under your belt and feel like you are doing the same things over and over again. Regardless of your current status, embracing your career management can be frustrating. How do you know where to start? [Read more…] about Career Management – What Engineering Professionals Should Know