Building a System that Supports You
Overview
I’ve spent all of my professional life in Engineering. The consistent difference between low and high performers is discipline. Specifically, high performers build systems which help them to do their work. Rather than develop their tools fresh for each job, they build general tools that they can reuse across many different projects. This post is a collection of the things which I’ve found most useful.
Technical Tools
The tools vary by job. A developer will use GitHub, Java, and IntelliJ. As an Engineering manager, I live in Google Docs, Excel, and Tableau. The important thing is to learn your tools inside and out. Too often people learn just enough to complete the tasks at their current job. Instead, try and understand why each category of functionality is there. I say category since learning each feature of Excel wouldn’t be worth the effort, but knowing that it has a great statistics package is useful.
Schedule Tasks
Outlook is my friend. I set up lots of recurring reminders. Examples:
- Status reports (weekly)
- Public recognition of outstanding work (weekly)
- Setup sprint demos and planning (semi-monthly)
- Reserve meeting rooms for standups for the next month (monthly)
If I have a big, complex project to work on, I’ll also block out time on my calendar dedicated to the task. This keeps co-workers from booking time for other tasks when I need to concentrate.
Removing Obstacles
In other words, “know yourself”. Small items can derail big achievements. Be diligent about moving those potholes out of the way. For example, I like the end results of running regularly. But running is hard. So any excuse that comes up will keep me from running. Since I know that, I’ll leave my running clothes and shoes by the door. I’ll get up and go running before I turn on my phone. Because otherwise, I’ll start reading email, let myself get distracted, then it will be too hot or I’ll need to rush off to work.
At work, the same thing applies. Writing status reports can be tedious. To simplify the process, I have a standard template for the reports. I also have bookmarks for cost and usage tool and a general idea of the main goals to achieve. It is much easier to motivate myself to knock out tasks when I know that I’ll have something specific to show for it and how long the task will take.
Create a To-Do List
I get lots of unplanned work items that aren’t quick to knock out:
- emails from clients with requests
- in-depth responses to my questions for which I need dedicated concentration
- a new contract that I need to redline
I can’t knock all of them out at once and I need a way to keep track of them. Whenever a task comes in that I need to do but can’t do immediately, I add it to a Google Doc named “to do” in a bulleted list. Then when I finish tasks I can remove them from the list and check to see what is next. I always know what the next most pressing task is. Determining what to do is time-consuming; pulling the next item from a stack is easy.
Conclusion
Do what works for you. This comes from a combination of discovering which tools help you, and which items slow you down. Invest time in learning your tools well and limit the chance for obstacles to get in the way. That way you can leverage your skills to greater effect.
