Photo credit: Flickr/AG Gilmore

Back in Part I of this post, I talked about the goal of an engineer, and how to be truly productive. If your actions aren’t bringing you closer to your goal, then you’re not really being productive. Sure you might be getting things done, but you’re not going anywhere. You’re treading water – working hard to stay in the same place.

In part II of this post, I want to give you some rock solid strategies that you can use today to make sure you’re being productive every day.

Strategy 1 – Keep your goals in sight… literally

In my last post, I suggested that the goal of an engineer is to find ways to keep people safe, and to solve their problems efficiently and effectively. Engineers can have goals other than that, for sure, but I think every engineer should have this as part of their over-arching mission.

Whatever your specific goal is, you need to keep it front and centre in your life. Write it out. Keep it in a frame on your desk or on your whiteboard. Make it part of your computer desktop. Do something to remind yourself of your goals on a regular basis.

Engineering can be beyond hectic at times. It’s easy to lose sight of what you should be doing, of what’s important, and of what will bring you closer to where you want to be.

One personal example of this is what I have inscribed on the inside of my wedding band. My wife and I each had “I am third.” written inside our bands to remind us of our own goals in life and how we wanted to orient ourselves and our marriage – to put God first, family second, and ourselves third. It has served as a powerful reminder for us both throughout our marriage. You need a similar reminder at work. You need to know what your purpose is at all times.

Strategy 2 – Have a plan and make it actionable

Knowing your goals and having them front and centre is important, but you need an actionable plan for achieving them if you ever hope to have those goals be realized.

Plans don’t have to be complicated, or even all that detailed. The act of planning is often more important than the plan itself. Life will happen regardless of your intentions. That being said, if you know where you want to go with your career, you’ll be in a much better position to evaluate opportunities and chance encounters with respect to making strides towards your goal.

Your plan – no matter how high-level it might be – needs to be actionable. A plan that isn’t actionable is probably more like a vision statement. Those are good, too, but not what you need here. Each step in your plan must have some action associated with it. If you can do each step, you’ve got a good plan.

Strategy 3 – Take bold action

Finally, you need to execute your plan. Take bold action. Do things that you wouldn’t normally do. Speak up in the team meeting and share your ideas. Talk to the pretty girl in accounting. Do whatever you need to do to knock off the steps in your plan. There’s nothing more exciting than seeing and feeling yourself make progress to the you that you want to be.

End notes

Every engineer has a goal, but not every engineer knows what it is. Fewer still don’t have a plan for getting there. Be exceptional – know your goals and make them happen. If you can do this, you’re already well on your way to an extraordinary engineering career.