Engineering Management for the Rest of Us

by Sarah Drasner

If you say you care most about your family, and make no time for them, then you’re not honoring your own value.

When possible, I try to schedule similar tasks around the same time.

What I tried to do then was batch the 1:1s that had similar themes. Are you working on a particular feature? Try to batch the 1:1s for all the folks working on that same project. Do you have a meeting that takes a lot of coordination later in the week? Batch the 1:1s that give you pertinent information at least one day before that meeting so you have the information you need, and you come prepared.

The goal of prioritizing is to bring into focus the work you find fulfilling, and remove tasks that don’t.

Things that are actively on fire or are time-sensitive Things that can be done quickly Things that need a scheduled block of time Things that I may get to further along

I like this approach much more than a kanban board or a homegrown to-do list for the week because they feel unsatisfying and never-ending. In this model, the big picture is broken down day by day, and at the end of the week, it’s clear I’ve gotten things accomplished, which helps me feel motivated. I do keep a kanban board for larger projects, but day to day I try to maximize my dopamine: I give myself credit for anything I do, even small tasks and meetings, never leave something hanging, always marching on.

Are you meeting with them and their teams a lot because of issues of trust or issues of alignment? Try to work on the base premise here instead of using meetings as a Band-Aid.

focus is not your primary function anymore. Meetings are now your job. Coordination is your job. Your job is to be interruption-driven so your team can stay focus-driven.

Beyond your working hours, you don’t owe pieces of yourself to your job or your community.

But too much “have to” and not enough “want to” in your life is a bit dangerous. I suggest both in moderation.

I started noticing small, wonderful things around me preemptively, without forcing myself to. My outlook on life and work improved. So did (as Jessi predicted) my resilience.

research shows that belief in your own ability can be a better predictor of future success than previous job performance.

When we feel we have some agency in our lives, when we believe in our own competence to act on what’s within our locus of control, we thrive.

In the field of psychology, the Pygmalion effect24 is the name for the concept of how high expectations from those around us lead to better performance, and low expectations lead to the opposite, becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.

suggest keeping the manager cabal to eight people or less, generally with a sweet spot around six.

“The effects of altruistic spending are probably akin to those of exercise, which can have immediate and long-term effects.” —Dr. Elizabeth Dunn, professor at University of British Columbia