“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

– Stephen King

“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.”

– Stephen R. Covey

All engineers need to learn to be productive. We tend to get a lot thrown at us and are expected to deliver big things in a short amount of time. Knowing how to make the most of that time can be the difference between a good engineer and a truly great one.

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned in the realm of productivity is the power of putting first things first. I’ve heard the power of putting first things first explained in a number of ways, but the best analogy I had ever heard was from Stephen Covey, author of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey draws an analogy between getting things done in the run of a day and filling a glass.

Filling your glass

Let’s say you have water, sand, pebbles, and rocks. Your task is to get everything into a glass. There’s only one right way to do it. You have to put your biggest items in first – your rocks. Then, you can fit your pebbles in the spaces that were left after the rocks went in. You can do the same thing with the sand, using the spaces left over by the pebbles. Finally, you can pour the water in. Since water is a liquid, it will automatically filter through to settle in the last available space. Your glass will be full to the brim.

If you were to fill your glass in any other order, it would overflow and you wouldn’t be able to get everything in. If you put the sand in first, you won’t be able to get your big rocks in. Your tasks are the same way. You need to put your biggest, most important tasks first.

The benefits of putting the big rocks first

If you put the most important things first in your day, then you can feel a major sense of accomplishment. It’s no big deal if you don’t get to the little, relatively insignificant things later on because the important things got done. For the vast majority of us, it’s impossible to get everything done in the run of a day that needs getting done. The volume is just too much. Given this, isn’t it best to get the most important stuff first?

Bearing this in mind, think about how you spend your days. What do you do first? Email? Useless meetings? If yes, then you’ve got huge opportunity to improve your productivity by putting more important tasks ahead of unimportant ones.

How to put this into practice

I suggest ending each day by taking 15 minutes to decide what major tasks need to be accomplished then next day. These are your “big rocks”. Don’t chose any more than one or two items. When you come to work the next morning, make sure you start your day on one of those tasks. Don’t even open your email client if you don’t have to. Author, engineer, and career coach Anthony Fasano offers this excellent tip: pretend like your day ends at noon and that you’re racing to get in what you need done. If you, for whatever reason, can’t get to your big tasks in the morning, no big deal! You still have all afternoon to get to them. I think this is excellent advice and helps to frame in our minds what really needs to get done in a day.

If you can identify your big rocks and prioritize them with a sense of urgency, you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish in the run of a week.

Take a minute right now and write out a list of the big rocks in your work life. Make a plan for which of these rocks you’re going to tackle first thing tomorrow morning. Write the task on a sticky note to remind you what you need to focus on when you come into the office tomorrow. Then, just do it! Focus your time and attention on that single task before you move on to anything else. Remember: your day ends at noon, so you need to do those few really important things first.