About this ebook
It can feel that there’s never enough time because the workload and expectations can both be high. How do other people do it? What are their secrets? How can you get the maximum benefits from minimum investments of time, and work smarter not harder?
This can be especially overwhelming for new managers. In this book, I share tons of actionable tips, tactics, and strategies to get things done based on over 90 interviews of engineering managers at https://managersclub.com, and my personal experience as an engineering leader.
Why Another Book On Time Management? While effective time management is essential for everybody, this book is about the time management techniques that specifically work for managers including software development managers, engineering managers, people managers, team leads, etc. Most of the literature about time management is not specific to managers and the unique aspects of their job. Many of the same things will apply to individual contributors, but not all.
TOPICS
Why Another Book On Time Management?
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Why Time Management Is Hard for Engineering Managers
Managers’ Schedules Are Different
Being a Perfectionist / The Pareto Principle
Multitasking
Dealing with Interruptions
Summary & Action Steps
Chapter 3: Rethinking How Tools Help Us Through the Day
Inbox Zero
Filters and Rules
Other thoughts on email
Organize Your Calendar
Effective Meetings
Agendas
Pre-reads
Invite List
Moderating
Meeting Length
No Screen Meetings
Offline Meetings in Writing
Start Times
Ending Meetings
No Meeting days
Surveys
Summary & Action Steps
Chapter 4: Techniques To Plan the Day/Week/Month
Personal Planning
Eisenhower Matrix (Engineering Manager Version)
To-Dos
3×5 cards
To-Do list and GTD Apps
Checklists
Focus and Concentration
Addressing Live Requests
Personal Kanban Board
Summary & Action Steps
Chapter 5: Communicate More with Less
Group Chat, e.g. Slack
Smartphones & Other Devices
Summary & Action Steps
Chapter 6: Additional Tips To Help You Save Time
How To Start (or Finish) the Day
Exercise and Meditation
Take Advantage of Commute Time
Produce Content Faster
Text Expanding & Auto-complete
Templates
Note Taking
Blocking Distractions
Be Flexible
Other
Chapter 7: Wrap up & Conclusion
Contact Info
Newsletter Sign-up
Summary & Action Steps
Ratings and reviews
About the author
I am on a mission to improve engineering management.
As a product minded software engineering leader, I lead and transform software engineering teams to deliver user-friendly, customer-facing websites and mobile apps. I am skilled in all aspects of software engineering from hands-on coding to management and recruiting. As a leader, I aim for efficiency and developer productivity. I lead by example paying attention to quality of code and software craftsmanship while instilling a sense of total ownership across the team.
