Engineering a Work-Life Alignment

During these challenging times, balancing work and life has been especially challenging. We've put together these resources to help you. Please use this space to ask any questions you have about aligning your work with your life.

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Tirza Austin
Manager, Online Community
American Society of Civil Engineers
1801 Alexander Bell Drive
Reston, VA 20191
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@Kenneth Mika ​wrote the following tip in his blog post: "Try to learn early on what tasks do require immediate attention and what tasks don't. Create a matrix to determine tasks that need to be done first (important tasks to be done the same day); scheduled tasks (important but not urgent); tasks that can be delegated (those that are urgent but which others can do – great for coaching and mentoring younger professionals); and tasks that are neither urgent nor important (if the task is not urgent or important, why do it?)." 

Ken - can you expand upon how you have kept track of your living document of tasks? And for anyone else reading this - What do you use to keep track of your tasks? Is it digital or paper or a mix of both? 



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Danielle Schroeder EIT, A.M.ASCE (She/her)
Associate Engineer
Pennoni Associates
Philadelphia PA
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-14-2020 01:32 PM
From: Tirza Austin
Subject: Work-Life Alignment

During these challenging times, balancing work and life has been especially challenging. We've put together these resources to help you. Please use this space to ask any questions you have about aligning your work with your life.

------------------------------
Tirza Austin
Manager, Online Community
American Society of Civil Engineers
1801 Alexander Bell Drive
Reston, VA 20191
------------------------------

@Danielle Schroeder,  ​I use Microsoft OneNote so I can easily take my notes with me home or when I am traveling. I have set up a Section and Page called "To Do." I try to update this at a minimum of once per week or during busy weeks, once per day to set the day's tasks. On the "To Do" page, I set up a quadrant area with two columns as "Urgent" and "Not Urgent" and two rows as "Important" and "Less Important". Then I label the following squares "Urgent-Important" as Do First, "Not Urgent-Important" as Scheduled Activity, "Urgent-Less Important" as Delegate, and then "Not Urgent-Less Important" as Do Not Do. Activities can move throughout the quadrant as their dynamics change.

Below is an example of what I am using.


I would happy to discuss this approach more with anyone who is interested.

------------------------------
Kenneth Mika, PE M.ASCE

Geosyntec Consultants, Inc.
(920) 393-8484
kmika@...
Green Bay, WI
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 08-19-2020 05:36 PM
From: Danielle Schroeder
Subject: Work-Life Alignment

@Kenneth Mika ​wrote the following tip in his blog post: "Try to learn early on what tasks do require immediate attention and what tasks don't. Create a matrix to determine tasks that need to be done first (important tasks to be done the same day); scheduled tasks (important but not urgent); tasks that can be delegated (those that are urgent but which others can do – great for coaching and mentoring younger professionals); and tasks that are neither urgent nor important (if the task is not urgent or important, why do it?)."

Ken - can you expand upon how you have kept track of your living document of tasks? And for anyone else reading this - What do you use to keep track of your tasks? Is it digital or paper or a mix of both?



------------------------------
Danielle Schroeder EIT, A.M.ASCE (She/her)
Associate Engineer
Pennoni Associates
Philadelphia PA

Original Message:
Sent: 08-14-2020 01:32 PM
From: Tirza Austin
Subject: Work-Life Alignment

During these challenging times, balancing work and life has been especially challenging. We've put together these resources to help you. Please use this space to ask any questions you have about aligning your work with your life.

------------------------------
Tirza Austin
Manager, Online Community
American Society of Civil Engineers
1801 Alexander Bell Drive
Reston, VA 20191
------------------------------

Thanks @Kenneth Mika! This is a great and practical example of the  Eisenhower Matrix in action in the engineering field!

------------------------------
Danielle Schroeder EIT, A.M.ASCE (She/her)
Associate Engineer
Pennoni Associates
Philadelphia PA
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 08-20-2020 09:14 AM
From: Kenneth Mika
Subject: Work-Life Alignment

@Danielle Schroeder,  ​I use Microsoft OneNote so I can easily take my notes with me home or when I am traveling. I have set up a Section and Page called "To Do." I try to update this at a minimum of once per week or during busy weeks, once per day to set the day's tasks. On the "To Do" page, I set up a quadrant area with two columns as "Urgent" and "Not Urgent" and two rows as "Important" and "Less Important". Then I label the following squares "Urgent-Important" as Do First, "Not Urgent-Important" as Scheduled Activity, "Urgent-Less Important" as Delegate, and then "Not Urgent-Less Important" as Do Not Do. Activities can move throughout the quadrant as their dynamics change.

Below is an example of what I am using.

I would happy to discuss this approach more with anyone who is interested.

------------------------------
Kenneth Mika, PE M.ASCE

Geosyntec Consultants, Inc.
(920) 393-8484
<maskemail>kmika@...</maskemail>
Green Bay, WI

Original Message:
Sent: 08-19-2020 05:36 PM
From: Danielle Schroeder
Subject: Work-Life Alignment

@Kenneth Mika ​wrote the following tip in his blog post: "Try to learn early on what tasks do require immediate attention and what tasks don't. Create a matrix to determine tasks that need to be done first (important tasks to be done the same day); scheduled tasks (important but not urgent); tasks that can be delegated (those that are urgent but which others can do – great for coaching and mentoring younger professionals); and tasks that are neither urgent nor important (if the task is not urgent or important, why do it?)."

Ken - can you expand upon how you have kept track of your living document of tasks? And for anyone else reading this - What do you use to keep track of your tasks? Is it digital or paper or a mix of both?



------------------------------
Danielle Schroeder EIT, A.M.ASCE (She/her)
Associate Engineer
Pennoni Associates
Philadelphia PA

Original Message:
Sent: 08-14-2020 01:32 PM
From: Tirza Austin
Subject: Work-Life Alignment

During these challenging times, balancing work and life has been especially challenging. We've put together these resources to help you. Please use this space to ask any questions you have about aligning your work with your life.

------------------------------
Tirza Austin
Manager, Online Community
American Society of Civil Engineers
1801 Alexander Bell Drive
Reston, VA 20191
------------------------------