Motivation at Work 12

[ash060]

I have been engineering for a few years now, and for about the past six months I have not been able to focus and work well. I have switched jobs in the past four months and I like everyone at my new job, but I still can't seem to concentrate and work.

I will spend hours at my desk just looking at the work I need to do, and not doing anything.

I like engineering, shoot I will talk all day about anything related to engineering, but when it comes time to get moving I just stop.

Does anyone have any ideas about what I can do to make me become more focused.

 

[csd72]

kchayfie,

I used to do what you describe, but I always found that in the end I was left with the least desirable tasks because I had subconsciously avoided them.

I find it easier to write a list, start at the top, and do each one as far as I can in order. I will set myself a goal to do a certain number of points each day.

csd

 

[epoisses]

I know that feeling all too well.

One big nasty item in the agenda for this morning. I flip back and forth from Outlook to Eng Tips to the toilet to the coffee machine and back to Outlook... and there we are one other worker who wastes 20% or more of his working day.

If you don't feel like doing something, do it immediately and be done with it.

But no advice is more easily given and more difficult to follow than this one...

 

[ludikris]

Procrastination is the grave in which opportunity is buried.

--
Erik
MO P.E.

 

[KENAT]

* epoissses, I'm so guilty of that sometimes.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[kontiki99]

ludikris

Great aphorisim, thanks.

 

[ScottyUK]

----------------------------------

I don't have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem...

 

[KENAT]

My company screwed up pay checks this weekend.

OK, technically it was their subcontracted pay roll service.

Either way, a real killer to motivation.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[Tomfh]

Pay mix ups are a real pain.

I once worked at a place that lost my fortnightly timesheet. They didn't tell me until pay day meaning I missed that pay cycle. Then they told me I had no entitlement to be paid for the period because "no one is allowed to be paid without a completed timesheet". I offered to fill out another one but they deemed that unnacceptable. It took a long time to resolve.

 

[csd72]

Tom,

Thats why I always keep a copy of my timesheet.

Also why I no longer work for companies big enough to have a HR department.

csd

 

[PSE]

Thanks ScottyUK for bringing up one of my favorite motivational sites.

http://www.despair.com/

 

[Latexman]

ehw,

Speaking of starting the day with a good breakfast, I recall a quote from a popular TV show that can be changed slightly to be on topic. In a ham and egg breakfast, the chicken is motivated, while the pig is committed.

Good luck,
Latexman

 

[KENAT]

PSE, thank you for the link, and thanks Scotty for bringing it up. I was trying to remember it the other day as I was sat in a meeting in a room opposite a poster of a Lighthouse with some nonsense about leadership.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

 

[mechengdude]

Motivation...

What you briefly have at the start of a project while you're still in the "honeymoon" phase of the project as I like to call it.

Have no fear your motivation will be rapidly squashed by lack of requirements, unreasonable schedule, lack of manpower or some other combination of items outside your control.

 

[ewh]

Confidence is what you have before you understand the problem.
-Woody Allen

 

[prohammy]

Motivation - quite simple for me, I just look at my bank statements once a month and that seems to keep going just fine

Kevin

“It is a mathematical fact that fifty percent of all doctors graduate in the bottom half of their class." ~Author Unknown

"If two wrongs don't make a right, try three." ~Author Unknown

 

[RAH1234]

If you're not careful you might wake up one day and realize you've spent 1/3 of your life being bored.

The way I see it, money is a given- you will be doing some type of job no matter what. we've all known from the time we were little kids that we would have to work when we grew up. That being the case, staying at a particular job solely because you need a paycheck makes no sense. You might as well keep looking until you find the position that makes you happy.

You don't have to constrain your search to your field of study- most people don't work in the same field as their college major. Don't let a decision you made when you were 17 or 18 years old dictate the path you take through life.

 

[prohammy]

RAH1234,

I think you got the wrong end of the stick. Take a look at some of my posts from marraige and wrok thread and you'll see that the above post was intended to be humourous.



Kevin

“It is a mathematical fact that fifty percent of all doctors graduate in the bottom half of their class." ~Author Unknown

"If two wrongs don't make a right, try three." ~Author Unknown

 

[RAH1234]

Sorry prohammy, I was refering to the original post. I dont have the opportunity to get on eng-tips often enough so sometimes (most of the time?) my posts no longer fit the context of the discussion.
RH

 

[EngineerDave]

I have had jobs with long range project and some with very short term projects and there is a huge difference.

If you are in a short term project and task based job, it can be easy to maintain motivation as you have to get things done soon and quickly. There the bigger problem is burnout if you have too many long days in a row with constant daily deadlines.

The long term projects are quickly. So the only way I found to do things is to create artificial deadlines and also play little tricks like setting an alarm for 1 hr and trying to work ocntinuously before taking your next break.

You have to trick yourself and the big thing is getting a quick start in the morning instead of engaging in gossip,getting a cup of coffee etc.

Get off to a running start and the momenetum will carry you kind of far.

Every day know exactly what you first task will be and go from there.

Walk in to work with the first 3 things on a post it note. It's like what a famous Americal football coach Bill Walsh used to do. For every game he'd have the first 10 plays or so scripted and would stick to them no matter what, then adjust from there. It took away indecisiveness and got things rolling so to speak.

 

[vc66]

So does going onto eng-tips when I get in, in the morning count as getting off to a running start?

V

Mechanical Engineer
"When I am working on a problem, I do not think of beauty, but when I've finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong."

- R. Buckminster Fuller