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Warning: Too Much Internet Use May Reduce Your Productivity and Negatively Affect Your Work-Life Balance

November 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In my engineering career, I have always tried to be as productive as possible.  That’s what we are taught as engineers – always optimize!

Recently I have been doing a lot of traveling for my Engineer Your Own Success (EYOS) book tour and it has helped me to realize how much the internet can really hamper your productivity.  On a recent flight from the east to west coast, I was able to spend a solid 4 hours on my laptop and get so much accomplished. The main reason for this productivity was because there was no access to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or e-mail to pull me away from what I was doing.

I certainly may not be telling you something here that you weren’t already aware of as I know most of you have at one time or another experienced time loss due to participating in social media postings etc. I realized a while ago that while the Internet is an amazing source of information, it can really take your focus off of your main tasks for the day. I’ve known this for a long time myself, but I still struggle with refraining from being active on the Internet when I know with jut one click of my mouse I’m in. However, on the airplane, I knew I couldn’t get online, so my focus remained laser sharp on the tasks I was tackling and what a difference it made in the level of my work performance for that time period. I easily did in 4 hours what I normally would have accomplished in a full day at the office. [Read more...]

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Work-Family Balance: Do You Have It?

May 10, 2011 By 9 Comments

Often times, when I speak on the topic of career growth and development, professionals ask me to talk about work-family balance.  I don’t believe work-family balance is something that you can teach someone.  Similar to success as described in my last post, work-family balance can have a different meaning to everyone.

I define work-family balance as being able to contribute to both your career and your family in a positive way.  The key word in my definition being contribute.  Many professionals have to work late hours and don’t get to spend as much time as they would like to with their family.  Some professionals adjust their schedules so that they still get their work in, but also get to spend time with their families on their terms. [Read more...]

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Would You Say Your Career Has Been Successful?

April 29, 2011 By 5 Comments

Most of us try to follow a similar path in life, which includes graduating college, getting a job and then going onto to having a successful career.  Sounds great doesn’t it?  Well it would sound great if that’s the path you want to follow.

As great as it sounds to have a successful career, I believe that many people chase a successful career not knowing exactly what success means to them.

What does a successful career mean to you?

Does a successful career mean: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Career Development, Professional Development, Uncategorized, Work Family Balance Tagged With: ,

Do You Rush Through Your Days Too Quickly?

October 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment


William Merunka


Featured Guest Blogger: William Merunka


Time is one of the most valuable commodities that we have in life.  We often take it for granted and do not enjoy the time that we have as much as we should.  We rush around like busy bees and try to fit as much into our daily routine as we possibly can.  Working in New York City I see this almost every day of the work week.  People are constantly rushing to get on the train as  soon as the doors open, and once they reach their stop, they rush to reach their final destination.  During the train ride, these individuals are typing away on their blackberry or reading over work documents.  It always shocks me when I think about how often this happens and how many people it happens to.

Time is something that should be enjoyed and not rushed.  It may seem like the right thing to do at times, especially at the end of the work day when you want to get home and see your loved ones.  However, doing it too often could turn it into an irreversible habit and you could ultimately end up missing out on important activities in your life.  There are several important situations where things should not be rushed.

The first is when meeting or speaking on the phone with clients.  Professionals always want to fit as much into one day as humanly possible.  This sometimes results in setting multiple appointments close to one another.  In doing so, people will rush the first meeting so that they could be on time for the next appointment.  While this may seem okay, in reality it is hurting you.  Whether trying to land a new contract, or just talking with an existing client about the status of their project, they want to feel  important and respected.  They want to know that you truly care about them and their project and you are not just in it to take their money.  The client will know when you are rushing, and it will leave a sour taste in their mouth.  They may not call you out on it, but eventually it would affect their decision to work with you in the future as well as referring you to co-workers and acquaintances.  Think about it.  If you go to the hospital for surgery, would you want the surgeons to rush your operation just so they could operate on the next  person?  While this may be an extreme example, it puts things into perspective, especially since something that may seem routine and simple to you, could be a big deal to your client.  [Read more...]

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What Is Your Ultimate Career Goal?

September 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Anthony Fasano

Did you ever take the time to stop and think, “What is my ultimate career goal?” It’s an open-ended question with tons of possible answers, but it will certainly force you to think about your career and where you are headed.

I am writing this post in response to a question that an engineer asked at one of my career advancement seminars.  The question was something to the effect of, “How does my role fit into the big picture of the world?”  What a great question!  Unfortunately, the only person that can truly answer this question is the person that asked it, however I thought I would share how I would answer this question.

In attempting to answer this question, I would start by brainstorming on the first question I mentioned above, “What is my ultimate career goal?”  Do you want to make a lot of money, be president of a company, work as little as possible and enjoy life outside of work as much as you can, own your own business, travel around the world during your career? [Read more...]

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Career Development Distractions and How to Overcome Them

July 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Featured Guest Blogger: William Merunka
Follow me on my journey to become a great engineer.
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Career development is something that is never completed.  It is like an uncharted road trip with friends.  You start out with one objective, and when you think you have accomplished it and it’s time to go home, a new objective comes to life and the trip continues.   Along the road there will be good times and bad times, fun times and serious times, and relationships can be strengthened or broken on these adventures.  One thing for sure is that there will always be distractions.   Sometimes the distractions will be valuable and other times it will just have a negative impact on your objective.

A good distraction is one where you are taken off course, but in the end brought back on course, or even advanced further than you expected.  An example is going out to dinner with an old friend or colleague and being presented with an opportunity to move up within your company, or take a higher management position in another company.  An example of a bad distraction would be going out bar hopping with your friends and getting trashed the night before a big presentation or client meeting.  Today, I will talk about some ways to control some of the most common negative distractions that you are likely to be faced with on your road to success. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Career Development, Uncategorized, Work Family Balance

Work-Family Balance: What Does That Mean to You?

January 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I have spoken in front of many different engineering societies on the topic of career development and before I speak I always try to find out from the attendees what some of their main concerns are around the topic.  With regards to career development, many of the comments I received back were related to work-family balance.  Most people said something to the effect of, “I would like to have more work-family balance.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Work Family Balance