Another day, another new design and system challenge. It may seem like every day you face an obstacle that questions your merit, skill, and competence. If you can’t solve it, you may have a sinking feeling that another engineer— someone smarter or more talented than you— can. Over time, no matter how long your track record of accomplishments is, you may begin to suspect that you got lucky or that you don’t belong in your job. This nagging sense of fraudulence is known as imposter syndrome.
Sometimes things don’t go quite as planned. You commit to checking off a few tasks for the day, and suddenly a change to the budget or revision in the project brief takes you back to square one. What was supposed to be a clear and straightforward project now requires longer development times, more resources, or aggressive deadlines. The productive day you wished for took a turn didn’t expect. This phenomenon, called scope creep, happens to the best of us.
Any engineer knows that coding, testing, and designing products requires intense concentration. “Being in the zone” is critical for many engineering tasks as juggling several variables in your head demand laser focus. Engineers in this state of flow— where knowledge, motivation, and focus all magically align— can produce more quality work in a single afternoon than in days of non-flow.
But as most engineers also know, this state of flow is elusive. As soon as you buckle down to do engineering work, intrusions may shift your attention. Before you know it, you’re waist-deep in two or three other unanticipated tasks. In an era of endless Slack messages and open workspaces, we’re bombarded by distractions. In reality, doing real engineering work can seem few and far between when interruptions are pulling you away from complete focus on important projects.
