I have just finished reading a book called The Cognitive Athlete by Clint Rahe.
The book focuses on methods used in the military, professional sports, and other high-performance fields, and then explains how you can apply them to efforts that are cognitive in nature.
I am not going to review the whole book, but I am going to share with you the basic thrust and something I noticed that is ideal for global engineers.

The basic thrust.
We should not think about time management to maximise our performance as professionals. Instead, we should better understand how our energy levels work so that we can work on the right things at the best time.
This could mean working out when you are most able to think clearly and take on the most challenging of tasks – and then scheduling that time to be free of meetings so you can focus on the hard stuff.
It could also mean finding the time when you are least capable, and then allocating that time to reply to routine emails.
By aligning your periods of maximum energy with the more challenging tasks, you become much more productive.
Further, you should also find ways to automate or routinise as many tasks as you can so that you have energy reserves left over for the tasks that truly need your cognitive capabilities. This includes things like checklists for checking drawings, a standard procedure for approving purchases, and a uniform way for reporting faults in maintenance.
In addition, if you are going to have a period of high demand, then you need to have a period to ramp up prior and then a period of recovery and reflection afterward. What was interesting about this aspect was that these periods could be throughout a day, a week, a month or a quarter. There was no consideration of periods that go for longer. Meaning, if your job is pushing you to 100% until the end of the year, when you can rest, then you are not operating at 100% energy levels – and you are likely far from working optimally.
This is a very rough summary, and if you want to know more about how to maximise your cognitive ability so that you can perform at a higher level, then get yourself a copy.

Why this is important for the global engineer.
As a global engineer, you need to be able to shift to new contexts and still perform well. The perspective of The Cognitive Athlete allows you to understand the nature of cognitive energy expenditure that is required in any new role you find yourself in.
This could be a result of national practice, company practice, or the nature of the specific challenge.
I now know times when I need this more:

• I have worked in countries where the norm is 5.5 days a week so I needed to management me energy differently from other places.
• Some roles were continuous in their nature – always solving problems as they presented – so I had to plan my energy usage on a daily and weekly basis to ensure I would not burn out.
• Other roles had definite busy periods and periods of different task types – I would therefore need to plan for periods to note lessons learned (so I would recall them for the same time next year) and use a short break to get myself in the right frame of mind for the next period.
• I have also worked in roles where, due to time-zone differences, I needed to work at times not aligned with my natural rhythms, and I would need to be more mindful of making the most of those periods where my energy aligned with the opportunity to work on more demanding tasks.

As a global engineer – or as any type of professional – you too can find you will need to better align your energy levels with your job. And efforts for better alignment will pay off big time.

My biggest takeaway from the book.
I certainly appreciate the new perspective on managing energy instead of time. But for me, the one thing that really stuck was the notion of taking time to reflect upon performance after a major event. I am going to think now about those kinds of large singular events where it is beneficial to pause afterward to contemplate how well it went and in what ways so I can do even better next time with better long-term preparation.
Think now about those rarer large events where you don’t get to learn from your experience as much as would be ideal. Maybe you too need to pause after those and take some notes for future reference. 

“Growth is permanent everything else is temporary.” This is, for me at least, a very motivating quote. Thanks Dharmesh Kodwani for sharing that with me. It got me reflecting on the things we can do to improve our engineering capability as a global engineer. There is no substitute for a clear focus on improving how you work as an engineer. However, reflecting upon insights from others can sometimes be that little bit extra that separates the ordinary from the extraordinary. And reading the right books provides the best way to do this.

Therefore, I have collated a list of the books that I think are ideal for anyone who wants to be a global engineer.

These are also books that you don’t want to just read once. They are worth coming back to time and time again. Sometimes we forget the great insights we have read. We can recall some of the details and where we read it, but we forget the important stuff. So these are books you should also pick up from time to time to either re-read or flick through to keep yourself as amazing as possible.

Hitting the Brakes: Engineering Design and the Production of Knowledge  by Ann Johnson. This book is fascinating. It is written by an historian and uses the development of antilock braking to understand how engineering communities develop. It provides great insight into how knowledge in engineering is developed and shared. As you read this book you will notice how and why your understanding of different technologies you work on changes over time. Ideal for engineers involved in a rapidly changing industry/technology.

What Engineers Know and How They Know It: Analytical Studies from Aeronautical History by Walter G. Vincenti. This book was a bit slow to get started for me. However, it was fascinating to see how engineers tackled different problems throughout history. It uses the aeronautical industry as a case study, but much of the content is applicable to all engineering. At the end of this book, you will start to think about what kind of an engineer you are and if perhaps there are some things you could do a little differently.

The View from Here (Optimize Your Engineering Career from The Start) by Reece Lumsden. This is a book like one I have not come across before. It is the only book on engineering that starts at choosing a place to study engineering and then considers how to manage your engineering career. It does not talk much about the unique characteristics of engineering, the way other books do. Still, no matter the stage of your career, this book can likely help. This is a book that will make you reflect upon your past as an engineer and think more about what you should do next in your career.

Engineering Philosophy by Louis L. Bucciarelli. It talks about a thing called the object world (the world engineers work in), but it also goes into much more detail about the nature of engineering. It talks about the social nature of engineering; how we, as engineers, can sometimes think we know something and do not; and how engineers learn. At the end of it, you will probably think twice before ever reaching any engineering conclusions.

Engineering and the mind’s eye by Eugene Ferguson. This is one of the most visually rich books on engineering. Because the book essentially argues that visualisation is the key to engineering, this makes sense. The book argues convincingly that engineering requires mostly visualisation, but still a tactile understanding. It cites many other sources to support its contention and was the first book that I read that finally explained the link between art and engineering. If you want to gain a better understanding of how engineering has developed as practice, from beginning to what it is today, then this is an excellent book. After reading it you will probably start thinking about how you can improve your engineering ability through the senses you use when confronting a problem and how you choose to represent that problem.

The Origins of the Turbojet Revolution by Edward W. Constant II. This book focuses, as the title suggests, upon the development of the turbojet. It deals substantially with how ideas of a revolutionary nature often come from people outside of the respective industry. How revolutions can push some companies and their engineers to the sideline and raise others. These revolutions are rare, and a book about one, written by an historian, is a useful insight into the engineering tasks and attributes essential for such revolutions. What I found most interesting about the book was that it also covers the development of the antecedent technologies like the water turbine and supercharger.

How we Got to Now by Steven Johnson. This book tracks the development of 6 major inventions that significantly changed our world. This is done from the perspective of how they came to be – through interactions with other technologies and societal events. If you need to work on your ability to understand how and why the time can be right for a new idea, then read this book.

The Saturn V F-1 Engine: Powering Apollo into History by Anthony Young. This traces the history of the titular engine and the mission to the moon. Along with coverage of the technology and its development, there is also much in here about engineering behaviour and management for success. Ideal if you want to know what it takes to pull off a large engineering project (or even a smaller one).

Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono. This is certainly no longer a new book. However, it is an excellent book that helps you consciously look at problems from multiple perspectives, and be more certain that you understand it. This will also help you outside of engineering as well.

Talent is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else by Geoffrey Colvin. If you thought engineers were born and not trained, then this book will make you think otherwise. If you need more convincing that you can improve your engineering, then this is the book you want. It’s also ideal for anything else you want to improve.

How to measure anything by Douglas W. Hubbard. This is almost an engineering book, but it’s also a business book. The reason why I put it in the list is because of how unique it is. There are few books out there that help you deal with uncertainty the way this book does. Given how many things can seem uncertain at the start of an engineering project, this ability is an ideal for all engineers to have. By being able to put a measure to those things you do not yet fully understand, you can better assess ideas in their nascent stages.

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. This book provides great insights into how our initial thoughts can often be wrong. Essential for good engineering – especially when you are working with something new. It also provides insights into when you can rely upon your intuition – something that can bring an engineer undone if not done right.

The Global Engineer by Clint Steele (yes – me). I am obviously bias, but if you are going to read only one of these books, then I would recommend this one. Why, well, as I noted, I am biased, however, I did pull the essence out of each of the other books above to write this one. So it will provide you with most of the good stuff. Still, if you read the other books, then you could find something you need that did not influence what I wrote. Regardless – get this book!
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I am always looking for more to read and learn. If you have anything you think should be added to the list, then please let me know in the comments.