This month I had the honour of returning to the Level Up Engineering Podcast, this time talking about the state of Engineering Management in 2022! The good folks at Coding Sans surveyed a number of engineering leaders and put together a compelling report of the state of engineering management.

In this podcast I provided my personal feedback on some of the results from the survey, and talked a bit about how we at Salesforce address and support some of the concepts mentioned. I got to speak about our approach to hybrid/remote working, hiring engineering managers, time management and much more!

Check out the blog post with all the details or catch the recording below!

Last year I went through an activity to revisit how I use my personal devices. I downsized to an iPhone Mini 12 (which I love) and decided to fundamentally change my approach to using my phone.

In the past, I had really enjoyed having “my whole life on my device” so I could access everything I needed, regardless where I was. This included email, social media and entertainment apps that would help pass the time. What I found is that when I was away from home I would mindlessly check these apps when I really should be enjoying time with my friends and family.

The updates to how I use my iPhone were done in two phases:

Audit Remove Unnecessary Apps

I went though and removed all apps that were basically unnecessary for me to use when I was out of the house or not on my laptop. This included removing:

• Gmail, Twitter and any other social media apps on my phone. I could login to the web version of these if I really needed them.

• No games or entertainment, which included any sports apps (except one, see below).

I kept any apps that I used for fitness (Strava, Apple Fitness, etc.) and also kept any apps related to utilities I would need while I’m out and about (Google Maps, etc.). I made sure to keep my devices that help with my mental health (Gratitude, Headspace, etc). This basically made my iPhone a dumb device that was mostly focused on utility, fitness and mindfulness.

Create a Custom Home Screen

Once I had audited all the apps I didn’t need, I really focused on building a one-page, clean iPhone home screen with a focus on apps and experiences that improve my mindfulness and mental health. This included:

• Adding banner widgets for photos as well as from the Gratitude app to remind me to be grateful each and every day.

• Making fitness, health and wellbeing apps have a prominent presence on my home screen.

• Creating a widget of notes to remind myself of which Values drive me every day.

I also appreciate that Apple released the App Library in iOS 14 which helped with this task. The utility apps that I need when I’m out of the house are still there but are hidden and only available as needed. For the most part, this has had me use my iPhone less which is one of my ongoing goals. At times, I have had to log into my Gmail using Safari just to access something while on the road but that’s a fairly rare occurrence.

I also found that I reinstalled one sports app, The Athletic, so I can keep tabs on scores of only my favourite teams. And from time to time I’ll check out one of their excellent articles!

I hope some of these tips help you revisit how you use your phone and perhaps give you some time back in your day!

About a year or so ago I really made a deliberate effort to start listening to podcasts. Whether it’s listening during my commute or during my workouts, I’ve appreciated another medium to scratch my learning itch.

With that, I’ll be starting a semi-regular series to showcase some of the podcasts I’m listening to on an ongoing basis. I find that podcasts come and go from my library, so I should be able to keep a pretty fresh list of podcasts to share on an ongoing basis.

I’d also like to focus these posts on some of the diversity in podcasts that I listen to. They tend to oscillate between topics of technical/engineering leadership, mental health/wellbeing and sports. My first examples of this are below!

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Here’s The Catch - 49ers Podcast
Episode Frequency: Twice per week (during season)
Average Episode Time: 50 mins

Yes, I’m starting with a bit of a painful mention as the 49ers came very close to the Super Bowl this year! Having said that, I appreciated the detail and conversations that the Athletic staff and 49ers alumni provide in this podcast. The cadence is really great too, there’s normally an episode the day after a game and a mid-week primer episode for the following week. Worth a listen starting in September 2022!

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The Engineering Leadership Podcast
Episode Frequency: Weekly
Average Episode Time: 45 mins

Only in it’s second season, the Engineering Leadership Podcast is the work of members of the Engineering Leadership Community. It features some great, in-depth conversations with engineering leaders across the industry. I really appreciate the format of this podcast, with great summaries at the end of each episode that provide tactical advice to take back to the listener.

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The Happiness Lab
Episode Frequency: Weekly (When In Season)
Average Episode Time: 40 mins

This was the first podcast that started it all! I wrote a post back in November 2019 that talked a bit about my path to happiness, and this podcast was a big part of it. I continually get great content from this podcast around happiness and wellbeing, and I’m continually learning about the connection between science and our emotions.