Managers are force multipliers that provide structures enabling engineers to deliver value. While technical skills decay, people skills stay for life. Switch to management for the right reasons like making meaningful decisions and helping people grow or you'll be miserable and so will your team. Management will make you better at understanding other people, setting boundaries, sensing power dynamics, having hard conversations, analyzing yourself. The professional world is a sandbox to train with lower stakes, the feedbacks you'll give to your colleagues will be less impactful than the feedbacks you'll give to your children.
Charity MajorsMakers have productivity blocks, managers chain meetings. Makers create tangible value, managers supply information. Implementation is down to you, the key is not to alternate too much. Hearing about someone's problem isn't a recharging break, a solo walk is. Elon Musk is an engineer and a CEO so he falls into both categories, thus he has 2 schedules: distraction-free work block work and 5 mins management calls.
Shane ParrishEnjoy doing hard things by making productivity fun. Productivity isn't grind and getting work done but about using your time in an intentional, effective, and enjoyable matter. You're driven by emotions, not techniques. Once you have the basics (sleep enough, eat well), what differentiate your hard work from others' is the moves you make (selling to wealthy rather than poor for example). You procrastinate because you don't feel like working. Sometimes, bad work is worse than no work because you'll have to fix it later (writing, coding). It's better to publish 2 videos a week than spend twice the time on one. Once you stop having fun, you loose the joy and you burn out. When you're having fun, productivity takes care of itself. Find ways to make your work fun no matter wow. What does the fun version of this looks like? Finds little fun tweaks and jokes. There is way too much seriousness out there.
Ali Abdaal