I love the word **effective** mostly because it is the essence of the kind of employee I aspire to be. *Effective employee* doesn’t simply mean working hard though in certain contexts that is all it takes. What it really means for me is someone who works to provide for the needs of the company instead of just the tasks that are assigned. A little while ago, I got added to a project at work that was being run by 2 brilliant principal engineers. They had built a tool that had slowly evolved into a critical part of shipping our product. However, due to its evolution as a home grown tool, it required the engineers to run it every day at 7 AM, baby sit it until it output the required results, usually around 11 AM. The reason I was being added to the project was because they needed a 3rd person to take on more of the work since they needed to divert some of their focus elsewhere. [[Never assume you know more than the experts|Per my usual rule]], I didn’t complain but tried my best to understand the space and learn as much as I can from them. After a significant amount of time had passed, I was sure that the time spent in the order of 2 principal engineers could easily be whittled down to just an hour of work a week for investigating failures. I got to work at the next opportune moment and made my proposal. I wanted to make sure I had the engineers bought off since they were still the experts. Working with them, we found corner cases I had not considered and needs I still had not addressed. By the end of it, we had a polished design that I quickly implemented, freeing up the time of 2 principal engineers so they can continue to provide value to the company in other ways. My point here is not to toot my own horn (because I can also tell you of countless examples where I did NOT do the above) but rather, I want to illustrate that effectiveness doesn’t mean doing more but instead, it usually means doing a targeted less. My project was to take over a manual task so some engineers can get some time back. I made it my goal instead to eliminate the entire job. It was a win-win. Make sure you are not just spinning in place but rather taking actions and doing tasks that move the needle.