Although it’s February, I’m still thinking about the New Year and all the new HVAC opportunities it brings. Now is a good time to reassess how you can improve your job performance by updating your current list of goals or creating a new list. And, be sure to take the time to assess how well you did this past year in meeting and/or exceeding the various milestones you previously set for yourself.

If you’ve never taken the time to create a list of professional goals, it’s time you did. Analogous to identifying a specific driving destination, most people, nowadays, will plug that location into Google Maps, or a similar app, and use the suggested route to navigate quickly and easily to the final destination. For someone who is committed to continuously improving their performance in order to advance professionally, goal setting is a time-tested method to achieve success. To do this, you should start with a self-awareness assessment based on the assumption that you enjoy being in the industry you are in. If not, then self-awareness will most likely take you in a different direction. Either way, goal setting will help you follow their road map.

Assuming you do, indeed, want to continuously improve and advance in the HVAC industry, the next step is to identify a few short-term goals that can be measured and achieved in the next 12 months. For example, practicing proficient time management strategies or improving a specific engineering program, such as Revit.

Next, each goal must have milestones to reach along the way with specific deadlines. To give you an idea of how to break a goal down into milestones, we’ll take a look at time management.

Time management

• Milestone 1 — Research time management as it pertains to your role (e.g., draftsperson, HVAC designer, engineer, project manager, etc.).
   Complete in Month 1.
• Milestone 2 — Enroll in a time management course (self-guided, online, or in person).
   Complete in Month 1.
• Milestone 3 — Set aside specific days and time to complete the course.
   Complete in Month 3.
• Milestone 4 — Begin to apply the time management tools learned and measure performance. Complete in Months 2-6.

Another opportunity to improve performance is by self-analysis via lessons learned this past year on tasks you have been assigned. When I was a responsible for design engineering, at the end of each HVAC project, I would complete my own self-analysis and update my “rule of thumb” notebook (e.g., cfm/Btuh per square foot measurements, etc.). I listed some, but not all, of the questions I would ask.

Self-analysis

• Did I complete the project on time?
• Did I complete the project within budget?
• Did I need to produce all those contract drawings, or could I have competed the project with less drawings, e.g., number of detail sheets not required, etc.?
• Did I coordinate the HVAC contract specification with the Division 1 General Conditions, e.g., operation and maintenance (O&M) manual compliance, O&M staff training requirements, etc.?
• Did I maintain “meeting minute” correspondence and distribute them in a timely manner? (My 24-hour distribution rule: complete and distribute.)

Rule-of-thumb notebook updates

• Design cfm-to-cfm per square foot for the application, e.g., office space.
• Total air conditioning capacity in square foot per ton (12,000 Btuh) for the application, e.g., data center.
• Design pump head for pump head serving chilled water systems, e.g., pump head for chilled water system within 60- to 75-foot range? If not, why?
• Total heating capacity in Btuh per square foot for the application, e.g., office building.
• Design pump head for pump head serving hot water system, e.g., pump head for hot water system within 40- to 50-foot range? If not, why?

Another self-analysis opportunity to improve performance is to determine whether or not you fulfill the lead design engineer role on projects. To do this, evaluate how you approach the job at the conceptual design phase. Often, design engineers are creatures of habit and, when assigned a new job, are apt to simply apply the same HVAC system selections from their previous project to the new project. Instead of revisiting the 2024 ASHRAE Handbook, HVAC Systems and Equipment, chapter 1, System Analysis and Selection, the design engineer proceeds forward, applying a similarly engineered solution. But, there’s a saying that “No two projects are the same,” and this is because each job has different schedules, locations, climate conditions, budgets, building owner project requirements, etc.

Revisiting Chapter 1 provides the design engineer with numerous questions to be answered, such as first cost, available utilities, HVAC system operating budget, equipment redundancy criteria, etc. Equipment delivery constraints and construction constraints may differ from the previously completed project too. Then there are additional goals, such as the project delivery method to be contracted for the project. Chapter 1 indicates there are five project delivery methods, and each come with their own challenges, features, and benefits.

Revisiting how to complete a comprehensive system analysis and selection procedure doesn’t take a lot of time to do. But, it is a process that will improve one’s performance and help the design engineer continuously become better at scoping out the optimum design solution for the project. And it breaks the creature-of-habit syndrome, making for a better performance.

2024 can be a great year for professionals if they embrace the new opportunities that are available to them and “look back to look forward.”