When becoming a manager, engineering managers need to be deliberate about how they spend their time, as their tasks increase and hands-on coding work may become a distraction. However, allowing occasional coding activities can benefit them by increasing empathy for their team members, developing deep knowledge of their reports' work, and maintaining respect. Engineers should consider writing code when onboarding in a new team to gain context and knowledge about the challenges facing their team, reviewing pull requests to strengthen programming skills and keep an eye on their reports' work, and fixing tiny issues that require little effort but have significant impact. They should avoid coding when putting themselves into the critical path, impacting can be achieved elsewhere, or when looking for distraction from managerial responsibilities. Ultimately, engineering managers should feel comfortable setting aside time to work as individual contributors and assess the right moment to do so.