What strategies helped you develop problem-solving intuition for calculus in enginee

[OliviaXH]

I'm a first-year engineering student, and I'm struggling with applying calculus concepts to solve word problems, especially related to rates of change and optimization. I can follow the steps in textbook examples, but when faced with a new problem about, say, the volume of a changing container or minimizing material for a design, I freeze up and don't know how to set up the equations. For students who've overcome this hurdle, what was your process for developing problem-solving intuition? Did you find certain resources or practice strategies more helpful than others for translating a real-world scenario into a solvable calculus problem? How do you systematically check your work to ensure the solution makes physical sense, not just mathematical sense?