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Time Management for System Administrators
genehack writes "System administrators have a stereotypical reputation for grumpiness and irritability. Sometimes this misanthropy is a cultivated pose, designed to deter casual or trivial requests that would take time away from more important activities like playing nethack and reading netnews. More often, however, sysadmins are disgruntled simply because they can't seem to make any headway on the dozens of items clogging up their todo lists. If you're an example of the latter case, you may find some help in Time Management for System Administrators, the new book from Thomas Limoncelli (who you may recognize as one of the co-authors of the classic The Practice of System and Network Administration). Read the rest of genehack's review.
Time Management for System Administrators
author
Thomas A. Limoncelli
pages
226
publisher
ORA
rating
8/10
reviewer
genehack
ISBN
0-596-00783-3
summary
Time management tips for sysdadmins
This slim book (only 226pp) packs a large amount of helpful information about making better use of your time at work, so that you can make some headway on at least some of those tasks that have piled up around you, while still managing to have a life outside of work. One of Limoncelli's main points is that sysadmins have to develop some way of effectively dealing with the constant stream of interruptions in their life if they're going to accomplish anything. The other point is that they also need a good tracking system to make sure they don't lose track of new, incoming requests in the process of dealing with existing ones. The book continually reinforces these two points, and presents several alternative, complementary ways to accomplish them.
The first three chapters deal with high-level, generic issues: principles of time management, managing interruptions, and developing checklists and routines to help deal with the chaos of day-to-day system administration. The middle third of the book details how to use "the cycle system", Limoncelli's task management plan for sysadmins. Basically, it's a hybrid between Franklin-Covey A-B-C prioritization and day planning and David Allen GTD-style todo lists, with a few sysadmin-specific tweaks thrown in. The final chapters of the book address a grab-bag of issues: task prioritization, stress management, dealing with the flood of email that all admins seem to get, identifying and eliminating the time sinks in your environment, and documenting and automating your work-flow.
In general, I think this is a great book for sysadmins that are looking to begin addressing time management problems. People that have already done some investigation of time management techniques (like the aforementioned Franklin-Covey and GTD systems) may find less value here -- but I still think the book will be interesting, especially the chapters detailing the workings of "the cycle system". Personally, after reading this book, I don't see any reason to move away from my modified GTD system, but I have gone back to using some daily checklists, which are helping me keep on top of my repeating tasks a lot better. I suspect that any working sysadmin will take away at least two or three productivity-enhancing tips from this book."
You can purchase Time management tips for sysdadmins from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
This slim book (only 226pp) packs a large amount of helpful information about making better use of your time at work, so that you can make some headway on at least some of those tasks that have piled up around you, while still managing to have a life outside of work. One of Limoncelli's main points is that sysadmins have to develop some way of effectively dealing with the constant stream of interruptions in their life if they're going to accomplish anything. The other point is that they also need a good tracking system to make sure they don't lose track of new, incoming requests in the process of dealing with existing ones. The book continually reinforces these two points, and presents several alternative, complementary ways to accomplish them.
The first three chapters deal with high-level, generic issues: principles of time management, managing interruptions, and developing checklists and routines to help deal with the chaos of day-to-day system administration. The middle third of the book details how to use "the cycle system", Limoncelli's task management plan for sysadmins. Basically, it's a hybrid between Franklin-Covey A-B-C prioritization and day planning and David Allen GTD-style todo lists, with a few sysadmin-specific tweaks thrown in. The final chapters of the book address a grab-bag of issues: task prioritization, stress management, dealing with the flood of email that all admins seem to get, identifying and eliminating the time sinks in your environment, and documenting and automating your work-flow.
In general, I think this is a great book for sysadmins that are looking to begin addressing time management problems. People that have already done some investigation of time management techniques (like the aforementioned Franklin-Covey and GTD systems) may find less value here -- but I still think the book will be interesting, especially the chapters detailing the workings of "the cycle system". Personally, after reading this book, I don't see any reason to move away from my modified GTD system, but I have gone back to using some daily checklists, which are helping me keep on top of my repeating tasks a lot better. I suspect that any working sysadmin will take away at least two or three productivity-enhancing tips from this book."
You can purchase Time management tips for sysdadmins from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Maybe if I had time, I would read the book!
Athiesm is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Yes. Got get yourself a better computer! :)
Uninstall Windows
Start with the corners
No matter where you click, the first square will never be a bomb
You don't have to flag all the bombs, if you can click all the empty spaces & numbered squares. Alternatively, you don't have to click all the empty spaces & numbered squares, if you flag all the bombs. It depends on how you visualize the field.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
39 hours per work week (a couple minutes late every day)
10 hours.. on phone with people that don't speak english even though they're 'support' for American companies
2 hours.. drooling over computer parts with coworkers
2 hours.. 'rigging' cute females' computers with problems
10 hours.. Slashdot and other forums
2 hours.. porn
4 hours.. blaming all problems on lack of hardware budget
8 hours.. being condescending to coworkers who make more money than them
1 hour.. fixing computer problems
All overtime is spent eating pizza and fixing computer problems they couldn't fix during their one real hour of work.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
Ok, how many of you are reading a review of this book on /. while at work?
...and yes, my hand is up too.
Oh, the irony.
Save yer hard-earned $, and handle it like THE PRO!:
;)
(http://www.theregister.co.uk/odds/bofh/).
This has all you need to know!
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
...now back to Quake!
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.
Bah. You clearly don't know how to improve times the slashdot way.
edit your winmine.ini file. Use realistic times. There's a call center out there where they're probably still trying to beat my 103 second Expert record.
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
It was a password problem. Emailing a fresh one for you.
I'm surprised, so far no BOFHs have posted yet. Here are some ways to save time that probably haven't been mentioned in the book:
For all the humorless pedants that are about to reply saying "This will get you fired"...what was your username again?
There's no sig like this sig anywhere near this sig, so this must be the sig.
;-)
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
You laugh, but I worked at a company that sent out emails about network issues. The funniest ones were when we wouldn't have email for an hour or so, then it would come back up and we'd get an email saying "We are experiencing trouble with the email servers. We will notify you when the problem is resolved." Then the next email would be the resolution. Always got a chuckle from it.
"Have you tried turning it off and turning it back on again?"