Time Management for System Administrators: Stop Working Late and Start Working Smart 1st Edition

I usually think of self help books as touchy-feely nonsense read by weak-minded individuals who can't think for themselves. This is still my opinion and that probably won't change. The great thing about this book is that it doesn't read like a self help book or some master plan to happiness. There's no chapter on meditation or talking about your feelings. It's just a list of cool ideas to get organized and methods to implement them. There's no touchy-feely nonsense and I respect that a lot.I originally picked up this book on a whim because I was drowning at work. I work in a corporate atmosphere and I'm the only IT person. I was barely getting to see my kid and husband. I was working overtime every week. I was feeling stressed out and ground down to the bone. This book has been a great help to me. I've implemented most of the ideas from this book in my work environment. Now it's rare that I have to stay late to finish projects and then usually only when emergencies pop up. My stress level has noticeably reduced. I've also gotten a lot of good feedback from the executive staff and managers.I'd highly suggest this book to IT people. It's probably a good read even if you're not drowning. At this point I'm getting ahead of projects and even finding time to work on those "someday" projects that make life easier.Also, there's some cool comic strips and fun stories. :)

System administrators have a stereotypical reputation for grumpiness and irritability. Some times 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 <em>Time Management for System Administrators</em>, the new book from Thomas Limoncelli (who you may recognize as one of the co-authors of the classic <em>The Practice of System and Network Administration</em>).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.

I tell my colleagues this book is a life-saver. Tom's time management tips and techniques (the Cycle System) have really increased my productivity and effectiveness. I like this book so much, I've started teaching a class based on it, to spread this knowledge. Here is what some of my students have said:"Drilling down from 'goals' to 'What are you doing Monday?' was an eye opener in terms of showing me how this sort of thing fits together. The goals exercise was the best part of it. It made the rest of the concepts real. I've even suggested to my boss that the sysadmin group do something similar at one of our staff meetings." L.G."I think that 'The Cycle' system is a pretty comprehensive approach to time planning, but very simple concept to implement. And it looks very practical in its approach. I definitely plan to follow up on it and give it a try right away. One thing it really encourages you to be very strategic in your thinking, which also helps with achieving long term goals. Putting some time to think about the important long term goals both personal and professional was a real eye opening for me, since I pretty much discovered that I am spending a lot of time and effort on things that are not important from the long term goal perspective.I liked also the attitude towards the vacation time -- you know as a sysadmin you always feel guilty for taking too much vacation time in one lump, now I will feel guilty for not taking vacation time instead :-) It also helps to encourage your colleagues to take on more ownership and responsibilities over company's infrastructure while you are on vacation." O.B.