Time Management for System Administrators
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Overview
Time is a precious commodity, especially if you're a system administrator. No other job pulls people in so many directions at once. Users interrupt you constantly with requests, preventing you from getting anything done. Your managers want you to get long-term projects done but flood you with requests for quick-fixes that prevent you from ever getting to those long-term projects. But the pressure is on you to produce and it only increases with time. What do you do?
The answer is time management. And not just any time management theory—you want Time Management for System Administrators, to be exact. With keen insights into the challenges you face as a sys admin, bestselling author Thomas Limoncelli has put together a collection of tips and techniques that will help you cultivate the time management skills you need to flourish as a system administrator.
Time Management for System Administrators understands that an Sys Admin often has competing goals: the concurrent responsibilities of working on large projects and taking care of a user's needs. That's why it focuses on strategies that help you work through daily tasks, yet still allow you to handle critical situations that inevitably arise.
Among other skills, you'll learn how to:
- Manage interruptions
- Eliminate timewasters
- Keep an effective calendar
- Develop routines for things that occur regularly
- Use your brain only for what you're currently working on
- Prioritize based on customer expectations
- Document and automate processes for faster execution
What's more, the book doesn't confine itself to just the work environment, either. It also offers tips on how to apply these time management tools to your social life. It's the first step to a more productive, happier you.
Synopsis
Time is a precious commodity, especially if you're a system administrator. No other job pulls people in so many directions at once. Users interrupt you constantly with requests, preventing you from getting anything done. Your managers want you to get long-term projects done but flood you with requests for quick-fixes that prevent you from ever getting to those long-term projects. But the pressure is on you to produce and it only increases with time. What do you do?
The answer is time management. And not just any time management theory--you want "Time Management for System Administrators," to be exact. With keen insights into the challenges you face as a sys admin, bestselling author Thomas Limoncelli has put together a collection of tips and techniques that will help you cultivate the time management skills you need to flourish as a system administrator.
"Time Management for System Administrators" understands that an Sys Admin often has competing goals: the concurrent responsibilities of working on large projects and taking care of a user's needs. That's why it focuses on strategies that help you work through daily tasks, yet still allow you to handle critical situations that inevitably arise.
Among other skills, you'll learn how to:
Manage interruptions
Eliminate timewasters
Keep an effective calendar
Develop routines for things that occur regularly
Use your brain only for what you're currently working on
Prioritize based on customer expectations
Document and automate processes for faster execution
What's more, the book doesn't confine itself to just the work environment, either. It also offers tips on how to apply these timemanagementtools to your social life. It's the first step to a more productive, happier you.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewThere’s never enough time -- especially if you’re a sysadmin or netadmin. But there’s hope. Thomas A. Limoncelli will show you how to put your obsessive tinkering and optimization skills to work on yourself. By the time you’re done, you’ll have consistently freed enough time to, well, get a life.
Limoncelli coauthored the classic sysadmin guide The Practice of System and Network Administration. He thoroughly understands the unique time management challenges admins face: the endless interruptions, infinite to-do lists. Above all, he knows the admin mind-set. (What other time management guide would tell you to behave "like a compiled language instead of an interpreted language: precompile a decision, and use it over and over"?)
He starts with core principles. For instance: Conserve your brainpower for what’s important right now, and use external storage (e.g., your organizer) for everything else. Develop processes, stick with them, and apply them to your whole life, not just work.
You’ll find a bucketload of admin-specific techniques for minimizing distractions and interruptions. Limoncelli offers a series of great routines and "automatic checks" that’ll help you avoid all manner of time-wasting trouble. (Always back up config files before you edit them. Fill your gas tank on Sundays. Perform daily tasks in the morning, so they won’t bother you all day.)
The heart of Limoncelli’s system is called the "cycle." It combines a to-do list, today’s schedule, a calendar, and your personal list of long-term life goals. Whether you use paper, a PDA, or something else, Limoncelli shows you how to make the most of it. You’ll find guidance on setting priorities, managing stress, managing email, eliminating time wasters, and -- geek that you are -- automating your work as much as humanly possible. Bill Camarda, from the March 2006 Read Only