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Time Management for System Administrators View Larger Image | Thomas A. Limoncelli
O'Reilly Media, Paperback, Published November 2005, 200 pages, ISBN 0596007833 | List Price: $24.95
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Customer Reviews: 1 Average Customer Rating:  Write a Review and tell the world about this title! People who purchase this book frequently purchase: - The Practice of System and Network Administration, 2nd Edition; Thomas A. Limoncelli, et al, $46.95, 22% Off!
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For overworked system administrators everywhere, Time Management for System
Administrators focuses on strategies that can help you work through daily
tasks and be able to handle critical situations that inevitably arise. Written
by the co-author of the popular book, The Practice of System and Network Administration
(Addison-Wesley), Tom Limoncelli teaches interrupt management, to-do-lists/follow-through,
calendar management, and life tools in Time Management for System Administrators.
Intermixed with these skills are tips on doing things more efficiently and eliminating
time wasters.
Customer Reviews
Customer Reviews: 1 Average Customer Rating: Dec 21, 2005 James from Seattle
Another Mentor in a Box
I am largely self-taught and unmentored (only discovered SAGE this year and then they busted it! Thanks, LOPSA for stepping in!). When I started going to Seattle SAGE meetings, I was amazed at how good, how assured, how *correct* a sysadmin could be. And they all pointed me to Tom and Christine's book, _The Practice of System and Network Administration_. It is awesome. This is, too. I think Benjy Feen put it well: tPoSaNA describes what you have to do to run a proper shop. This book gives you some tools and approaches to manage all of that work without going insane. Part of my disatisfaction with the job I was doing had to do with the barrage of stuff coupled with a sense that no particular thing was ever getting finished. Naturally, my stressed and agitated mind was not conducive to productivity. The book has been a big help the last week. Tom does address getting more done, by reducing distraction, improving focus, automating tasks, and especially by defending "project time" by concentrating interrupts in the other part of the day. But I think the heart of the book is in managing the workflow. Even if you don't get more done, you'll get more of the most important stuff done. The book discusses approaches for prioratizing and tracking tasks, some of which seem counter-intuitive but are inarguable. For example, you could do three easy things or one hard one. If the cumulative impact of the easy ones is low, the hard one may be the right call, even if it results in fewer items crossed off your list. Look at impact - what a concept! O.k., maybe that's common sense, but it may not be a common approach. Much of the book is common sense. I think I have had more than a few of the ideas presented. For example, he emphasizes conserving brainpower by reducing the number of things you have to think about. Have routines. Have the same answer for the same situation. I've set up a few routines for particular purposes, but I've not tried to apply this as a general case. Tom takes the common sense notion, articulates it, and that (may) result in me expanding my use of routines. So I have to bow before his superior common sense! While he does address channelling interrupts and distractions, a lot of what he does helps you get your brain around what remains. I found this very powerful and satisfying. I found payoffs on day one - better focus, less stress, more productivity. It's the difference between swimming and floundering. The heart of the book is "the Cycle" - Tom says to start every working day with a 10 minute planning session: what's on the list, how long will it take, how long do you have. You prioratize, push what doesn't fit to the next day, and tuck in. Interrupts get squeezed in and bump lower stuff to the next day. Lather, rinse, repeat. I see two psychological benefits to the approach: better control- or even the illusion of better control- automatically means less stress, and every day you complete your to-do list. You may not accomplish every task, but you do manage every task. Even if it is only to push it off for another day. That's a powerful bit of trickery when you have experienced what he calls "the Ever-Growing To Do List of Doom." I won't adopt Tom's approach to email; I do use a huge chunk of disk space, mostly full of 'dead' messages. That's cheap extra brain storage for me, and I think that's in the spirit of his book. Let the email store do my remembering, my paa do my organizing, and leave my brain free for the things that can't be done with other tools. I appreciate the section on automating/scripting - some specifics there that will pay off for me. The part of the book that gives me the most trouble so far is in setting (measurable) goals. I can see that a lot of good will come from taking a longer view of my life and career. It's just really hard for me to think strategically. I'll get back to it. Finally, I was struck by the humane tone of the book. Tom urges us to apply these approaches to actually having a life. Sysadmins blend work and play/home life to a degree most professions don't. So it makes sense for us (maybe for everyone) to be efficient. His approach gives us a place to carve out space and time for personal lives and professional growth. The workplace has gotten harsher in the last 20 years; it's nice that someone is pulling for us. Thanks, Tom, for another awesome book.
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