Time Management for System Administrators

Preface

"Time Management for System Administrators?”

Uh-huh.

“You mean, like, how to use PDAs, vCal, calendar servers, and stuff?”

No, not at all. System administrators should be able to figure those things out without needing a book.

“So why shouldn’t we just buy one of the other 10 zillion time management books out on the market?”

Because they suck. Well, they don’t suck. They just don’t speak to “us.” They speak to some generic person you and I can’t relate to. I’m a geek. A system administrator. A networking wonk. My home life looks a lot like my work life—you should see the killer server I’ve set up at home. Once I’ve finished tweaking it, I’m going to set up the same thing at work. Very few occupations are like that. Brain surgeons don’t come home excited about trying a new technique on their cat, hoping that it works so they can try it on patients.

(Shoos cat out of the room.) “I’m not letting you near my cat anymore.”

Listen, what I’m trying to say is that system administration is not a job. It’s a lifestyle. We need time management books that speak to our lifestyle, in our own words, and solve our problems.

“Lifestyle?”

Lifestyle, workstyle, whatever. No other job pulls people in so many directions at once. Users interrupt us constantly with requests, preventing us from getting anything done. Computers have their own needs that pull is in many directions. Our managers want us to get long-term projects done, but they flood us with requests for quick fixes that prevent us from getting ...