Thomas Limoncelli - Time Management for System Administrators

Read a book on managing people.

In the next month, I want to learn more about Linux internals.

Ask for recommendations on a sage-members mailing list.

Purchase a book.

Spend one hour a night reading the book until it's complete.

Write a nontrivial program using what I've learned.

In the next 24 hours, I want to have all my laundry washed and folded.

Buy laundry detergent.

Wash laundry in washing machine.

Move laundry to dryer.

Fold and put away laundry.

I want to date a porn star.

Hang out in places where I'm more likely to meet porn stars.

Research where such places might be.

(You'll notice some of these steps are in an odd order. As I said, sometimes we work backward.)

These steps aren't written in stone. Often we discover unexpected subgoals along the way. Dorothy wanted to meet the Wizard of Oz so he could help her get home, but as soon as she met him, she learned she had to do a hit job before the return home would be possible. Life is like that.

Schedule the Steps

Now that you know what you want to achieve and the steps that will bring you there, you can sprinkle your next steps throughout your calendar as to do items.

Due to business patterns or family responsibilities, you might have more free time during a certain time of the month or year. Pick the time that you think will most likely assure success. (If you are off by a day, don't worry. The Cycle System will move the steps to the next day.)

Look at the steps you've recorded and consider what the best order should be. Write the first one or two items from each list on the appropriate day's to do list. Let's use "Learn more about Linux internals" as an example. If today is Monday, I write the "Ask for recommendations" step on today's to do list. I should have recommendations by Wednesday, so turn to Wednesday's to do list and write, "Purchase a book based on sage-members recommendations." I'm too cheap to pay for overnight shipping from Amazon, so on the following Monday's to do list, write, "One hour of reading Linux kernel internals book." I write that same item on Tuesday's through Friday's lists, or if I'm using a PDA, I use the "repeating to do item" feature. I don't know how long it will take to read the entire book, but I can set a goal of having done the last item in that list (write a nontrivial program using what I've learned) a week later. If I don't add these items to my to do list, they will never get done.

The 24-hour goal of doing laundry was a joke; it is more of a task than a goal. However, it is a good example of how to link goals to a to do list. I put the first three steps on the place reserved for "after work to do items." I put the last item (fold and put away) on the to do list for the next day.

If you have a lot of goals, this process may seem intimidating. However, this just means that you need to spread your goals out more or downgrade some of the priorities.

It's easy with a PDA to schedule to do items far in advance. However, I find it better to not schedule any single item too far in advance; otherwise, it gets lost. Or I read the item and don't remember what it means. Instead, I schedule the next one, possibly two, steps for each goal. When the step is done, I have a better idea of how much time to allocate for the following steps.

A PAA only has a certain amount of room in it, so you generally only keep the next month of page-per-day sheets in your binder. Therefore, you can't plan your next steps too far in advance. What you can do is mark your next steps in your calendar as you would an appointment. Three months from now, you can "make an appointment" to start a particular step. For example, three months from now you might mark in your calendar, "Research long-term care facilities."

A benefit of this technique is that you don't feel so rushed, but you are still slowly moving toward reaching your various goals.

Take a moment to enter at least one step from each goal into your PDA or organizer.

Revisit Your Goals Regularly

What you have now is a good start. However, you need a way to make sure you keep with the system. On the first day of the month, every month, take a moment to plan your goals. Close your office door (or go to a quiet place) and do the following:

Goal review. Review and update your goal list. Cross out any completed goals. If you've jotted down any new goals since the last goal review, decide if they still sound like good ideas. If they do, prioritize them. Evaluate your prioritization of existing goals vis-à-vis the new goals you've added.

Step review. Review and update your next steps list. As steps are marked "done," schedule later steps into your to do lists, as before.

Over time, you'll get much better at figuring out how to schedule the next steps into your calendar. I try to sprinkle them into Mondays so that when I plan my week, I can make room for them, sliding them to a better day if needed.

How can you remember to do this? Set a repeated event in your PDA called "Goal & Next Step Review." Have it repeat on the first of every month or the first Monday of every month. Now you'll always have a reminder to do this process.

If you use a PAA, set up a sheet of "repeating events" that is reviewed at the start of each month. Every time I load the next month's worth of page-per-day sheets, I go through the "repeating events" sheet and use it to mark the various goal steps in my calendar.

Summary

To achieve your long-term goals, you need to know what they are and work toward them.

If you don't write down your goals, you end up spinning your wheels or depending on luck.

Goals should be measurable: they need a tangible result or numeric measurement that, for example, someone else could check.

Goals should have deadlines: knowing when a goal should be achieved helps set the pace.

Begin by listing your one-month, one-year, and five-year goals for work and your life. Prioritize them. List steps required to achieve these goals. Sprinkle the next step of each goal into future to do lists. Once a month, review the goals and steps, reprioritize if needed, and sprinkle more "next steps" into your to do lists.

Work the next steps as part of your regular to do list management. Gradually, each goal will be achieved or managed.

Revisit your goals regularly. Add new ones and eliminate old ones. Revise the steps accordingly.

Chapter 8. Prioritization

This is a "bottom up" chapter on setting priorities. First, I'll discuss something I alluded to in Chapter 5: techniques for prioritizing the tasks at hand—today's to do list . Then I'll cover prioritizing bigger things, such as projects. Lastly I'll talk about setting priorities for, or managing, your boss.

Figure 8-1.

Prioritizing Your To Do Lists

There you are at your desk facing today's daily to do list. Dozens of items. How do you decide what to do first?

This section is about prioritizing these items. Different situations call for different schemes. In previous chapters, we used a very simple scheme: if it has to be done today, it's an A priority; if it has to be done soon (but not today), it's a B priority; and everything else is a C priority.

"So what do you do if all your items are A priorities?"

Read this chapter.

Doing Tasks in List Order

System administrators frequently tell me they spend a lot of time each day fretting about what to do next. I know that when I stare at my to do list, I can spend five or more minutes just reading the list, obsessing over which should be the next item to work on. Total up all the time spent wasted that way, and it's a lot of time.