[lopsa-discuss] LOPSA Book Club - December: Time Management for System Administrators

[Benjamin Feen]

On Tue, Dec 06, 2005 at 02:24:15PM -0500, Theo Van Dinter wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 06, 2005 at 11:25:33AM -0500, Mark Lamourine wrote:
> > I hearby call for the creation of the LOPSA book club.  This month,
> > we're reading Tom Limoncelli's "Time Management for System
> > Administrators".
> 
> Ok, I'll ask:  How do I find enough time to not only go out and buy the
> book, but then read it?
> 
> Seems to me like any review would have to include enough information
> for me to bootstrap the time management skills necessary such that I
> could then acquire and read in the rest of the information from the book
> for processing.


Here's a copy of the review I posted to Amazon. Page 1 of the book
does exactly that bootstrapping.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0596007833/tomontime-20


To save everyone the trouble, I'll make the obvious joke: "I bought
a book on time management, but I haven't had time to read it..."

Tom Limoncelli knows this about you. He knows a lot about you. He's
encountered, and found solutions for, just about every one of the
paradoxes, dilemmas, Catch-22s, and neverending Sisyphean ordeals
that comprise the day-to-day challenge of being a professional
system administrator. He wrote (with Christine Hogan) The Practice
of System and Network Administration, which presents a thorough and
practical body of knowledge for IT professionals: it describes all
the things you need to do to build and run a manageable infrastructure.
Now he's written an equally practical book on how to actually get
those things done, and he wrote it in a way that makes it palatable
for system administrators -- a famously cynical bunch when it comes
to books about personal productivity. And there's a lot to be cynical
about...

Here's how "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", by Stephen
Covey, begins:

In more than 25 years of working with people in business, university,
and marriage and family settings, I have come in contact with many
individuals who have achieved an incredible degree of outward
success, but have found themselves struggling with an inner hunger,
a deep need for personal congruency and effectiveness and for
healthy, growing relationships with other people.

Deep need for personal congruency? The only deep need I feel at the
moment involves my gag reflex, and not in a good way.

In comparison, here's how Tom begins:

Wait! Before we get started, let's do something to make sure we
actually finish. I realize that as a system administrator, you are
flooded with constant interruptions. The phone rings, a customer
stops by with questions, your email reader beeps with the arrival
of a new message, and someone on Instant Messenger is trying to
raise your attention. Heck, I bet someone's interrupted you while
reading this paragraph. I'm not going to cover how to deal with
interruptions until the next chapter, and I hope you don't take
offense, but at this rate, I'm worried you won't get that far. To
mitigate this problem I'm going to share a tip from Chapter 2,
which, if you implement, will shield you from interruptions between
now and when we can deal with the subject of interruptions properly.

This book is for system administrators.

Much of the geek community has embraced David Allen's Getting Things
Done as a purely pragmatic way to, well, get things done, and Tom's
book complements GTD in two ways. First, Tom describes his own
personal system in the space of a couple of chapters, for those who
aren't interested in drinking the GTD Kool-Aid but still need to
start using a system. Second, Time Management for System Administrators
is totally system-agnostic -- whether you use a PDA or index cards,
just about every chapter of the book will amplify the effectiveness
of your existing system. He also tells you how to get into Disneyland
and ride all the rides without waiting in line, and how to minimize
the time you spend walking around the video store looking for
something to rent.

Anyway, I need to cut this short; I'm supposed to be packing for a
trip to a weeklong conference, and my girlfriend just called to
remind me that we were supposed to see a movie tonight, and -- well,
you know.

Incidentally, anyone who runs computers for a living should also
own, read, and re-read The Practice of System and Network Administration.
Buy it now if you haven't already. Also buy it for your staff, your
peers, and your boss. If you don't have time to do that now, add
it to your to-do list. You do have a to-do list, don't you?


--
Benjamin Feen
benjamin(AT)feen.com
http://www.monkeybagel.com