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1. Time Management for System Administrators
- 1.1. Time Management for System Administrators

1. Time Management for System Administrators

1.1. Time Management for System Administrators

1.1.1. About the Author

1.1.2. Foreword

1.1.2.1. Underline on page 5

First oﬀ, most sysadmins are tenacious problem solvers.
They will attach themselves to a problem like a bulldog and
not let go until the problem relents.

1.1.2.2. Underline on page 5

A second common trait I’ve noticed in myself and in my
colleagues is a genuine desire to help people, to support
them in the use of an unfriendly or unforgiving technology,
and to make things work so other people can get things
done.

1.1.2.3. Underline on page 6

Closely related to system administrators’ desire to help
when they can is their attraction to crisis response and
saving the day.

1.1.2.4. Underline on page 6

endearing, but it tends to exasperate the sysadmin’s
non-sysadmin signiﬁcant other(s) and ﬂush all attempts at
time management down the toilet. By and large, sysadmins
ﬁnd what they do to be fun.

1.1.2.5. Underline on page 6

professional chef who told
me she hated to cook on her days oﬀ. “Postmen don’t like to
take long walks when they come home from work”

1.1.2.6. Underline on page 6

Most of the sysadmins I know have never heard
of this idea. You’ll ﬁnd them

1.1.2.7. Underline on page 6

curled up at home in front of a laptop
“mucking about” virtually all the time. The notion of “play”
and “work” are best described as a quantum superposition
blur for a sysadmin.

1.1.2.8. Underline on page 6

This is great because it means we enjoy
what we do, but it’s horrible because we can’t (or won’t)

1.1.2.9. Underline on page 7

stop doing it.

1.1.3. Preface

1.1.3.1. Underline on page 9

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.

1.1.3.2. How to Read This Book

1.1.3.3. Audience

1.1.3.4. About This Book

1.1.3.5. Assumptions This Book Makes

1.1.3.6. Conventions Used in This Book

1.1.3.7. Using Code Examples

1.1.3.8. We’d Like to Hear from You

1.1.3.9. Safari® Enabled

1.1.3.10. Acknowledgments

1.1.4. 1. Time Management Principles

1.1.4.1. Underline on page 28

mutual interruption
shield . Before lunch, you ﬁeld all the interruptions so that
your coworker can work on projects. After lunch, your
coworker ﬁelds all the interruptions and lets you work on
projects.

1.1.4.2. Underline on page 29

This method can be adapted to a solo SA, too.

1.1.4.3. Underline on page 29

management can make the users aware that afternoons are
reserved for “project time ,” and non-urgent requests
should be emailed to you (or to your request-tracking
system) for processing the next morning.

1.1.4.4. Underline on page 29

make sure that customers
must walk past your Tier 1 (customer-facing) system
administrators in order to get to Tier 2 people (you).

1.1.4.5. Underline on page 29

re-arrange your seating so that people
must pass by a junior SA on their way to you.

1.1.4.6. 1.1. What’s So Difficult About Time Management?

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Why a book on time management just for SAs
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Our problems are diﬀerent . SAs have an unusually
high number of interruptions
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Our solutions are diﬀerent . SAs can handle more
high-tech solutions
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and other
tools unsuitable for the average, non-technical person.
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We lack quality mentoring .

1.1.4.7. 1.2. The Principles of Time Management for SAs

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There are six principles that I base all my techniques on.
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One “database” for time management information (use
one organizer).
Conserve your brain power for what’s important
(conserve RAM).
Develop routines and stick with them (reuse code
libraries; don’t reinvent the wheel).
Develop habits and mantras (replace runtime
calculations with precomputed decisions).
Maintain focus during “project time” (be like a kernel
semaphore).
Manage your social life with the same tools you use for
your work life (social life isn’t an optional feature).
1.2.1. One “Database” for Time Management Information
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  By putting all your information in one place, you
  won’t have to jump between diﬀerent systems.
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  We’re going to make sure that your organizer is something
  you can trust.
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  Until you trust your organizer, you aren’t
  going to be as facile with the rest of your time management
  techniques.
1.2.2. Conserve Your Brain Power for What’s Important
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  use external storage for
  anything you aren’t focused on right now.
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  While our brains are single-
  user,
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  external
  formats are multiuser and open up the possibility of others
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  helping us with our work.
1.2.3. Develop Routines and Stick with Them
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  turn regular activity into routines so you
  spend less time planning things that are going to happen
  anyway.
1.2.4. Develop Habits and Mantras
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  Habits are routines you do without having to think. Mantras
  are mental triggers for rules of thumb.
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  Rules of thumb are like habits that don’t happen regularly.
1.2.5. Maintain Focus During “Project Time”
1.2.6. Manage Your Social Life with the Same Tools You Use for Your Work Life
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  Last but not least, don’t forget to have fun.

1.1.4.8. 1.3. It Won’t Be Easy

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Every time things look grim and diﬃcult, just remember
that change comes in small steps. Keep trying. Stick with
the program.
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“Trust the process” and give it
another try.

1.1.4.9. 1.4. Summary

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the poker chips of self-esteem only exist
in your head, so you can create more!
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in life, you can do any kind of ritual to
make more self-esteem chips appear magically.

1.1.5. 2. Focus Versus Interruptions

1.1.5.1. Underline on page 45

an interruption that stalls us for t
minutes delays task completion by t minutes.

1.1.5.2. Underline on page 45

When you return from an interruption, you have
to spend p minutes to ﬁgure out where you left oﬀ.

1.1.5.3. Underline on page 45

If the time spent recovering from
those mistakes is s , then the total delay

1.1.5.4. Underline on page 46

is t+p+s , which can be longer than the task
itself!

1.1.5.5. 2.1. The Focused Brain

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Don’t worry about forgetting those
things; trust the systems you’ve delegated them to.
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Difficulty Falling Asleep?
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Keep a pad of paper and a pen next to your bed. When
something is keeping you awake, write it down and try
falling asleep again. I bet you’ll be asleep soon.

1.1.5.6. 2.2. An Environment to Encourage Focus

2.2.1. Multitasking
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  The problem is that sometimes we overextend ourselves.
  We get confused. We make mistakes and have to make a
  detour to ﬁx the problems we’ve caused.
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  Be aware of which tasks to multitask and which
  not to . Good tasks to multitask are “hurry up and wait”
  tasks,
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  Anything else shouldn’t be multitasked. Do
  one task at a time well rather than many things at once
  poorly.
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  Be aware of your stress and sleep level . If you are
  tired or under a lot of stress, multitask less.
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  Organize your windows with a virtual window
  manager .
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  Organize your windows the same way every time .
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  Organize your windows the same way every time .
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  Use windows to make a nice work space .
2.2.2. Peak Time for Focus
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  Some people ﬁnd it easier to focus at certain times of the
  day. Part of creating an environment to encourage focus is
  ﬁguring out the best time to be focused,
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  when it takes
  the least amount of eﬀort for you to stay focused.
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  Your peak time for physical activity may be diﬀerent than
  your peak time for mental activity.
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  Take advantage
  of what would otherwise be a “down” mental period and
  spend this time doing physical work,
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  Rearrange your day so that
  you work on projects during peak time.
2.2.3. The First-Hour Rule
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  The ﬁrst-hour rule is that the ﬁrst hour of the workday is
  usually the quietest hour in an oﬃce.
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  I can get
  much more done in the ﬁrst hour than during the entire
  rest of the day because of the lack of interruptions.
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  spend that ﬁrst hour on a project. You won’t
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  have nearly as many interruptions, and the email will be
  there when you’re done.
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  no
  one is in the oﬃce to read any of your responses, so what’s
  the rush?
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  If you have a network monitoring system (and you should)
  you can check the dashboard view and then be conﬁdent
  that everything is OK

1.1.5.7. 2.3. Interruptions

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Being interrupt driven means doing tasks as they arrive as
opposed to doing tasks based on some business-driven
priority scheme.
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If you control when you do tasks, you can intelligently
group and prioritize them in ways that save time.

1.1.5.8. 2.4. Directing Interruptions Away from You

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when you get annoyed at someone
for making a request that “is obviously not my job,” put
yourself in that person’s shoes. He didn’t know a better
place to go. Chances are, it’s a compliment: you’re the
smartest person he could think of to ask for help
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Until you make it clear who to turn to for help, you can’t
really get upset that people don’t go to the right person.
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When someone notices an outage that Nagios hasn’t been
conﬁgured to test, I make a big deal out of thanking him,
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send a follow-up email pointing out
that that situation is now being tested for in Nagios and
that we appreciate him making us aware of the issue
because it has enabled us to improve our monitoring
system.

1.1.5.9. 2.5. You Can Say “Go Away” Without Being a Jerk

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First, it’s important to understand what customers expect
of us. Fundamentally, customers will be satisﬁed if they feel
they have been acknowledged . You don’t have to ﬁx their
problem
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They just need to
feel that they’ve been heard
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I make sure
he feels acknowledged both verbally and visually.
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“I understand your issue. Let me write it down so I
don’t forget it.”
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write down his request as he
watches. I say what I write as I’m writing it.
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“[Person] needs [such and such] by [date].”
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“Did I capture that right?”
When he says “yes,” it gives closure to the issue.
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he usually leaves on his own,
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I’ve found it best to say “Thank you,” while giving a nod.
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If he
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does push for immediate action, then I know I have
misunderstood the urgency of his request, and we can
discuss the time requirements.
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When
customers send email to a request-tracking system, they
should receive an autoreply with the issue’s ID number.
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they
should immediately be able to view the issue status so they
can be conﬁdent that it actually is in the database.
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People
hate to feel they are submitting a request to a black hole.
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Customers Want to See Action More Than They Want to
Receive Action
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I was actually hard at work
ﬁxing the problem, but visually the customer wasn’t
seeing me do anything diﬀerent than when he arrived.
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I assume that the customer does
not know about console servers
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“Hey, have you
seen this? I can access the console remotely as if I’m in
the computer room!”
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I turn the monitor so the customer
can see what I’m doing, show oﬀ the technology a little,
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Soon they get bored and go away, satisﬁed that I’m
working on the problem.
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My little demo slows me down a bit, but it is still faster
than actually walking to the computer room, and the
customer is much more satisﬁed because she receives
visual proof that I’m attending to his request.
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“Bored but satisﬁed” is so much better than “panicked
and impatiently waiting.”
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customers will be the least satisﬁed if they feel
ignored. This has nothing to do with whether they really are
being ignored.
2.5.1. Delegate, Record, or Do
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  Delegate it . If someone else can do it, delegate it to
  him.
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  Record it . If only you can do the request, but it isn’t
  urgent, record the request. Be sure to do so in a way
  that the customer trusts; don’t just promise to
  remember it.
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  Do it . If the request is truly urgent,
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  drop what you are working on and do the
  request.
5. 2.5.1.1. Delegate it
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    If you have set up a mutual interruption shield
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    you can refer the person to
    your shield partner.
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    People don’t want to have to re-explain themselves
    to each person they get delegated to, so I always try to
    explain the issue to the delegate. I can often explain it in
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    technical terms, which is more eﬃcient than the customer’s
    original request.
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    I think it is obnoxious to answer a request
    with a question like, “Did you talk with Mary?” A better way
    to express this is to simply say, “Mary is on call right now.
    Could you speak to her about this?”
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    If your coworker says she doesn’t know how to do the task
    you are trying to delegate to her, you have a few diﬀerent
    options.
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    options. You can use this as an opportunity to teach her how
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    to do the task. That way, she’ll know how to do it in the
    future. Otherwise, you might ask the customer if the task
    can wait—if it can, record it.
6. 2.5.1.2. Record it
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    If the task can wait, you can record it for later action.
    Record it in a place where it won’t get lost.
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    Make sure the
    customer sees you record the request so that he has visible
    conﬁrmation that he isn’t being ignored.
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    If you use The Cycle System,
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    enter the request into your to do list. This is appropriate for
    smaller tasks that will be done soon.
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    For larger tasks, my favorite place to record a request is in
    a request-tracker application.
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    Always record a time in your deadline.
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    I then turn to the customer, who has heard what I’ve typed,
    and say, “Anything else I should capture?”
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    eliminate miscommunication.
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    gives them the
    satisfaction of thinking that they’re in control—which they
    are, sort of.
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    Recording the request in
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    a to do
    list system shows professionalism that is reassuring to your
    customer. Writing on little scraps of paper or 3M Post-it
    Notes has the opposite eﬀect.
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    Never try to remember the item in your brain only.
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    “OK, so I agree that’s the best course of action. However,
    I’m in the middle of something, and I don’t have my PDA
    with me. I don’t want to risk forgetting this. Could you do
    me a favor and email me the words ‘install web monkey’
    and that will jog my memory.”
7. 2.5.1.3. Do it
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    The third option is to do the request immediately. Your focus
    will be lost, but at least you made two good attempts to ﬁrst
    deﬂect the task.
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    If a request should take less than two
    minutes, it can be less work to do it than to record it and
    pick it up later.
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    I highly recommend that your organization create its own
    deﬁnition of major outage .
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    any outage aﬀecting more than 10 people.
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    deadline is in jeopardy or a Service Level Agreement (SLA)
    will be missed.
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    Before you do the customer’s request, take a moment to
    record where you left oﬀ, or at least save your work.
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    That
    makes it easier to return to the task. It also helps you focus
    on the new task because your brain isn’t cluttered with
    trying to remember where you left oﬀ.

1.1.5.10. 2.6. Summary

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Measure twice, cut once . Be extra sure before you
make a change you can’t undo.
Make a backup before you change a ﬁle .
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If all else fails, read the manual .
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When debugging, change one thing at a time .
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Always test your work .
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You aren’t done until your customer tests it, too .
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The strangest problems often turn out to be
misconﬁgured DNS .
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a problem
with DNS can mask itself as other problems.
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a client that can’t reach its DNS servers, as well as
a host with invalid DNS data describing it, or a client
trying to reach a host with invalid DNS data.

1.1.6. 3. Routines

1.1.6.1. Underline on page 79

Routines give us a way to think once, do many.

1.1.6.2. Underline on page 79

Routines are very powerful because they enable us to think
less, reserving brain cycles for more important tasks.

1.1.6.3. 3.1. Sample Routines

3.1.1. Routine #1: Gas Up on Sunday
3.1.2. Routine #2: Always Bring My Organizer
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  In theory, I want my organizer wherever I might need it. I
  know I need it at work.
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  I sometimes need it
  at home. Should I leave it at work if I don’t think I’ll need it
  at home that evening?
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  “Nah, I’ll leave it here. I won’t need it
  tonight.”
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  Then it turns out that I do need it,
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  If I ask “Should I bring my organizer?” the answer is
  “Yes.”
3.1.3. Routine #3: Regularly Meet with My Boss
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  So instead, we’ve agreed to meet or speak on the phone
  every Tuesday at 10 a.m., whether we need to or not. Now
  that 15 minutes takes zero time to arrange.
3.1.4. Routine #4: The Check-In-with-Staff Walk-Around
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  I mostly left everyone alone. However, I soon
  learned that they felt ignored. I needed to spend more time
  with them.
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  If You Have to Ask, the Answer Is “Yes”
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  Would this be a good time to save the ﬁle I’m working
  on?
  Should I take my organizer with me (versus leaving it
  here)?
  Should I add this to my to do list?
  Should I check my calendar before I agree to this
  appointment?
  Should I write this on my calendar?
  Should I check to see whether I have plans after work
  before I agree to stay late?
  Should I check to see whether I have any early
  appointments before I decide to play one more game
  of Half Life this morning?
  Should I do The Cycle today (versus slacking oﬀ)?
  Should I ﬁll my car’s gas tank now (versus
  procrastinating until it is an emergency)?
  Should I do this small task or chore now (versus
  procrastinating and hoping nobody notices or the task
  doesn’t turn into an emergency)?
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  Many of those questions are equivalent to asking, “Should
  I trust my memory or my organizer’s memory?”
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  memory is faulty; otherwise, we
  wouldn’t be using an organizer, right? Use it!
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  every Monday and Thursday at 9
  a.m., I would do my “walk-around.” I would walk a
  particular path that went by each person’s oﬃce.
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  It would take me half a day to do this, but it was a really
  good opportunity to troubleshoot problems in real time,
  remove roadblocks, and solve the problem of people feeling
  ignored.
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  over time my staﬀ started
  planning their schedule around my walks.
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  Develop a routine that solves your problems.
  Perform the routine on a predictable schedule, and
  others will plan their schedules around you.
3.1.5. Routine #5: The Check-In-with-Customers Walk-Around
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  you can increase customer
  satisfaction by doing a walk-around once a day to visit
  customers,
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  If anything, it develops a better rapport
  with your customers. That alone is very valuable.
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  People tend to not
  report little annoyances, ﬁguring that the problems can’t be
  ﬁxed (especially people who aren’t computer-savvy).
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  Do not use this technique if you have a problem saying no to
  people.
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  ﬁx, redirect , or
  sympathize .
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  Fix . If the problem was easy to ﬁx (less than two
  minutes), she’d ﬁx it right then and there.
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  Redirect . If the problem couldn’t be ﬁxed in a few
  minutes, she would help the customer send email to
  “help” to create a ticket in the request-tracking system.
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  This was a group that wasn’t used to creating tickets, so
  it was scary for them.
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  Walking them through the
  process made it less intimidating.
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  Sympathize . Many times the issue was just something
  that couldn’t be ﬁxed, or it was a known problem that
  wouldn’t be ﬁxed for a while.
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  the best thing to do was to show sympathy without
  being condescending.
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  “I don’t
  think there’s a way around that, but I’ll keep an ear out
  for a solution.”
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  This beneﬁted the customer in that it
  validated that something was annoying and unﬁxable,
  rather than leaving it a mystery.
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  It beneﬁted my
  coworker in that it prevented the unsolvable requests
  from entering the request-tracking system but gave her
  a way to gain an understanding of what the general
  issues were.
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  issues were. Some were noted in her PDA. When she
  did learn of a solution, she could return to the customer
  with the solution and look like a miracle worker.
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  she didn’t try to solve every
  problem right then and there.
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  Sometimes the walk-around
  was a more eﬃcient way to collect requests that would be
  done later.
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  Other times she was developing relationships
  with customers
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  understand those
  customers’ long-term needs.
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  Other times it was simply a
  way to oﬀer sympathy to get people beyond the unsolvable
  problems of our world.
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  imagine that when my coworker started using the walk-
  around technique, she was overwhelmed by how many
  issues were being reported. As I mentioned, do not employ
  this technique if you have a problem saying no to
  customers. This technique requires discipline,
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  or you’ll end
  up spending the entire day with the ﬁrst person
3.1.6. Routine #6: Pre-Compile Manual Backup-Tape Changes
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  “stop thinking, just do.” Sure, I
  wasted some tape by estimating rather than doing a perfect
  job, but my time was more valuable than the tape.
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  If it has to be done every day, do it early in the day.
3.1.7. Routine #7: During Outages, Communicate to Management
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  During Outages, Communicate to
  Management
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  The routine was simple: after an hour, a particular manager
  (the boss of the chief system administrator) would be
  notiﬁed of an outage, even if it was late at night. The system
  administrators would then update this person every half
  hour until the problem was resolved. The manager would
  notify upper management and customers (if the outage
  didn’t prevent communication to the customers) so the SAs
  could focus on solving the problem.
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  If your company is particularly visible
4. Underline on page 91
  
  such a routine should involve the
  Public Relations department.
3.1.8. Routine #8: Use Automatic Checks While Performing Certain Tasks
1. Underline on page 92
  
  Use Automatic Checks While
  Performing Certain Tasks
3.1.9. Routine #9: Always Back Up a File Before You Edit
1. Underline on page 94
  
  When I’m about to edit a conﬁguration ﬁle, I always make a
  backup. I don’t waste time thinking, “Gosh, is this ﬁle
  important enough?”
2. Underline on page 94
  
  If I have to ask, the answer is “Yes.”
3.1.10. Routine #10: Record “To Take” Items for Trips
1. Underline on page 95
  
  I write a “things to pack” list on the righthand side of
  my to do list for the day I’ll be traveling. For weeks (or
  months) leading up to the trip, anytime I think of something
  I should bring on the trip I pop open my organizer and
  write it on that list. Since I always have the organizer with
  me, I never fail to record an idea.
2. Underline on page 95
  
  When I pack, I check oﬀ the items as they go into my
  suitcase.
3. Underline on page 95
  
  I also create a second list of the things to have in hand
  when I leave.
4. Underline on page 95
  
  If someone else is picking me up, this list includes the items
  I keep near my front door so they are there when my ride
  arrives.

1.1.6.4. 3.2. How to Develop Your Own Routines

1.1.6.5. 3.3. Deleting Old Routines

1.1.6.6. 3.4. Summary

1.1.7. 4. The Cycle System

1.1.7.1. Underline on page 103

keep track of the
ﬂood of requests and to do items that came my way without
losing any of them.

1.1.7.2. Underline on page 103

Your customers value your ability to follow through more
than they value any other skill you have.

1.1.7.3. Underline on page 103

The secret to perfect follow-through is to record all
requests and track each request until completion.

1.1.7.4. Underline on page 103

The Cycle because it
repeats every day, and the output of one day is the input to
the next.

1.1.7.5. Underline on page 103

The Cycle uses three tools: a combined to do list and today’s
schedule, a calendar, and a list of long-term life goals. Store
all these tools in one place.

1.1.7.6. Underline on page 104

Keeping all three databases in one place is important
because:
The three databases interact with each other. You want
to be able to easily ﬂip between them.
It’s easier to track the location of one thing rather than
three things.
You need to keep the databases with you all the time,
and it’s easier to carry a bundle than it is to carry three
individual items.

1.1.7.7. 4.1. Don’t Trust Your Brain

Underline on page 105

“Don’t trust your
brain.”
Underline on page 105

Write down every request, every time.
Underline on page 105

Also, if we are going to do the task, we don’t have to write it
down.
Underline on page 106

the biggest temptation to not write something down is
when I think I’ll remember it because it’s what I’m going to
be doing next.
Underline on page 106

If I don’t have my organizer with me when someone makes
a request
Underline on page 106

I am very forthright with putting the onus on
Underline on page 107

the requester to make sure her request gets recorded.
Underline on page 107

Could you promise
to send email to ’help’ [which creates a ticket in our request
tracking system] that says, ’Glenn. I need x-y-z. Ask Tom for
details.’“

1.1.7.8. 4.2. Why Other Systems Fail

Underline on page 109

The Scattered Notes System and The Ever-Growing
To Do List of Doom.
Underline on page 109

The Scattered Notes System involves writing notes on
random bits of paper or having multiple to do lists scattered
about.
Underline on page 109

a video monitor encircled
with yellow rectangular sticky notes. Is each one an action
item? A reminder? A phone number? Who knows? What is
the priority of these? What if one falls oﬀ? There’s too much
chaos.
Underline on page 109

When you get assignments at a meeting, you start a new
list. Now you are managing two lists.
Underline on page 109

Then you lose one list
Underline on page 109

missing meetings and failing to meet deadlines.
Underline on page 109

The other extreme is The Ever-Growing To Do List of Doom
Underline on page 109

notebook and declares that this will be his one list.
Underline on page 109

Any new assignments get written in the
notebook, and old tasks get crossed out as they’re
completed.
Underline on page 109

The process works great at ﬁrst, but then it
starts to break down. It’s diﬃcult to prioritize work. Older
items get forgotten since our eyes tend to look only at the
last (newest) few items.
Underline on page 109

it’s pretty damn depressing. The list
never ends. You work and work and work, and the list never
Underline on page 110

seems to get any shorter!
Underline on page 110

but there’s that one item waaaaaay at the
beginning that is just never going to get done. Soon you are
ﬂipping through pages of crossed-out items to ﬁnd the one
item that isn’t crossed out.
Underline on page 110

you
fear missing an incomplete item hidden in pages of crossed-
out items.
Underline on page 110

this is a total self-esteem killer. You never get
that big feeling of accomplishment from having completed
the list because the list never gets completed.

1.1.7.9. 4.3. Systems That Succeed

Underline on page 111

A good system has the following qualities:
Portable . You can take it everywhere.
Reliable . It remembers everything you need, so you
don’t have to.
Manageable chunks . Not a million little notes, not one
List of Doom.
Underline on page 111

The elements we need to make a good system are:
Calendar . A place to record recurring meetings,
appointments, holidays, and so on.
Life-goals list . A few blank pages to keep our long
term goals and other notes.
A day-by-day section . For each day we have:
To do list . A prioritized list just for that day .
Schedule . An hour-by-hour schedule for that day.
Underline on page 111

The essence of the system is the day-by-day page, which
should be big enough for both that day’s schedule and that
day’s to do list.

1.1.7.10. 4.4. The Cycle

Underline on page 113

one to
do list for each day of the year. Today’s to do list records
the tasks you need to do today.
Underline on page 113

If you know something
needs to be done on a particular day, write it on that to
do list.
Underline on page 113

Items left over at the end of the day will be
moved to the next day’s list.
Underline on page 113

Today’s schedule . Each day we’ll plan our day in one-
hour increments.
Underline on page 113

An appointment calendar . This will be used to record
all of our appointments, meetings, social plans, and so
on. Events that are further in the future than the
current month are written on the calendar until they
can be transferred to a particular day’s schedule .
Underline on page 113

Notes . Our organizer will also be used to store other
notes and lists.
Underline on page 113

For example,
Underline on page 113

lists of short- and long-term plans.
Underline on page 113

Create today’s schedule . On today’s schedule I block
out time for all my meetings and appointments. All
these events should already be listed on my calendar
Underline on page 113

Create today’s to do list . On today’s to do list, I have
a list of all the to do items I have on my plate for that
day.
Underline on page 114

Prioritize and reschedule . For each item, I estimate
how much time the item will take to accomplish. I total
the time estimates. If the total time is more than my
total work hours, I move individual items to the next
day’s list.
Underline on page 114

Work the plan . I spend the day working on the tasks in
my list and attending meetings/appointments. I stay
focused.
Underline on page 114

Finish the day . At the end of the day, I move all the
unﬁnished tasks to the next day’s list. I mark the items
that were moved with a hyphen.
Underline on page 114

Leave the oﬃce . Now I can leave the oﬃce. I am
happy with the knowledge that every item on my list
was managed—it was either done or moved to the next
day. Nothing was forgotten.
Underline on page 114

Repeat . The next day The Cycle starts over again.
Underline on page 114

By having a new list each day, we will get that good feeling
of accomplishment when we have managed every item on
today’s list.
Underline on page 114

When we ﬁnish our list early, we can reward
ourselves by working on a “fun” project, or go home early if
we have that kind of ﬂexibility.
Underline on page 114

When we have more work
than can be completed today, we can feel good that we have
a way to manage overﬂow.
Underline on page 115

Use one calendar for both work and social life because one
calendar is easier to track than two. A combined calendar
ensures that we don’t miss something fun because we
didn’t check our social calendar and decided to work late.

1.1.7.11. 4.5. Summary

1.1.8. 5. The Cycle System: To Do Lists and Schedules

1.1.8.1. Underline on page 118

we
have too much to do and not enough hours in the day to do
it.

1.1.8.2. 5.1. A Sample Day

Underline on page 119

When you enter the oﬃce each morning, you should
immediately focus and start this process. Otherwise, you
will be caught by the interruptions and distractions that
surround you:
5.1.1. Step 1: Create Today’s Schedule
1. Underline on page 120
  
  look at your calendar to see what meetings and
  appointments you’ve committed to and use that as the basis
  to mark out blocks of time on your daily schedule.
2. Underline on page 120
  
  The
  remaining time can be used to work on your to do list.
5.1.2. Step 2: Create Today’s To Do List
1. Underline on page 121
  
  Now you create the list of to do items that are on your plate
  for today and calculate how much work (in hours) you have.
2. Underline on page 121
  
  Since this is the ﬁrst day you’re using The Cycle, your to do
  list is blank.
3. Underline on page 121
  
  Write them in your own shorthand,
  not full sentences.
4. Underline on page 121
  
  the shorthand only has to be enough for you
  to understand the task.
5.1.3. Step 3: Prioritize and Reschedule
1. Underline on page 123
  
  there are really three priorities in life:
  The deadline is today, and it really needs to be done
  now.
  The deadline is soon.
2. Underline on page 124
  
  Everything else
3. Underline on page 124
  
  For the sake of simplicity, let’s call these A, B, and C tasks,
4. 5.1.3.1. Dealing with overflow
  1. Underline on page 124
    
    The wrong thing to do is to stay late. Your social life is
    valuable. You don’t do your employer any favors by ignoring
    social time and becoming irritable.
  2. Underline on page 124
    
    You work better when
    you eat right, get plenty of sleep regularly, exercise, and
    participate in nonwork activities.
  3. Underline on page 125
    
    Move lowest-priority tasks to the next day .
  4. Underline on page 125
    
    Bite oﬀ today’s chunk . Bite oﬀ a more manageable
    portion of the task and move the rest to tomorrow.
  5. Underline on page 125
    
    You are ﬁne as long
    as you are making progress and completing all the
    tasks by your deadline.
  6. Underline on page 125
    
    Once you have broken a task
    into multiple parts, write each part on a diﬀerent day’s
    to do list. This is a good method for tasks that are a high
    risk for being stalled by unexpected roadblocks.
  7. Underline on page 125
    
    you want to do the ﬁrst bite-sized chunk right
    away because, in doing so, you will discover any missing
    parts that might take a while to replace.
  8. Underline on page 125
    
    Shorten the task (reduce the scope of the task) .
  9. Underline on page 126
    
    Change the time estimate . You should always
    overestimate how long something will take. It’s just
    safer that way. However, sometimes you may go too far,
    and you will ﬁnd you can reduce your time estimate to
    make things ﬁt while still being realistic about the time
    commitment.
  10. Underline on page 126
    
    Delegate . Sometimes you can ﬁnd someone else to
    take on a task.
  11. Underline on page 126
    
    Ask your boss for help prioritizing . When you have
    a full to do list, prioritized and annotated with realistic
    time estimates, you can really wow your boss by
    showing the list to her and asking for help setting
    priorities.
  12. Underline on page 127
    
    Delay a meeting or appointment . Delaying a
    meeting can be really bad. Rescheduling can be a
    nightmare, or annoy many people, or possibly delay a
    project. However, you can voluntarily miss a meeting or
    send a delegate.
  13. Underline on page 127
    
    Work late . I’m listing this option purely for
    completeness. This has got to be the worst option. Most
    people have four to ﬁve productive hours in them each
    day. Anything more is spinning your wheels.
5.1.4. Step 4: Work the Plan
1. Underline on page 129
  
  Spend the day working as close to the plan as possible.
2. Underline on page 129
  
  First do the A items, then the B items, and then, if you have
  time, the C items.
3. Underline on page 129
  
  It can be useful to have some kind of alarm or reminder to
  tell you when your meetings and appointments are so that
  you don’t have to keep interrupting yourself to look at the
  clock.
4. Underline on page 129
  
  When you ﬁnish one task, start on the next task. Keep the
  momentum going.
5. Underline on page 129
  
  A simple solution is to do
  all the A priorities in the order they appear on the list, and
  then do the same with the Bs and the Cs.
6. Underline on page 129
  
  The items higher on the
  page tend to be things that were copied from previous days.
7. Underline on page 130
  
  Try to take advantage of your momentum by moving onto
  the next task after you complete a task. Do this even if a
  task took less time than you had planned; it will make up for
  time lost when another task takes longer than expected.
8. Underline on page 130
  
  Once in a while, pause to stretch.
9. Underline on page 130
  
  Carry a ﬁle folder so
  it looks like you are on your way to something important—
  nobody will be the wiser.
10. Underline on page 130
  
  Once you’ve ﬁnished all your As, start working on the Bs. If
  you ﬁnish those, congratulate yourself by working on the
  most fun C item on the list.
5.1.5. Step 5: Finish the Day
1. Underline on page 130
  
  It’s rare that you will complete everything on your to do list,
  but you do want to make sure that the items are all
  managed. An item is managed if you’ve given it suﬃcient
  attention on that day.
2. Underline on page 130
  
  A half-hour before the end of your day, look at the
  remaining items. If there are any As that aren’t complete,
  you need to manage that situation. Call the person
  expecting the task to be completed and come up with a
  contingency plan. Or, if these are self-imposed deadlines
  (and they often are), copy the items to the next day.
5.1.6. Step 6: Leave the Office
1. Underline on page 131
  
  No, they aren’t all completed, but they were managed.
  Sometimes managing an item means making sure it got the
  appropriate amount of attention; for low-priority items, that
  means they were moved to tomorrow. The important thing
  is that they were not forgotten.
2. Underline on page 132
  
  Congratulate yourself. Smile. Put your coat on and go home
  happy. You deserve it.
3. Underline on page 132
  
  I used to leave work every day feeling terrible. I felt like I
  had worked and worked, but I felt no sense of
  accomplishment.
5.1.7. Step 7: Repeat
1. 5.1.7.1. Create today’s schedule
  1. Underline on page 132
    
    You should start each day by checking your calendar for any
    appointments and ﬁlling them into your day’s schedule.
2. 5.1.7.2. Create today’s (Tuesday’s) to do list
  1. Underline on page 133
    
    You might be wondering why you write down a task that
    you immediately mark as completed. You do this because it
    becomes a log of your phone calls, which can be a good
    “cover your ass” measure.
  2. Underline on page 134
    
    also get a lot of interruptions, about one hour’s worth a
    day. These interruptions are an important part of serving
    my customers’ needs, so I also allocate time for them.
3. 5.1.7.3. Prioritize and reschedule
  1. Underline on page 136
    
    I’ve found that if I only have a few As and complete them
    early in the day, the rest of the day is more relaxed. I do my
    Bs and as many of the other tasks as possible, and when the
    end of the day comes, I move the incomplete work to the
    next day without guilt.
4. 5.1.7.4. Work the plan
  1. Underline on page 137
    
    I use my to do list only to track the things I’m actively
    working on and things that I need to do on a speciﬁc date in
    the future.
5. 5.1.7.5. Finish the day and leave the office

1.1.8.3. 5.2. Other Tips

5.2.1. Large Projects
1. Underline on page 139
  
  When dealing with a large project, split it into individual
  steps and sprinkle the tasks across to do lists on diﬀerent
  days.
5.2.2. What to Do When You Finish Early
1. Underline on page 139
  
  Here are some good reward ideas:
  Get a head start on tomorrow’s tasks.
  Dig deep into that pile of dream projects that you’ve
  always wanted to do.
  Read from that stack of magazines that’s been
  accumulating.
  Go through your request tracker and clean up old
  tickets.
  Clean your oﬃce, your email inbox, your computer
  room, or lab.
  Visit your boss’s oﬃce and ask for more work. (Just
  kidding!)
  Sit in your oﬃce for 15 minutes doing nothing. Trouble
  will ﬁnd you.
2. Underline on page 140
  
  If you have a ﬂexible work environment, why not take
  the rest of the day oﬀ? You deserve it!
5.2.3. New Tasks Given to You During the Day
1. Underline on page 140
  
  a “brilliant” idea that includes many multihour tasks,
  thereby disrupting your perfect plan.
2. Underline on page 140
  
  That is, of course, why I only recommend planning rough
  estimates of how long tasks will take.
3. Underline on page 140
  
  Calculate how much time you have left in the day and see
  whether your A and B priorities will ﬁt into that time. If not,
  use the techniques to shift them to the next day.
4. Underline on page 140
  
  Usually all
  the Bs and Cs get shifted. If there isn’t enough time for your
  A priorities, you need to talk with the person expecting
  those tasks to be completed.
5.2.4. Personal Tasks
1. Underline on page 140
  
  I use the same to do list system for managing my personal
  to do tasks.
2. Underline on page 141
  
  That way, I get more practice at using the
  system, which beneﬁts me at work.
3. Underline on page 141
  
  If I used a diﬀerent system for work and nonwork activities,
  I would have to carry around two diﬀerent organizers—

1.1.8.4. 5.3. Setting Up a PAA for Use with The Cycle

1.1.8.5. 5.4. Setting Up a PDA for Use with The Cycle

Underline on page 143

it adds the important concept of being aware
that your life needs balance.
Underline on page 143

If you’ve been ignoring one of those categories, to do
items from that area will start appearing higher in your
priority list.
Underline on page 143

Eventually your life is back in balance.
Text note on page 143
1. Comment
  
  Un concepto interesante sería el balance de tiempo: en un intervalo dado, tengo que pasar X% de mi tiempo en Y, y si no el sistema te sugiere hacer ciertas cosas más
Underline on page 144

mark each item with the location(s) in which you
are able to do that task.
Text note on page 144

are able to do that task. So, the next time you are at the
1. Comment
  
  Como en GTD, la localización es lo más importante
Underline on page 144

I like to write in large
letters, scribble, draw arrows and circles.
Underline on page 144

When someone
starts rattling oﬀ information to me, I like to be able to start
Underline on page 145

writing it down immediately, not wait for a microprocessor
to get out of sleep mode.
Underline on page 145

Follow-through doesn’t just mean tracking issues. Follow-
through is about results.
Underline on page 145

You can’t assume that a
vendor will call back. You have to take responsibility for a
project’s timely completion.
Underline on page 145

Call the vendor once a day until you connect .
Call every day. Don’t wait for them to take the
initiative.
Underline on page 145

Call the vendor early in the morning . If you reach
them early in the day, they can spend the rest of the
day working their bureaucracy to get you the answer
or result you need. If you call them at the end of the
day, then your request gets forgotten by morning.
Underline on page 146

Log that you’ve called the vendor in your
organizer . The log may prove useful when things go
really wrong.
Underline on page 146

Always leave voice mail . You need to leave proof
that you called. Without leaving a message, it’s the
same as not calling.
Underline on page 146

I thought that a highly motivated
salesperson would take this opportunity to ﬁnish the deal
so he could get commission. No, the real problem is that
not all roadblocks involve me.
Underline on page 147

Therefore, when it seems like everything is done, I ask the
magic question: “Can you tell me what date it will arrive?”

1.1.8.6. 5.5. Summary

1.1.9. 6. The Cycle System: Calendar Management

1.1.9.1. Underline on page 150

The calendar is both a repository for information
you need for a given day (appointments, deadlines,
birthdays, milestones) and a wide-view tool for long-range
planning (career advancement, long-term project
completion, vacation planning).

1.1.9.2. Underline on page 150

the daily to do list helps me think about what I’m
doing today, but with a big calendar, I could see the big
picture.

1.1.9.3. 6.1. How to Use Your Calendar

Underline on page 151

The Cycle uses the calendar part of your organizer for
three primary purposes. First, to block out time for events
and meetings that are further in the future than today’s
schedule. Second, to list any reminders or milestones such
as birthdays and anniversaries. Finally, if you use a PAA, the
calendar is where you can record to do items that are
further in the future than your current daily ﬁller paper
permits.
Underline on page 151

Appointments and meetings . Any time you agree to
an appointment or meeting, record it in the calendar.
Use the calendar to block out future responsibilities.
This also helps you to prevent conﬂicts.
Underline on page 151

Milestones . Record birthdays, anniversaries, and other
important dates in the calendar—for
Underline on page 151

Future to do items . Finally, if you use a PAA, you can
use your calendar to record to do items that are far in
the future.
Underline on page 151

It’s rather simple: always record everything, and always use
your calendar to guide your day.
6.1.1. Never Miss a Meeting or Event
1. Underline on page 153
  
  Being on time demonstrates responsibility and projects an
  image of reliability to the people you work with.
2. Underline on page 153
  
  It shows
  respect for other people’s meetings when you attend them
  on time, and then they reciprocate when they attend your
  meetings.
3. Underline on page 155
  
  It is better to call someone when the meeting is supposed
  to be starting than to leave him wondering where you are.
  Even if your lateness is embarrassing,
4. Underline on page 155
  
  there’s no excuse for not calling.
5. Underline on page 155
  
  A brief statement, such as “I’m calling because I’m going
  to be late ,” is a lot better than a rambling ﬁve-minute
  apology after you have already arrived late.
6. Underline on page 155
  
  Of course, never lie. Telling the truth is better because
  then you don’t have to remember who you’ve lied to or
  what lie you told.

1.1.9.4. 6.2. One Calendar for Business and Social Life

Underline on page 156

Balance is important. Work, family life, social life, volunteer
work, personal projects, sleep—these are all important
things. I’m a ﬁrm believer in using one calendar for all of
them.
Underline on page 156

it helps prevent your work
life from overrunning your nonwork life. When you are
about to agree to work late, you can look at your calendar
and verify that you are actually free.

1.1.9.5. 6.3. Repeating Tasks

Underline on page 160

Writing something in your calendar is also a
demonstration that you value it. When you agree to meet
a customer at a certain time and place, it shows that you
value the appointment when you record it right in front of
her. This is true for work-related and social appointments.
6.3.1. Repeating Tasks on a PAA

1.1.9.6. 6.4. Know Your Personal Rhythms

Underline on page 162

Nature is full of rhythms. As you accept requests for
meetings and appointments, it’s a good idea to consider
your personal rhythms .
Underline on page 162

in that ﬁrst hour I can
get more work done than I can the rest of the day because
there’s nobody else around. It’s important not to waste that
hour on things like email. Use it for a project that can’t get
done without your full attention.
Underline on page 162

The other hour is your high-energy hour. There is a part of
the day that you are able to concentrate better than you
can the rest of the day. I call this my “big brain hour.” This is
a diﬀerent hour for everyone.

1.1.9.7. 6.5. Know Your Company’s Rhythms

Underline on page 164

Business is full of rhythms, too. If you identify the rhythms
of your company’s year, you can make sure your plans are
in concert with those rhythms. Anything else is like trying to
swim upstream. Your calendar is the long-range planning
tool that lets you do this.
Underline on page 164

Every business has a light time of the year and a heavy time
of the year. You can plan your system administration tasks
and goals around these patterns.
Underline on page 166

I love working in cyclic industries. It makes planning things
a lot easier. In fact, when I’m not in a cyclic industry, I try to
ﬁnd the unoﬃcial cycle, or, when possible, move the
company into a cycle.

1.1.9.8. 6.6. Summary

1.1.10. 7. The Cycle System: Life Goals

1.1.10.1. Underline on page 170

you will achieve more if you set goals.

1.1.10.2. Underline on page 171

setting a goal
without working toward it is better than not setting goals at
all. This makes sense when you think about it. If you haven’t
determined what your goals are, you can’t spot the few
opportunities that do cross your path by chance.

1.1.10.3. Underline on page 171

if your goal is to stay technical and prevent
any eﬀort by others to promote you into management, this
is also an opportunity: it’s an opportunity to not accidentally
raise your hand!

1.1.10.4. Underline on page 171

Begin with the end in mind by asking the big questions:
What do I want my IT organization to be like two years
from now?
What do I want to have accomplished in my career ﬁve
years from now?
Where do I want to be socially and ﬁnancially 10 years
from now?

1.1.10.5. Underline on page 172

What do I want my life to be like when I retire?

1.1.10.6. Underline on page 172

The technique here is very simple. You’re going to ﬁgure
out your goals, prioritize them, then work out the steps that
will help you reach those goals. Then, you’ll turn those steps
into to do items and sprinkle them throughout your
calendar.

1.1.10.7. 7.1. The Secret Trick

Underline on page 172

The big secret is to write down your goals. When they are in
your head, they aren’t as ﬂeshed out as you think they are.
They are nebulous. They can’t be evaluated, shared with
others, or worked on.
Underline on page 172

The process of writing them down forces you to make them
concrete. It’s also a lot easier to prioritize a list that is
written down.
Underline on page 172

Written goals can be shared with others. If you have a
signiﬁcant other, you can share your goals with him or her
Underline on page 173

and discuss them.
Underline on page 173

and discuss them.
Underline on page 173

By sharing our goals, we get support and a
reality check. We are more likely to achieve a goal if we
have told others about it. There’s something about telling
someone our goals that motivates us to act on them.
Underline on page 173

It is easy to accidentally write vague goals.
Underline on page 173

What do I want to achieve?
Underline on page 173

When do I want to have achieved it?
Underline on page 173

Everyone forgets the when. It’s easy to never begin if you
don’t set a deadline.
Underline on page 173

It is also important that goals are measurable.
Underline on page 173

In preparation for writing down your goals, take a moment
to think about your values
Underline on page 174

Your work-life and home-life values may diﬀer.

1.1.10.8. 7.2. Setting Goals

Underline on page 175

How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life (Signet) is a
classic book on time management. The book brings out the
necessity of listing your short-, medium-, and long-term
goals, and encourages you to categorize them into A, B, and
C priorities, with A being the highest priority.
Underline on page 175

1 month
Typically these are the smaller projects on your mind.
Completing projects that have started, replacing a piece
of equipment, and so on.
Underline on page 176

1 year
These are the bigger projects. Often they include various
reorganizations you’d like to make, both technical
(“replace current directory service with a single-sign-on
system”) or organizational (“reorganize group into
customer-focused teams”).
Underline on page 176

5 year
These are the biggest projects, often including life-
changing goals such as career moves (“get an MBA and
move into management”) or life changes (“get married”).
Underline on page 177

You might also want to write “lifetime goals,” such as
where you want to be when you retire (both
geographically and ﬁnancially). Due to the way
compound interest boosts investments, the sooner you
start your ﬁnancial planning, the better.

1.1.10.9. 7.3. Planning Your Next Steps

Underline on page 178

To achieve these goals, you must determine the steps
required to get there. You need to break down each goal
into the speciﬁc tasks that you can write on your to do list.
Underline on page 178

If you aren’t sure of the steps, write what you can think of
or write down “Research how to do this” and some ideas of
where to do the research.
Underline on page 178

Don’t worry about writing the steps in chronological order.
Sometimes we have to work backward. You ask yourself,
“How would I get there?” and write that step, and then ask
yourself, “But how would I have gotten there ?” and write
the step necessary to do that.
Underline on page 179

These steps aren’t written in stone. Often we discover
unexpected subgoals along the way.

1.1.10.10. 7.4. Schedule the Steps

Underline on page 181

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.
Underline on page 182

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.
Underline on page 182

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.

1.1.10.11. 7.5. Revisit Your Goals Regularly

Underline on page 183

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.
Underline on page 183

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.
Underline on page 183

Step review . Review and update your next steps list. As
steps are marked “done,” schedule later steps into your
to do lists, as before.
Underline on page 183

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.

1.1.10.12. 7.6. Summary

1.1.11. 8. Prioritization

1.1.11.1. 8.1. Prioritizing Your To Do Lists

8.1.1. Doing Tasks in List Order
1. Underline on page 186
  
  If you are wasting time fretting about what to do next, stop.
  Make the decision simple and just start at the top of the list
  and work your way down, doing each item in order.
2. Underline on page 186
  
  In the
  time you might spend fretting, you would complete a couple
  of the smaller items.
3. Underline on page 186
  
  because of the way you
  move items you couldn’t complete to the following day, it’s
  common for older items to bubble to the top of the list.
  Getting these older items done is a great way to start a day.
4. Underline on page 187
  
  This is very much like network congestion.
5. Underline on page 187
  
  When the network load is light, any scheme
  will work. When the network load is heavy, we need
  something more structured. When our task list is simple,
  any prioritization scheme will work. When we are ﬂooded
  with requests, we need something more sophisticated.
6. Underline on page 187
  
  Task prioritization is similar. We have a ﬁnite amount of
  time and resources. When we are overloaded, we have a
  tendency to growl at the next new request we get.
7. Underline on page 188
  
  we need a way to look at our current task list and
  decide if there are lower-priority items to delay or possibly
  drop.
8.1.2. Prioritizing Based on Customer Expectations
1. Underline on page 188
  
  If you have a list of tasks, doing
  them in any order takes (approximately) the same amount
  of time. However, if you do them in an order that is based
  on customers’ expectations, your customers will perceive
  you as working faster.
2. 8.1.2.1. Delegate, record, do revisited
3. 8.1.2.2. Mutual interruption shield revisited

1.1.11.2. 8.2. Project Priorities

8.2.1. Prioritization for Impact

1.1.11.3. 8.3. Requests from Your Boss

8.3.1. Managing Your Boss
1. 8.3.1.1. Make sure your boss knows your career goals
2. 8.3.1.2. Upward delegate only when it leverages your boss’s authority
3. 8.3.1.3. Understand and help accomplish your boss’s goals

1.1.11.4. 8.4. Summary

1.1.12. 9. Stress Management

1.1.12.1. 9.1. Overload and Conflicting Directions

1.1.12.2. 9.2. Vacation Time

1.1.12.3. 9.3. Yoga, Meditation, and Massage

1.1.12.4. 9.4. Summary

1.1.13. 10. Email Management

1.1.13.1. 10.1. Managing Your Email

10.1.1. Filter
10.1.2. Delete Unread
10.1.3. Read and…
1. 10.1.3.1. Delete
2. 10.1.3.2. File
3. 10.1.3.3. Reply, then delete
4. 10.1.3.4. Delegate or forward, then delete
10.1.4. Do Now, Then Delete

1.1.13.2. 10.2. Jump Starting the Process

1.1.13.3. 10.3. Summary

1.1.14. 11. Eliminating Time Wasters

1.1.14.1. 11.1. What Is a Time Waster?

1.1.14.2. 11.2. Avoiding the Tempting Time Wasters

1.1.14.3. 11.3. Common Time Wasters

11.3.1. Office Socializing

1.1.14.4. 11.4. Wasteful Meetings

11.4.1. Standing Around a Video Store Deciding What to Rent
11.4.2. Watching Less Bad TV
11.4.3. Laundry and Housecleaning
11.4.4. Hardware/Software Installation
11.4.5. Others

1.1.14.5. 11.5. Strategic Versus Tactical

1.1.14.6. 11.6. Summary

1.1.15. 12. Documentation

1.1.15.1. 12.1. Document What Matters to You

12.1.1. The Customer-Facing Repository
12.1.2. Internal IT Documentation
1. 12.1.2.1. Vendor contacts and maintenance agreements
2. 12.1.2.2. Internal IT procedures
3. 12.1.2.3. Network diagrams

1.1.15.2. 12.2. Wiki Technology

12.2.1. Wiki Notation and Page Linking
12.2.2. Preventing Wiki Vandalism

1.1.15.3. 12.3. Summary

1.1.16. 13. Automation

1.1.16.1. 13.1. What to Automate?

1.1.16.2. 13.2. How to Automate

13.2.1. Step 1: Do It Manually
13.2.2. Step 2: Code Each Step
13.2.3. Step 3: Bring the Steps Together
13.2.4. Step 4: Test It All Together

1.1.16.3. 13.3. Simple Things Done Often

13.3.1. Command Shortcuts
1. 13.3.1.1. Getting to the right directory
13.3.2. Hostname Shortcuts
13.3.3. A Makefile for Every Host
13.3.4. A Brief Introduction to make

1.1.16.4. 13.4. Hard Things Done Once

13.4.1. Encapsulating a Difficult Command
13.4.2. Building Up a Long Command Line
13.4.3. Using Microsoft Excel to Avoid Writing a GUI

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