First Day of the Month Routine (and a tip about Mailman)
Today is the first day of October. If you are using The Cycle system from Time Management for System Administrators don't forget to review your life- and long-term goals and do any other monthly routines.
Being the first of the month, sites running mailing list software like Mailman will be sending you reminder notices about which mailing lists you are subscribed. Take this time to pick a few lists to remove yourself from. What high-volume list have you been filtering off to a folder and ignoring? What low-volume list did you join ages ago and aren't getting any value from? What technology mailing list are you on for sentimental reasons even though you no longer use that technology? Today is a good day to unsubscribe from these mailing lists.
Both The Practice of System and Network Administration and Time Management for System Administrators can be read on-line by subscribers of O'Reilly's Safari Books Online service.
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Ready for LISA 2008 in San Diego!
I've registered, I've booked my hotel. Are you going to LISA 2008?
On Thursday I will be doing a 90-minute open Q&A session about Time Management. Feel free to stop by and ask me anything.
On Friday I will be presenting my newest talk titled, "System Administration and The Economics of Plenty". When we start to see how plentiful the world is, we think about our roles as system administrators differently. It affects everything from how we set policy to how we do our jobs.
Register online today!
I hope to see you there!
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Tom @ Ohio LinuxFest 2008, Columbus, Ohio, October 10-11, 2008
Tom will be teaching two half-day tutorials: "Time Management for System Administrators" and "Interviewing and Hiring System Administrators". This is a rare opportunity to see these talks presented in the Ohio area. Register soon!With the economy in a down-turn, Time Management is key to being efficient at what you do. With people's hiring budgets being slashed, it is important that the people you do hire are top notch. Both of these tutorials are intended for both the new and experienced system administrator or IT manager.
The sixth annual Ohio LinuxFest will be held on October 10-11, 2008 at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in downtown Columbus, Ohio. Hosting authoritative speakers and a large expo, the Ohio LinuxFest welcomes Free and Open Source Software professionals, enthusiasts, and anyone who wants to take part in the event. The Ohio LinuxFest is a free, grassroots conference for the Linux/Open Source Software/Free Software community
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The Zipper Machine
I live near the Tappan Zee bridge which crosses the Hudson River (in NYC). The morning traffic is mostly westbound and the afternoon traffic is mostly eastbound. Rather than expanding the bridge they now use "the zipper machine" to move the boundary between the two sides. (the picture here is from RoadsToTheFuture.com's article about its use on I-95 near Richmond, VA)
Watching this machine work is a delight. I've been lucky enough to see it three times. It only takes 20 minutes to move a mile of barrier so seeing it in action has a low probability.
I have to imagine the person that first proposed creating this device was thought to be crazy. I suppose they had to fight their way through nay-sayers in their company until someone believed them. However, now that the machine exists it just seems like a natual thing to do.
Every time I see this machine I think it makes a great analogy for IT projects. The more audacious an IT project is, the more crazy it looks. After it is complete and people are benefitting from it everyone thinks it is obvious.
The Linux Penguin
Amazon's Kindle
I got a demo of Amazon's Kindle the other day and was very impressed. I hadn't realized that it had a built-in cellphone-based data connection so you could always download more content. The speed was a little slow, but for reading a book I think it was perfect. I'm considering getting one.
Today I got email from Amazon reminding me that if I shill for them on my blog, readers can get a $100 discount. You just have to apply for an Amazon credit card and use this link.
Do I feel bad about shilling for Amazon? Well, not if it gets my readers a $100 discount. It is a product that friends of mine are happy with and I'm impressed by the demos I've seen.
GTD+The Cycle
Andrew Hyatt's blog mentions his merger of TM4SA's "The Cycle" with the GTD methodology.
I solved this problem by using the agenda, and scheduling my next actions that I wanted to work on for the current day. I would then see a list of the next actions I had to accomplish that day. If I didn't get them done that day, the next day I'd move them up a day, to the current day. It ended up being a daily-planner-like system a lot like Tom Limoncelli recommends in Time Management for System Administrators. But with next actions..Sounds great, Andrew!
I like GTD but don't think it is optimal for busy system administrators or software engineers. His addition to The Cycle is a great variation on the theme. That's how I hoped The Cycle would be used: a good system that people could adopt then customize for their own use.
Time Management Tip: Starting New Big Tasks
A time management problem that people often ask me about is how to get started on a new big tasks (NBT). With a heavy number of interruptions, meetings, and so on it can be easy to get distracted and never actually start that important NBT. Starting a NBT is also a bit intimidating; it's emotionally easier to continue with checking email, answering tickets, and (this is the big one) work on less important, but easier, tasks.
When I need to start a new big task I hide. I really do. I find a small conference room, hide, and work for an hour disconnected from the internet. I'm not ashamed to admit this. Hiding really works.
I'm not completely hidden. I don't cover the windows. People can find me. My immediate coworkers know where I am.
Looking forward to SAGE-AU (Australia)
As I start to pack for my trip to Australia, I'm getting really excited about attending the SAGE-AU 2008 conference. I just got email with the preliminary registration numbers for my workshops (note: more people will sign up "day of"):- Interviewing/Hiring Technical People: 8 registrations
- Time Management for System Administrators: 31 registrations
- "Help! Everyone hates our IT Department!": 24 registrations
By the way... I've completely revamped the Time Management slides. Previously I've tweaked them between conferences. This time I took a hard look at what people found useful, didn't need, and the way I was presenting the information. I refocused the slides around the more streamlined version of "the cycle", dropped the parts that got the most yawns or "why would anyone want that?"-looks. I also made sure that the more entertaining parts were retained and are spread evenly throughout the presentation. As I learned from mjd's "Presentation Judo" talk says, "Your primary goal should be to entertain". Each slide should educate and entertain, but if you have to pick just one, choose to entertain: people are sitting in the same seat for 3 hours, they deserve nothing less.
Now I have to get back to packing. For the last few months any time I've thought of something to bring I wrote it on my todo list for August 6th. Packing is less stressful when you have confidence that you won't forget anything. Now I just have to fit it all in my luggage!
It's not too late to register for SAGE-AU 2008. I look forward to seeing you there!
Tom @ SAGE-AU 2008, Aug 11-18, 2008, Adelaide, AU
Tom will be presenting 3 tutorials and a keynote at SAGE-AU 2008. Register today!
