Tom Limoncelli - The art of time management for system administrators

Copyright 2009 O'Reilly Media, Inc.

Note to self:

Dear Self, (because what else are you going to say?)

Remember to upgrade the LDAP server. Remember to patch the security hole in zlib and every other package that links to it. (On second thought, are there packages that don't link to it?) Remember to plan for another 10x upgrade in storage capacity. Remember to debug the boss's Outlook problems or, at the very least, have the necessary goat entrails on hand to begin the process. Remember to redo the Oracle installation. See if there are any Wikis that would work better than the one we are using. Rewrite the user account system, and this time make sure it deals with the cases they swore would never occur in the physical world. Be sure that it is Sarbanes-Oxley compliant, ISO9000 certified, and Kosher l'Pesach. Check that your staff's projects are all humming along nicely. Read the LISA conference proceedings from the last two years to make sure you aren't missing anything useful for your infrastructure. Then, if you have time left over, start planning what you are going to do next week.

No, the fact that "plan a vacation" didn't hit the list again for the 73rd consecutive week shouldn't bother you. Nor should the incident where your spouse literally tipped over laughing after hearing you were going to write a foreword for a time management book. Or should it?

Perhaps you should just take heart in the Henry Kissinger quote, "There cannot be a crisis next week. My schedule is already full."

Well, anyway. Got to get back to work.

Yours in Service,

me

Does this sound familiar to you (well, besides the spouse part, which really did happen to me)?

Tom's first book, co-written with Christine Hogan (now Lear), has become a seminal work in the sysadmin field. The Practice of System and Network Administration does a superb job of telling you how to build a sane and organized infrastructure by following a number of best practices. But there's only one chapter in that tome that tells you how to keep yourself sane and organized during this process. That's where this book comes in.

But why do sysadmins need their own time management book? I know I've read my fair share of generic texts on this subject over the years. In this book, Tom does an excellent job of nailing the facets of the job that make time management particularly tricky for our profession. I just want to add on to this by describing a few parts of the typical sysadmin persona that further complicates matters.

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. Other tasks, such as appointments and life support (like food or sleep), become secondary as they persevere, and work on the problem either in person or in their head far beyond the usual time limits. For people who habitually say, "Just one sec, I almost have this fixed," time management can be a challenge.

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. This trait is definitely commendable, but if it gets noticed that you can and are able to help, others will ask you for it more and more. The universe gravitates toward clue, so the end result is a life I usually describe as "one big tech support call." When my grandmother was still alive, I would visit her in Florida periodically. Every time I would go, she and all of her friends would bring me their digital watches to set. And you know what? I loved it. Still, one's life doesn't always run as planned when pleas for help can come at any time. I bet Superman had time management issues as well.

Closely related to system administrators' desire to help when they can is their attraction to crisis response and saving the day. Most sysadmins can't repel down the side of a building ("hut..hut..hut..") but you know they'd do it if they could. The one-person-cavalry-to-the-rescue fetish is not a sustainable rationale for staying in the profession, but it sure does a good job of initially drawing people into the field.

The last facet of the sysadmin persona I want to address is also 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. All of this tinkering, integrating, installing, building, reinstalling, puttering, etc., is fun. So fun, in fact, that they work all day and then go home and do it some more.

I once shared a bus ride with a 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" is how she put it. Most of the sysadmins I know have never heard of this idea. You'll find them (and me, as my spouse would be quick to point out) 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. This is great because it means we enjoy what we do, but it's horrible because we can't (or won't) stop doing it. It is hard to manage your time if it is so nebulous.

So all is lost, right? Luckily, no. Time management for sysadmins would be futile if sysadmins didn't have two things on their side:

As I said before, sysadmins love to tinker, organize, integrate and optimize. I have a fond memory of watching a close sysadmin friend of mine in the checkout line of a supermarket bagging his groceries. Every item was carefully considered and then placed in a bag right in the optimal spot like one big game of Tetris. If we could only turn these skills on ourselves and use them to help with the gnarly time management difficulties we face....

Well, we can. And that's where Tom comes in. He's figured out how to do just that. Tom's been working on the problems associated with time management and staying sane in this profession for years. Ever since I met him at my first LISA conference around 10 years ago, I've had the privilege of watching him grapple with this subject in several different contextsfrom splitting AT&T Bell Lab's network in half to keeping a political candidate's technical infrastructure going. In each situation, he's been able to bring his years of sysadmin experience, his keen understanding of people, and a sharp sense of humor to the problem.

Now, sit back, keep your hands in the car and the safety bar down, and enjoy, as Tom helps you bring time management and sanity to your world as well.