Time Management or The Cluttered Calendar
So, as I noted in my last post, I obtained a copy of “Time Management for System Administrators” the other day, and I’ve been reading on that and trying to figure out how to get my mess of a life together. This is not a purely technical endevour, however there will be technical solutions applied. In general, however, this involves meatspace changes.
Readers who have sadmin-type jobs will know that it takes over your life. Even when you’re not at work, you’re not free from working. I spend too much time at the computer — all day at work, and most of my time when I’m at home. My exercise routine has suffered, my laundry never gets put away, my mail doesn’t really get read, etc. I basically live in a heap of papers and unfolded clothes ever since I started back on this path. This cannot stand.
Putting the clothes away, books back on their shelves, etc, is step one. Also, getting papers in order is important. I have started a “career binder” with all relevant documentation with regards to employment and certification. This doesn’t have much to do with ‘time management’ so much as it has to do with life management. Think of it sort of as a revision control system for education, I guess. There isn’t that much in there right now, but it shall grow. Currently it contains the employment offer letter I got when I first started with my current employer (I started as a tier1 support rep over a year ago), but I will also be getting a letter from my systems team lead indicating that I was, in fact, promoted long ago. It also has the CEU letters I got from the University of Illinois for the OST Unix admin certification classes I took recently. My next project as far as that is concerned is probably going to be a CCNA, I think.
As an aside, on the subject of networking, I should be hearing this week whether or not I shall be moving on to a different, more exciting (and lucrative) employment opportunity. Of course, the fact that I spent over 7 hours in interviews with them in the last week or so didn’t really do anything to contribute to maintaining well-managed time balance. I burned a lot of daylight that I’m not going to get back. However, I think it will prove to have been worth it.
As far as technical solutions go, I am now running Windows on this laptop (the Toshiba), and I am not going to be changing that any time soon. I also snarfed a copy of Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise from the site license for RMC when I was on campus not long ago, which includes, among other things, Outlook 2007. Despite the fact I typically live in Unix land doing nerd stuff, its about time that I learn to use the calendar and planning functions of this software and get on with leveraging it. I think I can get it to sync with my BlackBerry Storm. Frankly, actually using the PDA features of the phone might actually legitimize the purchase, seeing as how I’ve had the phone since January, and have pretty much used it as a pocket web browser with the occasional phone call.
On the work front, I do need to get more serious about actually polishing up all the Perl code I’ve been writing and get the tools “to market” so to speak, as the less time I spend doing stupid tasks which can and should be automated, the more time I have to spend on doing things. Also, I just like looking at Perl code, but whatever. I haven’t had much time for programming lately, because I’ve been trying to keep up with a lot of b.s. on various fronts but hopefully that will change.
I am also going to start working out in the fitness centre of my apartment complex BEFORE I go to work, as its really the only way to ensure that the effort actually bears any fruit at all. If you try and exercise after you’ve been sitting on your ass eating snacks all day, you’re pretty much just working towards a break-even point at best. This is not good. there should probably be a “Body Management for System Administrators” book at some point. I think I’m the only person in the history of my company to lose weight since starting, but I’ve gained back about 10lbs since the last night shift started and its seriously pissing me off. I need to get over this and get on with stuff, but morning shift doesn’t really help much either. I’m going to need to start waking up at a quarter to 6 and exercise and shower before heading out like I did in high school. That will mean going to sleep earlier as well, probably 22:30 or 23:00 at the latest.
Of course, that means I need to really make use of the time I have between getting home and going to sleep. Hence, needing more time management skills, hence I bought the book. And despite tapping out this blog post in between doing my cleaning chores here, after having driving back down to the beach from being up in Gloucester and Richmond for the weekend, I’ve accomplished most of what I need to do, will probably read some, perhaps write a bit of code, and then go to sleep and get up and on with getting back in shape upon the morrow.
Hopefully this plan lasts.
