Three time management bits on the path to improvement....

A short while back Tom "Time Management for System Administrators" Limoncelli turned up on Perlcast - I got opportunity to listen to this last week and it's a good one for those thinking about how we use our time. I've got the book queued up on the shelf for after I finish some other reading, but from the interview I have already cadged one handy trick. Rather than being driven into email and chat first thing upon arrival at the office, sit down with your listmaking tool and do a quick morning review, thinking about and documenting your day as you'd like it to transpire. Though you will no doubt be pulled into one or more distractions, knowing what you aren't getting done has value approaching that of what you do get done. I've been using this trick the last few days and - while still crisis driven at times - it provides a greater sense of control and stability.

Along the lines of not being controlled by email, this becomes a repeated refrain in the LaPorte/MacArthur interview with Merlin Mann - that running one's life out of email is possibly the worst way to live it productively. Along the way Mann provides some hints to his lifedesign methods (many focused sites), getting to zero, and generally cracks witty. He may not like his picture, but it's a good interview.

Finally, Jacques Turbé provides a handy guide to deciding when tweaking your system is worse than using your system (hint: usually).

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Posted by esinclai at February 28, 2006 09:54 PM |