IT is like gardening: you have to weed a little each week; you can't do all your weeding in a marathon weekend at the beginning of the summer and then not weed for the rest of the season. If it has to be done a little each day, week, or month, make it into a routine. If you are cleaning out a storage room, do an hour of work each day. If you are auditing your user database for people who have left the company, review 100 accounts each day until you are done.
Relationships and career networking. Relationships require maintenance and are also similar to gardening (they grow if you work diligently, starve if they are ignored, and die if they get too much attention). There are four groups of people you need to maintain relationships with: your customers (or your single point of contact for each customer group), your staff (who report to you), your peers, and your boss(es). Do you routinely touch base with each of them? The key to networking (the career kind, not the data kind) is to maintain relationships throughout the year, not just when you are looking for a new job. Schedule lunch once a month with your mentor or a person who is part of your network.
When procrastinating takes longer than action. If you find yourself spending more time thinking about a task than it would take to do the task, just do it. (Thinking of doing a task is not to be confused with the thinking a task may require.)
Things you forget often. The next time you find yourself in a bind because you forgot something, develop a routine to prevent future occurrences. Hang your keys in the same place each night when you come home, and you'll develop the habit of grabbing them every time you leave. Or, if you must take something with you when you leave, use it to block the door so you'll be sure to see it on your way out. It's important to communicate these routines with your significant other(s). It does no good to always place your wallet and keys on the entrance hall table if your partner is always going to 'put them away' somewhere else.
Inconsequential or low-priority tasks that can be skipped occasionally but shouldn't be. There are often tasks that can be skipped once and nothing bad will happen. However, skip them too many times and you're in trouble. This includes things like changing backup tapes, ordering supplies, and so on. Put 'order supplies' (or whatever the task is) in your PDA/PAA repeating reminders list for every Monday. It's better to ignore the reminder when there's nothing to order (or do) than to forget to do it at all.
Developing new skills. Some people complain that they never have time for training. Others schedule one training class a year whether they know what it will be. It's never going to happen if you don't make it happen.
Keeping up-to-date. It is better to schedule one hour a week of 'closed-door time' for magazine reading than to try to get caught up every few months. Throw out all unread magazines once a month—if you didn't get to it by the time the next issue arrives, you won't get to it. If you don't have an office with a door you can close, find some other space that is far away from walk-in traffic.
Meet Regularly with SPOC
When I was at Bell Labs, each system administrator served two to three groups of customers (we all supported the entire network, but each SA was supposed to focus on a particular customer segment). We were required to meet with the Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for each group, along with the department head (the person who paid the bills for that group).
It was difficult to get on the department heads' schedules, but they gave in when they were promised the meeting would be kept to 15 minutes and would always start on time.
The department heads found that it was revolutionary to actually be able to communicate their needs directly to the IT staff rather than playing cat-and-mouse games. They would often ask to extend the meeting beyond 15 minutes, or they would use the first 15 minutes to set goals, and the system administrator and SPOC would continue the meeting to work on the issues raised.
Some department heads resisted, saying that they delegated 'all that kind of thing' to their SPOC. However, we found that without the person who paid the bills in the room, the meetings were not as effective. Eventually, we were successful at having regular meetings with every customer group SPOC and department head because our listening skills, and later actions, demonstrated the value of the meetings.
Deleting Old Routines
Sometimes you have to update your routines.
In the 'gas tank' story, earlier in this chapter, I pointed out that eventually I forgot why I had started such a routine but I continued doing it. That sounds a little dangerous. Without knowing why
