Time Management for System Administrators: Stop Working Late and Start Working Smart

by Thomas A. Limoncelli

I highly recommend that your organization create its own definition of major outage. This can give newer SAs direction and guidance, and if it’s stated on your policy web site, it can set expectations with your customers. For example, a LAN group I worked with once defined a major outage to be any outage affecting more than 10 people. Other businesses define a major outage based on whether a deadline is in jeopardy or a Service Level Agreement (SLA) will be missed. Before you do the customer’s request, take a moment to record where you left off, or at least save your work. That makes it easier to return to the task. It also helps you focus on the new task because your brain isn’t cluttered with trying to remember where you left off.