Managing time in the IT world

There is no better time to be an IT professional throughout the world. Facebook just agreed to pay a company started by two former Yahoo employees, the app Whatsapp, $19 billion—that's billion with a "b"—for their company. (It also turned the 50+ employees into instant millionaires as well.)

There are oodles of other IT-based millionaires and even billionaires, such as the developers of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and a 2014 article posted at Times.com, "These are The Five Most In-Demand Jobs Right Now," includes software developers, systemssoftware in the number three slot.

So the numerous jobs in the IT (Information Technology) field are in demand, and growing, in industrialized and emerging countries around the world (although the recession did take its toll in the IT field as it did in most fields). Fortunately, as the worldwide economy is improving, so too is the need for IT professionals.

There's a useful book entitled Time Management for System Administrators by Thomas A. Limoncelli. The edition I have been reading was published in 2006 and there are, of course, certain pieces of advice Limoncelli offers that are somewhat outdated. For example, he says that the central tool for time management is your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) such as a Palm Pilot, Zaurus, or similar product.

If you share that with your workshop attendees you will probably hear many of them saying, "What? A Palm Pilot? What about my iPhone or the Samsung Galaxy?" But the iPhone wasn't even introduced until June, 2007 so when Limoncelli was finishing up his book in 2005 or 2006, the smartphone that was about to change the landscape for how phone calls are placed and information is accessed, retrieved, and even stored was still in development or beta testing at Apple.

Limoncelli, who has a degree in Computer Science, points out some aspects of being an SA (System Administrator)that justify having a separate time management book just for those who are SAs. Here are the three ways he sees SAs having different time management concerns from others:

• SAs have more interruptions than others who interfere with doing a project.
• SAs are able to solve problems with more technical solutions than a nontechnical/average person.
• SAs lack mentors who could teach them time management skills. As he notes, "Our mentors are technical peers, often on e-mail lists, and often in different parts of the world."

Although I agree with Limoncelli on bullet points 2 and 3, I disagree with him about bullet point one. Perhaps before smartphones and the increasing habit of checking e-mail constantly to the point of addiction, SAs may have had more interruptions than others. But today, it is rare to find anyone whose job does not include the potential or reality of constant interruptions. How you handle those interruptions, and whether or not those interruptions can be deferred to someone else, or avoided completely, is something that each and everyone one of your workshop attendees have to explore.

Another interesting trend is the necessity of non-IT professionals to learn IT skills. This is an intriguing development because it impacts on what kinds of individuals you may have in your training programs for time management. You can no longer assume that everyone who works at an IT company, or in the IT field, is someone who majored in computer science or IT. For example, I know a psychology major who had a series of jobs as a journalist and in public relations. But a recent writing job for a company website required him to learn HTML coding. So in addition to writing and editing, he was also, basically, a programmer. Another example is that those who do marketing are being asked to learn Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Some in HR are also being asked to learn HTML basics. Being a tech-savvy professional is becoming a requirement for more and more individuals beyond a more narrow definition of who is an IT professional that might have been true previously tech-savvy professional is becoming a requirement for more and more individuals beyond a more narrow definition of who is an IT professional that might have been true previously.

This is a useful idea to keep in mind: be careful what assumptions you make about who is in the audience for your time management training. That is also why I especially like the ice breaker at the beginning of a workshop that I discussed in the introduction. By asking attendees to say their name, and their job title, especially if it is training that has participants from a variety of departments or job categories at the company, you will have a better idea of what types of jobs your trainees have. You will also learn how many in your training are more likely to have a shared IT background.

In this training manual, and in the workshop you are conducting, I will try to point out technology that will help your attendees to save time as well as changes in their way of thinking because, as Limoncelli points out, SAs—and I would generalize from that to those working in the IT field—are more inclined to find technical solutions to their challenges, in this case their time management challenges, than nontechnical persons would. But you will still benefit from an understanding and application of more general time management principles.

There are two reasons for that. The first is that technology is known to fail or to be discontinued. So if you're reliant on a particular app or technology to help you with a time management concern, such as scheduling, if that app is discontinued, or if your electronic device loses its power, you need a backup plan so you don't miss all your meetings.

The second reason is that you may have to interact with those outside of your IT world who are uncomfortable with a particular technology solution or using technology in general. How will you communicate or solve your scheduling challenge without an overreliance on technology? Will you alienate them or fail to make the appointment that you both need to schedule or will you turn to the old-fashioned telephone or put an appointment in your calendar through an e-mail communication instead of the calendar app that you personally swear by?

If you look over the table of contents of Limoncelli's book, Time Management for System Administrators, almost all the chapter headings, and the subheadings, such as Stress Management, Eliminating Time Wasters, Prioritization, and The Cycle System: Life Goals, would apply to anyone in business.

But there are also a few chapters, such as Documentation and Automation, which are geared specifically to IT workers.

The book Death March by Edward Yourdon focuses how time specifically impacts on IT professionals as it highlights a key IT time management issue. Published in 1997, Yourdon, who at that point had spent 30 years working in the software industry, explored the causes and solutions of finding oneself working on a death march project in his book. Just what is a death march project? In a nutshell, it's an IT project that should take 12 months, but you've been given just six to complete it; the budget is way smaller than what's needed to do the job and there are fewer people and resources assigned to it.

But no one wants to say no, or to ask for more time, out of fear that they will be seen as lazy or inefficient. Yourdon also makes a case that the Death March type of project that results in working 13 to 14 hour days, six days a week, rather than the normal 40 hours work week has, for software developers in the IT field, become the norm. (There was a consensus in the interviews I did with a range of IT professionals that the Death March situation is quite common, and is a situation that most have had to deal with at least once, or more frequently, in their careers.)

Although it is also my observation that the Death March projects that Yourdon writes about have become a norm for more than just for IT software developers, such as association managers, sales professionals, a whole range of service providers, since this training manual is focused on IT professionals, let's stay focused on the more typical IT population. Hopefully this training will help all those in the IT field in your workshop, including software developers, to hone the practical time management skills to reverse the death march trend.

Consequences of poor time management 

Just within the past year, we've seen the horrific example of how poor time management can lead to an early death. It wasn't an IT worker; it was an intern based in London working for a major international bank, and the official cause of death was ruled epilepsy. But the 21-year-old student's father believes that the epileptic seizure could have been brought on by his son's lack of sleep from the grueling schedule he was keeping as an intern. Pacing oneself, including getting enough sleep, is one of the cornerstones of excellent time management. Burning out, or worse, are dramatic consequences of poor time management.

Here are some other examples that denote the consequences of poor time management:

• Missing a deadline and having a client or customer who is furious with you as he or she waits days, weeks, or even months till you get the project done
• Showing up late for work or for a meeting and getting a bad reputation for being late and not showing enough concern for the time of others
• Having to work around the clock for a couple of days, or most evenings and weekends, for days at a time because you agreed to an unrealistic deadline that you are breaking your back to try to meet