What sort of time management system do you use?
Getting things done.
Good use of a ticket system.
Good use of comprehensive documentation (wiki) on system configuration, network, etc that is always up to date (so I never have to research anything)
-Adam
The Todo.txt Command Line Interface (CLI) -- Cross Platform, Futureproof, Works over SSH. What more could you want?
The system I use is Getting Things Done, mentioned above. I also found the Time Management for System Administrators (also mentioned above) very valuable.
The thing I liked most about GTD was how agnostic it was about your "system". It can be paper, electronic, anything. As long as it works, who cares?
I started out using index cards stuck with a binder clip that I carried around everywhere. Each index card was a different GTD context. This is probably what kept me closest to the GTD principles. After that I used OmniFocus for a while, I even participated in the public beta and got a really cheap copy. But I found it too darn complicated. (and I just opened it last week and closed it again nearly as quickly just out of fright!) Plus I don't like that they're charging $25 for the iPhone version, as if the $70 for OmniFocus isn't outrageous already. After that, I used a plain text file that I kept open in vim all day long. Probably my best system so far, but it wasn't very portable. So I moved the text file to a wiki and had plans to use an extension in Firefox to allow me to open it in vim, but I used that far less than when I had vim open all the time.
Now I'm using Things for Mac. So far, so good. It's very simple. Probably its best feature is the "Today" category where you put things you want to get done today. That's not very GTD, but it works for me. The biggest problem with Things is that it's far too easy to lose track of tasks. Is it listed under next? Scheduled? Someday? Projects? Why do next actions in projects not show up under areas of responsibility? There are a lot of shortcomings and I wish it had the ability to create your own custom views like in OmniFocus. But despite that I bought a license and will probably buy the iPod touch version soon. It's not perfect, but it's helping me stay organized which I guess is the only thing that really matters.
If you're not a one-man-band, having a support rota is a must. The benefits of being able to deflect support questions onto someone else for a week cannot be underestimated; it allows you to get your head down into the mid-to-long term things that otherwise keep getting delayed.
In terms of time/task management, I have 3 lists:
- @desk: this is stuff that I need to action;
- @waiting: stuff I'm waiting on someone else for;
- @somestage: rainy day stuff that would be nice to fix/get to, whenever there's a free moment.
The @desk list is further sorted by due date, with more urgent things at the top.
Also, the @somestage list is surprisingly cathartic; it's nice to have somewhere to write down the stuff that really, really bugs you but you can't justify spending the time to fix right now, as it's not service impacting.
A couple of general tips in terms of working habits, which while not directly about time management will probably save you time in the long run:
- Never leave stuff half fixed. If something has broken and you've put in a temporary fix, get the permanent fix in at the first available window. Otherwise the hack will stay in long enough to make it onto your '@somestage' list.
- Whenever you make a change, always ensure that you reflect it on your documentation. As soon as a document doesn't reflect the production environment, it's worse than useless, and will cause you hassle later.