The best Time Management books: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

>I can't go to the bathroom without missing atleast 1 phone call from someone about something breaking.

Don't worry about that. Hell, I straight up ignore my phone sometimes even when I'm right beside it. Priorities and such.

>if I need to start looking elsewhere for more pay to offset the stress

Not a bad idea. Always be cognizant of what's out there.

As others have said, bring it up professionally with your boss. His response will help sway the "should I look elsewhere" decision.

Another good suggestion is to work on time management skills. Here's a highly recommended book around here.

And you have vacation days for a reason. Use them. If you try to but they never approve it, then that's a big red flag.

I don’t really love advertising for certain things, but this has really helped me out with juggling life: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0143126563

Basically, get it all out of your head and into some thing better at keeping information. Software, planner, calendar. I am building a house, have a stressful software engineer job, have 4 kids under 7, and a wife with medical problems. I still fail a lot...but now not as often!

I've been journaling now a couple of months, and it's done wonders for my productivity and peace of mind - I'm not dropping things anymore - or at least far, far fewer than I did before. My latest experiment (I love that you can experiment and tweak Bujo to your heart's content!!) is planning my days. Prior to this experiment, I'd work around my scheduled commitments, and skim my journal for open tasks whenever I had free time. Now, I'm planning my day first think in the morning - over coffee - when my mind is at its most focused. My wife had been encouraging me to try this for a while - but I'd always dismissed it as too inflexible, and unable to cope with higher priority interruptions. Then I ran across Cal Newport's (the Deep Work guy) blog post on this, and it explained things in a way that made sense to me and addressed my concerns about inflexibility. This stuff works!

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My key:

• A little filled triangle in the up-left are meetings, where the meeting is is in the top right.
• An unfilled triangle in the same space (none in this pic) is an appointment (dentist, etc.)
• A stripey bar on the left is a block to do open tasks from my journal.
• C is commute, W is walk
• lunch is obvious
• Z is a nap (cancer + some of my meds are a little fatiguing, so mini-breaks are good)

I just read a perfect book on this topic called Deep Work. It really changed my habits and made me focus more on my job. I now try to close email/slack and just not look at it for 2 hours at a time when I want to get work done and it has done wonders.

The stress is because you're trying to go over all of the things that you need to do next week. By writing them down your brain will no longer worry about it.

I build a task list, then when I feel like I'm starting to stress out I just go through and review it, adjust as needed and the stress is gone.

This is a method I picked up after reading "Getting Things Done"

This book "DeepWork" was a great book for me to read/listen to in 2020. https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586692

You most certainly do not need PM software for your to-do list.

I struggled with this for a long time. I highly recommend Getting Things Done by David Allen - Amazon Link.

I ended up settling on MS OneNote to keep track of everything in my life. The desktop version is very powerful, and the mobile app is good for review and short notes on the go.

WARNING: It is very easy to go overboard with organizing with the GTD method. It took me a long time to get it running smoothly (David Allen suggests a full 2 years before you reap the full benefits), but now I have all of my Tasks, Projects, Someday/Maybe's, and various levels of Goals for work and home neatly organized and out of my head.

If that is too much here is a much more simple method for the short term. Grab a notebook and write down everything you have to do. As for prioritizing, pick 2-4 things you absolutely have to get done tomorrow and write those on a separate piece of paper. Repeat this daily.

It’s really hard to get anything done if everything goes through management.

IDK if it’ll be of use but if you’re stuck going it alone, I remember this is good: https://www.amazon.com/Time-Management-System-Administrators-Working/dp/0596007833

I’m not sure if this is directly relative to your question, but I found myself in a similar situation. I was chasing building a specific type of lifestyle in an industry. However, it took me some time to admit to myself that I wasn’t putting in the work, nor willing to do the work. I debated quitting for awhile.

Then, I read a book called The Dip by Seth Godin

It helped me put into perspective what was working, and helped me realize it’s okay to walk away and choose something else. It gave me clarity on making a decision.

Good luck on finding clarity.

Its not as perfectly relevant to software engineering as one might hope but you'll find some good ideas in here:

• https://fourhourworkweek.com/
• https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/dp/0307465357

I don't think you can really escape the career goals conversations but just be clear that you are not interested in management and try to be honest about what interests you. The idea that you want to work less is going to be at odds with HR processes and how your manager has to work with that. If they are more "enlightened" they will be on the same page when your laziness aligns with goals of making work more efficient, more automated, not doing unnecessary stuff, keeping code simple because it is easier to fix and maintain. You have to find the places where being lazy is beneficial, focus on that, and leave the desire to work less hours unspoken. You can't ever completely level with your boss and say you don't give a shit as long as you get paid. You can be easy to please though in 1 x 1s though. "If you're happy, I'm happy." Try to make their life easier when they are noticing you but don't be noisy if you don't have to.

It is okay to not like meetings and make points about how smaller meetings are more effective and cost less man hours. Stuff like that.

If you haven’t already read it, I highly recommend the Scrum book authored by Jeff Sutherland (one of the two creators of the Scrum concept).

Additionally, be sure to read the actual Scrum guide which can be obtained for free.

https://www.amazon.com/Scrum-Doing-Twice-Work-Half/dp/038534645X

This is an excellent book on the topic, covering how to balance a sysadmin's unique need for periods of laser-focus to solve deep and complex problems in an environment fraught with interruptions!

What helped me the most was the promise I made to myself to expose myself to great material everyday. Even if it's just one Youtube video.

You are the sculptor and the sculpture. Every action you take towards your goal is a strike from the hammer and chisel. Whether you read a book, write in a journal, listen to an audio book, or just watch a Youtube video, you are changing yourself.

Nothing on the outside world changes when you read a book, but everything changes on the inside. You're taking years of someone's life experience and condensing that into a few hours of listening to an audiobook, or a seminar.

The book that forever changed the way I saw wealth was "The 4-hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss.

The book that forever changed my approach to wealth was "The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire" by Deepak Chopra

If you don't mind me asking, what is your end-goal? I'd love to know where you are on your journey to give you a possibly better suggestion.

The Dip by Seth Godwin might be a good read for you. It’s about knowing when to quit.

Time Management for System Administrators

Yes it is slightly old, as in 17 years, but as a process it describes it is very much still relevant and helpful. Just ignore any references to tech it mentions and concentrate on the process/methods.

>After reaching 70-80-90%, the effort of adding one more percentage grows exponentially instead of linearly.

Yes! I learned this from using SCRUM at work. It helped my team get so much done and helped me not worry so much about things being "perfect". "Don't let perfect be the enemy of good enough or done." You got this!

> And don't fcking judge my character by my forgetfulness, it's one fcking trade [sic] I can't change but it says nothing about my trustworthiness or other things.

Agreed. But . . .

We don't rise to the level of our intentions; we fall to the level of our systems.

One of my (nearly infinite) morning checklist items is to check my work calendar and my home calendar. <em>Getting Things Done</em> helped me a lot with this. YMMV.

Works fine. Not perfect. My thought is that leveraging the team is important. So if someone thinks a task is a 5 but another is 13 the average is a 9 which is what gets put on the task. Obviously the first person may know something the other doesn't and by pushing for communication and quality scrum calls the task shouldn't take much longer for the person who put down 13 vs the person that put down 5.

Just remember it's an average. Sometimes a 13 point task takes longer. Sometimes it's shorter. If a task was woefully underestimated you just have to communicate upwards and try not to make it happen again.

Anyway I just follow the principles in this book https://www.amazon.ca/Scrum-Doing-Twice-Work-Half/dp/038534645X.

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less is a great book on how to do this in a way that makes you look good. If you spend less time getting the most important things done, and proactively communicate what you are choosing not to do and why, you are displaying higher-level management skills.

The term I'm starting to use is "essentialist" - the idea that you only buy what you need. It's an extension of minimalism (all essentialists are minimalists, not all minimalists are essentialists). Plenty of minimalist influencers with their white empty living rooms but buying like $600 minimalist furniture smh. Essentialism is also much more focused on the use of your time and energy, so it's not purely a "material objects" concept, which I found fits my philosophy a lot more.

https://www.amazon.com/Essentialism-Disciplined-Pursuit-Greg-McKeown/dp/0804137382

This is the key, /u/G8keypur. Just as with any addiction, you're not going to beat this one overnight. Start pulling away gently, day by day. If you have the focus, try to get lost in some deep work such as reading a book. Your smartphone pulls you in by giving you little shots of dopamine every time you consume something new. It's addictive because it's easy, and it starts out being very fun. Reading a book provides a more challenging, yet more rewarding experience. It gives you [flow,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology\)) a much deeper and more health-promoting experience than the one you get from your phone. Flow is somewhat addictive in its own right, but the addiction yields much happier and more productive things than does a smartphone-based dopamine addiction.

The book “Deep Work” by Cal Newport will explain what that is. It’s actually worth a read because there are value to be extracted from that shit. It actually does apply and help with ADHD because it helps eliminate distractions while you are trying to be engaged and focused on whatever it is you are working on. Don’t knock it before you try it.

https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Work-Focused-Success-Distracted/dp/1455586692/ref=nodl_?dplnkId=41eefd28-cb9f-443c-8116-73b81e621c72

Getting Things Done - David Allen

Will decimate work anxiety. Let's you work in peace while work anxiety is put in it's place. Imagine working at the speed you can with no thought of deadline, other problems. You put those in a box that will be taken care of, and because you know it will be taken care of, you can let it go. Allows you to focus, perform work in it's proper order.

I don't have experience with that but I have friends who do and they all recommend reading The Four Hour Workweek - I'm in nursing so its not super easy for me just yet but I'm looking into doing something more tele based in the future, so I will be rereading that book in the near future.

Break ups suck even if they are not ugly. Sorry that it came to an end but it sounds like you have a great mindset and are sure of the decision.

We're all always here if you need to vent/talk :)

>Zawsze trzeba mieć własny umysł.

Zgadza się.

>Oczywiste jest, że książka ma zarabiać pieniądze, a sam tytuł to dla mnie metafora/przenośnia lepszej efektywność wykorzystywania czasu.

Może dla Ciebie to metafora, ale dla autora chyba nie:
https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Escape-Live-Anywhere/dp/0307465357/ref=sr_1_1
"This step-by-step guide to luxury lifestyle design teaches:
• How Tim went from $40,000 per year and 80 hours per week to $40,000 per month and 4 hours per week"

Nie twierdzę że książka jest bezwartościowa. Po prostu nie jest szczególnie odkrywcza a sprzedawana jest jako przepis na wygodne życie w bogactwie. Jak zaczniesz się takimi rzeczami interesować bardziej to zauważysz że jest tego cała masa. Tim to wierzchołek góry lodowej, i to całkiem ładny. Większość tego szajsu nie ma nawet 10% tej jakości.

Make a little note of things to make sure you check. There's no shame - tell them you got the idea from Checklist Manifesto.

You can do electric or paper. If you're new, I'd go with clipboard and paper so you can jot notes wherever.

Biggest tip: Before you leave the property, check that your dimensions close the floorplan. I mean check that one side is 24' and the other sides total to that as well. It's really stressful getting back to the office and seeing a 5' gap between sides.

One thing I do is print the Assessor sketch and use that as a guide or check while I'm out on property visits.

Lastly, you mention you don't have a lot of experience. I'm not sure if that's for measuring or property visits in general. Be kind and professional, but don't get pushed around. If the agent or owner starts prodding for values, just say you haven't worked through that yet. Also, if this is like your first property visit, it seems odd to me that the supervisor wouldn't go on a few with you to get you oriented.

>There is no such thing being pushed. I think you may be referring to the idea of a 4-day work week

Yes there is

>These are for the most part scams.

If they are scams then the advertising mechanisms of YouTube do not seem all that concerned about their authenticity.

This is how I manage mine. I was diagnosed at 40. I like Pomodoro apps like BFT (Bear Focus Timer) and analog to do lists.

Also, try picking up Time Management for System Administrators. https://www.amazon.com/Time-Management-System-Administrators-Working/dp/0596007833

The flow state, my friend (at least I think that's what you're referring to). Check out the book: Cal Newport: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. It's a pretty easy read with good information on how to output more work in less time.

Two area for me:

• Management
  • Finding a system that works for me to have visibility of projects but assign tasks to others. Using JIRA for that now. I assign the Epics to myself for the 'project' visibility and I use tasks to assign everyone to.
  • Monthly 1:1 meetings to go over progress, expectations, etc.
  • Quarterly planning meetings with each subteam to discuss upcoming projects
  • Once a month 'state of the team' meeting to go over things going across teams, whispers from management, etc.
• Time Management
  • This book helped me personally. Basically taking time each morning to organize all my tasks and schedule when to work on them.
    • https://www.amazon.com/Time-Management-System-Administrators-Working/dp/0596007833
  • I'm confident saying this is the weak link in a lot of IT staff.
    • Not knowing how long to spend on a problem before pivoting, escalating or rebuilding.
    • Tunnel vision on a specific task or project to the detriment of 99% of other tasks.