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I’ve been in IT for many years and am now in a department of 1, supporting ~180 users. I was hoping to be able to get some good tips, or ideas from the rest of the community on how to stay focused, on task, grow, and manage my time effectively. I had thought about setting specific times for specific tasks, and if it is during that time I focus on that. However, I feel that’s almost too regimented but could use some ideas. Thanks!

24 Spice ups
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Im kind of in the same situation… Spiceworks REALLY helps me to stay focused. I also automated as many reports, imports, exports, file moves/renames/deletions, FTPs to 3rd party vendors… EVERYTHING. That freed up a lot of time for fires and projects. And at the suggestion of someone on here … i made a google calendar with all scheduled maintenance and crap. I really wish Spiceworks had a calendar :slight_smile: Good luck!

Bob

7 Spice ups
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One that’s helped me stay focused is stay out of the water cooler forum!

8 Spice ups
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  • Catalogue everything (use Spiceworks)
  • Automate & consolidate everything where possible. If you have a sufficient budget and you have a large physical server estate, consider virtualising some, if not all of your tin.
  • Use remote support tools where possible. The less running around the better - suggestions here .
  • Get as many users as possible to use a helpdesk ticketing tool (again, use Spiceworks)
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for help, be it a zero-hours temp if there’s a lot of manual work to be done or a third-party IT support/consultancy if something just isn’t working or something technical needs to be done & you don’t have capacity.

It’s very easy to plan for doing specific jobs at specific times, but it’s also very hard to stick to that plan, especially when your DNS server has just failed, a UPS has exploded and one of the directors wants something done yesterday.

In a nutshell, you’re one man. If they keep asking why X isn’t getting done or why Y isn’t working properly, calmly explain that you are but one man.

← approaching 3 years experience as a one-man band of ~80 workstations, ~25 servers and almost 100 users.

5 Spice ups
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You’ll be supporting what exactly? End-users, servers? Telephony?

Only one person for 180 uses seems a little short…

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Use the Spiceworks Helpdesk. Get buy-in from your management that this is the central point of contact for IT. Once you’ve got tickets coming in, prioritize them appropriately. Once they see you effectively managing your workload through helpdesk tickets, they may come on board and say that if there is no ticket, there is no problem. Soon enough every problem your users have they’ll be making a ticket for, helping you better manage your workload.

As you install and configure and change things, try and document as best you can what you did. This is a hard one because most people are so busy it’s just fix and move on to the next thing. But taking 5 minutes after each job to document what you did could really help you down the road. It’s not something I do currently but I really should start.

Don’t spend money like it’s growing on trees. Just because there’s a $5000 product out there doesn’t mean a $500 or even free one can’t do the job just the same. Take your time to evaluate your purchases and make the most of each spend.

Don’t be afraid to push the salespeople back that call you or show up at your business almost daily. You cannot possibly have time for “just a 20 minute conversation to understand your business” 10 times a day for every salesperson that calls. You really have to pick your battles. Eventually you might just end up like me, never answering the phone. I actually did an experiment and answered the phone for an entire day, at least half of the calls were cold call sales people. Not bueno. Your time is valuable, to you and to your users and management.

6 Spice ups
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This is going to sound simple…but if you follow this advice, you will provide yourself with a solid base to work from.

Get enough uninterrupted sleep and make sure you know what is enough for you.

Eat healthy…doesn’t mean only veggies…but do eat lot of fresh veggies. Doing so will help you focus and give you the brainpower and energy you will need to do what needs done.

Above all…don’t stress. If you find yourself stressing, do something to stop it. A quick meditation or a walk around the building will provide you with a method to reduce stress. Stress is bad and should be avoided at all costs.

Sounds simple? yep, it is…but it will help you do what you need to do, and more.

9 Spice ups
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Thanks for all the great ideas. I guess today was feeling kind of over whelmed a little bit and this really helps. I planned on doing a calendar in Google for my daily tasks like checking backups etc, but that was the only thing I could think of to help me at the time. I think the biggest issue is getting people to email in tickets to the system, and then following up through it. Unfortunately I’m right in the middle of the floor in a major walk area so I have a tendency to get pulled “hey I can’t get x to work can you come look at it really quick?”. Then I forget and they ask me like 3 weeks later why they haven’t had X done for them? So as Justin said I do feel it is a case of getting people to use the ticket system.

So to give a bit more background. I work for a gov agency on the local level, the state takes care of some stuff but as a local agency we also take care of some stuff. So I don’t have to worry about some hardware (about 60 or so PCs), as the state maintains that.

However I do get asked to support software and login issues that occur. 180 may be a bit high, it could be 120, but I want to say closer to 180. I also support the phone system, blackberry’s and iphones, the server associated with the phones. Also have a few servers (about 8 in a vmhost) to maintain. IT before I joined was contracted out so a lot of the locally owned systems are on windows home. It worked for what hey needed, but it is definitely not an business class network at the moment. Shortly I’ll be responsible for a laserfiche system, and probably making document templates and workflows on top of all that.

I do have backup support I can call for most things so I’m not completely alone, it’s just the day to day issues that are the big concern. Fortunately I think they’re working on getting someone to help assist me where I feel it is needed, but I’m not exactly sure what direction they’re going with this since I just found out about that this morning.

Thanks again for all the great tips.

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One last thing, don’t forget to give yourself time for lunch/breaks in generally. If you find yourself on the go non-stop for every hour you are at work you’ll burn out.

2 Spice ups
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Being the single IT guy for 180 user (WOW) I feel your pain. I bet you spend a lot of time putting out fires and not planning or being proactive. It’s had to stay afloat at times but eWoman hit on some good thing for you. You will easily get stressed and will forget things if you don’t take care of yourself first.

Document as much as you can. Even though you are the only IT person you have a moral and legal obligation to do your job the best you can. When I accepted the position I have there was little to no documentation. I had to discover most of the network using tools like Spiceworks.

Create processes. I have a document for even simple things like how to create a new user in Active Directory. I don’t do that often enough that I can do it in my sleep and with all that is involved in that simple process it is easy to forget a step. I like full and complete data in my AD so everything is documented. I have 2 others that work with me so the document makes sure there is some consistency in that process. Although you are alone, it will ensure you do it the same way every time. Plus, if you ever do get some help it will shorten their learning curve.

Make sure management gets reports. Share with them on a weekly basis what you do. A lot of times they are out of touch or do not realize everything you do. Sometimes the shock factor gets you more tools or kudos when you can tell them something like you prevented 18 viruses from infecting your network last month…

Good luck!

1 Spice up
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Buy and read (if you haven’t already done so) Practice System Network Administration 2nd Ed.

2 Spice ups
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I have been having very similar concerns. I am a recent graduate in IT and the system admin for a small company. We have about 35 internal employees and 20 remote technicians. While it is not as large are your user base…it is still frustrating. Especially considering I also help with literally everything else in this place, right down to stocking the fridge with soda. While I really find all of the other assignments given to me take me from what I should be doing, I have an intuitive nature that allows me to take everything as a learning experience. “Hey look over these blue prints and count data jacks for 8 hours so we know what to order.” << I look at this and originally get pissed…but then realize ok I have very little experience looking at blue prints, I will learn something.

The ticketing thing is a great idea, but I know the difficulties in getting people to use new things, so if it is an issue, when something is given or asked of you, make your own ticket in Spiceworks. That way when its resolved, you can go back yourself at any point in the future and look into your own past work, to help you build your own knowledge base.

I also keep a log of what I do, day to day, in case I am ever questioned. I just keep notepad open and do a simple list:

9-1-12

  • Did this.

+and this, etc.

  • Just keep adding points as a finish up resolving issues or completing tasks.

Other than that, get a task management solution, and keep up on managing proprieties on what needs to be done by when. Overall I used to feel that all the planning and time management concepts college has taught me were in fact the biggest waste of time, but now that I have so much on my plate I have learned my lesson on that front.

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This book helped me a lot when I was a member of a 2 person team supporting ~350 users. I still use the priority lists every day, and its been 8 years since I read it.

http://www.amazon.com/Management-System-Administrators-Thomas-Limoncelli/dp/0596007833

3 Spice ups
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Also check out the interview with Tom Limoncelli in the community

3 Spice ups
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Spiceworks Help Desk and this group will do wonders for you!!! Also, try to use as many resources for steam lining your environment. I’m currently a one man show and the technology is YEARS behind. But I’m digging in, looking for cost savings as well as ways to make my life easier, (Acronis or Ghost for 1). Also, I can’t stress this enough…eat right, sleep and for me working out helps control the stresses of everyday too. Good luck!!!

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Instead of buying ghost or other imaging software, buy a startech duplicator. Faster, easier to use and maintain.

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Sit down and think of what you are spending most of your time on. If you’re spending most of your time building new computers for your users to use, it might be time to implement some sort of automated imaging. One trap that we get caught up in is creating processes that don’t actually save us a lot of time and take a lot of time to maintain. If you are getting the same request over and over, either find a way that users can self service that issue or find a way to be proactive or solve the issue. While fixing a lot of small issues that are quick to resolve might feel like you’re being productive, you are just grinding away time you could use to lessen your workload in the future.

Once you know what is using your time, you can make efforts to lower it’s impact on your time.

2 Spice ups
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#1. Find and keep a relationship with a good vendor(s). Being able to aquire something quick with free/cheap overnight shipping when trouble comes along will save your bacon more than once

#2. Keep up to date on the solutions that already exsist. Nothing is worse than spending 20 working hours implementing a solution only to find that there is something better out there that’s cheap or even free!

#3. Make sure you have the ability to say no and you (and your bosses, and bosses bosses) know where your responsibility ends. Have it clear and have it documented. At my last job, we also had to:

-Physically move desks

-Clean/maintain a copier (they refused to pay for a service contract)

-Maintain our CEO wife’s phone (not an employee)

-Drive out (in our own cars, no gas reimbursment/travel time) to fix upper managements home PCs

Seriously. All because my boss did not or would not say no when people asked him to do something.

#4. Automate/Eliminate. Any repetitive or silly task that can be automated…automate it. Or better yet, eliminate it entirely.

2 Spice ups
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Documentation! Even if it’s only for your own reference. It’s no fun trying to remember minutia from a year ago or having to figure out how to do something for the second time. It’s much easier to refer to your documentation!

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I am in a very similar boat. Using Spiceworks for a help desk took me a year of nagging at management before I got them to understand we needed something to manage the helpdesk. Now they can’t see running with out it.

I have tried the Morning is for end users / afternoon is for projects but that falls apart fast, end users don’t care about anything other than their stuck scroll lock button.

i have found “http://community.spiceworks.com/plugin/314?creator=true&utm_campaign=app_general&utm_medium=app&utm_source=app_ui” By Scott C. to be a life saver for long term projects. I made the Owner an admin in Spicworks so we have transparency on what I’m doing and how much is being asked of me.