Section 4.2. Why Other Systems Fail

4.2. Why Other Systems Fail

Before I reveal The Cycle System, I want to explain some systems commonly used by system administrators that don't work: The Scattered Notes System and The Ever-Growing To Do List of Doom.

The Scattered Notes System involves writing notes on random bits of paper or having multiple to do lists scattered about. My favorite is when I see a video monitor encircled with yellow rectangular sticky notes. Is each one an action item? A reminder? A phone number? Who knows? What is the priority of these? What if one falls off? There's too much chaos.

When you get assignments at a meeting, you start a new list. Now you are managing two lists. Then you lose one list because it got thrown out with other papers. Now you're missing meetings and failing to meet deadlines. Not a good situation.

The other extreme is The Ever-Growing To Do List of Doom . Usually someone realizes that having many lists or scraps of paper isn't a good way to track things, so he buys a notebook and declares that this will be his one list. No more confusion, right? He diligently carries this notebook everywhere. Any new assignments get written in the notebook, and old tasks get crossed out as they're completed. The process works great at first, but then it starts to break down. It's difficult to prioritize work. Older items get forgotten since our eyes tend to look only at the last (newest) few items.

The most important failure of this system, and why I call it a list of doom, is that it's pretty damn depressing. The list never ends. You work and work and work, and the list never seems to get any shorter! You cross off items that you complete, but new items appear at the end. The number of pages starts to accordion out as you cross off items in the middle, but there's that one item waaaaaay at the beginning that is just never going to get done. Soon you are flipping through pages of crossed-out items to find the one item that isn't crossed out. You feel stressed because you fear missing an incomplete item hidden in pages of crossed-out items.

Worst of all, this is a total self-esteem killer. You never get that big feeling of accomplishment from having completed the list because the list never gets completed. It's the List of Doom.

Newman: I'm a United States postal worker.

George: Aren't those the guys that always go crazy and come back with a gun and shoot everybody?

Newman: Sometimes.

Jerry: Why is that?

Newman: Because the mail never stops. It just keeps coming and coming and coming, there's never a letup. It's relentless. Every day it piles up more and more and more! And you gotta get it out, but the more you get it out, the more it keeps coming in. And then the bar code reader breaks and it's Publisher's Clearing House day!

Seinfeld, episode #418, "The Old Man"

If The Scattered Notes System is too chaotic and The Ever-Growing To Do List of Doom is too depressing, then The Cycle is, as Goldilocks would say, "just right." It utilizes a device (either PDA or PAA) that you can carry everywhere with the bonus benefit of keeping everything in one place. The Cycle gives you a feeling of completion and accomplishment at the end of each day when you complete the day's list.