The Ubiquitous To-Do List

Most Oracle DBAs are, by nature, ornery little task masters.  We're called detail-oriented when someone wants to be generous.  We're called anal-retentive micro-managers the other 6 days of the week.

It's all true, and it's also what makes a good DBA an excellent DBA.

I figured out something very important soon after I became an IT Manager back in the mid 90s.  None of the technical people who worked for me could tell me, at ANY point in time, exactly what they were working on.  Oh sure, they could tell me about some pending big project or talk about a nagging issue that never seemed to go away (often as a direct result of that same individual dropping the ball day after day), but they couldn't tell me what they needed to do in the next day, let alone the next hour.

I was pretty incredulous.  How could technical people not know what they needed to get done?

People who knew me at the time joked about my to-do list.  I took it to meetings and added tasks and "to-dos" during the meeting.  I'd then work on my tasks and cross them off as I completed them.  If I told someone I would do something, I did it.  If I made a commitment, I followed through.  The buzzword in my company at the time was accountability, and every member of the IT leadership team was evaluated accordingly.  It never came as a surprise when I blew the lid off the accountability chart.

It also came as no surprise to my direct reports when I made it a requirement that everyone create a to-do list and begin working from a list of prioritized tasks.  It became part of everyone's quarterly review process.  It became part of every one-on-one meeting and part of every status meeting.

It drove a lot of people crazy.  Some people couldn't deal with structure.  A few couldn't deal with accountability (i.e. having to work a full day).  A couple people were, unfortunately, terminated.  The to-list, and their inability and/or refusal to have their work ethic exposed, was more than some could bear.

Today, IT is replete with people who believe in the art of black magic.  They don't believe they need structure, processes, or documentation.  They scoff at the idea of having rules or boundaries of any sort.  They're the day-to-day IT heroes who make computers work, never mind the fact that they're also the ones who break them in the first place.  They seem to be in a constant state of panic, seemingly unable to extricate themselves from their situation.

Some people, especially the IT hero, would argue that my ubiquitous to-do list concept is an unnecessary burden when most IT organizations have project plans, help desk ticketing systems, and the like to identify and track an organization's priorities and schedules.  They'd claim that they are already overworked.  B.S.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

An accountable IT professional is like a lion on the open Savannah.  He or she works smart, conserving energy and identifying targets with the greatest return on their investment in time and energy.  He or she is uniquely positioned to identify, track, and leverage technology for the betterment of the company.  This type of person has light bulbs go off in the head when they see an opportunity to improve processes, implement new technologies, standardize methods, reduce costs, automate manual processes, or increase efficiencies across cross-functional boundaries.

This is the person who has a hallway conversation, an IM chat, or an email discussion, and identifies possible opportunities to improve the way business is done.  These ideas go on a to-do list, a living, breathing, ever-changing list of "stuff" that needs to be done.  These are the intangible things that never appear on a project plan or a Help Desk ticket.  These are the things that separate an average worker from a superior employee.  These are the things that lead to great things in the workplace. 

Not working smart is one of IT's dirty little secrets.  Corporations are demanding ever-increasing productivity from their employees.  One way or another they'll get it, with or without the IT hero.

Don't be a hero.  If you don't have a to-do list, give it a try for a month and let me know how it goes for you.