Being IT
Part Two - The Daily Checklist

The Daily Checklist

A number of essential documents kick the day off for me. Of these, the most important is the daily checklist. This has evolved over the years but in its current form it works well. The purpose of this checklist, as its name implies, is to ensure that all those regular jobs that MUST get done DO get done. Let’s face it – we all have jobs we like doing and jobs that need doing and typically our preference is to get sidetracked into the ‘nice’ jobs. This is where trouble can start. How many times have we forgotten to update a log, check some disk space, or put a backup tape in place because we were sidetracked with other more interesting tasks. A PDF copy of my daily system admin checklist is here and also listed under the useful links section on the right.

I have learned, mostly the hard way, to always get out of the way all of the seemingly mundane jobs early on leaving whatever time is left to focus on the nicer and more enjoyable aspects of the job. Some of these ‘must do’ jobs include (but are not limited to):

• Checking renewals that are due
• Progressing outstanding quotes and orders
• Scanning documentation and filing/archiving
• Checking Disk Space on Servers
• Checking Event Logs
• Checking EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) Status
• Verifying Email filters are working
• Verifying Anti-Virus/Anti-Spam systems are up to date and operational

Believe me, these jobs are life savers so work them into your ethos - a familiar metaphor to drive the point home is ‘look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves’. By taking care of the smaller jobs then problems can often be avoided or detected early on. Allowing days to go by without checking a particular server, especially in a terminal services environment like ours, is just asking for trouble. And don’t forget those essential state backups – so easy to be missed for days on end but they take only a few minutes and could be the difference between recovering a machine quickly and having to rebuild a machine from the ground up.

Resources:

Daily Checklist

For other posts in the ‘Being IT’ Series:

Part Three - Administration
Part One - The Basics