I receive approximately 30 phone calls a day. Assume 5 minutes per call if I answer every one. 150 minutes gone. Two and one half hours out of an eight hour (assumed) workday. I receive approximately 200 e-mails per day. Assume one minute per e-mail averaged out to process these communiques. Another 3.3 hours sapped from my schedule. Nearly six of my eight hours consumed simply by responding to messages of varying urgency. 75% of my time frittered away without taking into account any face to face meetings and the need to do my actual job which is planning for, designing, implementing and maintaining efficient information systems for a national construction company.
Such duties require constant learning to stay in front of the technology wave without being drowned by it. Let’s assume 10 hours a week to remain competitive. That equates to a minimum of two hours per day learning. I can easily spend 7.8 hours a day treading the sea of information trying to stay afloat, assuming a system never crashes, never needs maintenance, never bamboozles the CEO and sets off a cascading series of intensity filled conference calls, video conferences or a series of lectures on why the budget is out of control, why is my e-mail down and why can’t I connect to the company servers from my vacation home in Alaska?
I must understand the intricate inner workings of several different SANs, a multiplicity of routers and switches, a plethora of operating systems, the current market clock speeds of competing processor companies and the most fashionable and cost effective ways to connect remotely, anytime and anywhere.
Leaving out my three hour a day commute and my advanced degree time requirements I feel slightly pressured to maintain an unmaintainable schedule. Add my civic duties as a non-commissioned officer in the armed services (National Guard) and the end result is a man running as fast as he can with no allowances for a single mistake, a single misstep, a single error in judgment. The world run over those who fall down.
Is is any wonder I attended a year of war and maintained normal blood pressure while working 12-16 hour days but often find myself with borderline hypertension in the combat zone that is a modern IT shop? Is it any wonder that without my daily two mile run I would be a walking basket case?
Perhaps technology will advance to the point that it self-manages before I drop dead of a heart attack. In the interim I must do my best to keep my own internal cooling systems and information delivery mechanisms operating in top form so the sprockets don’t seize and the gears don’t grind. The GIGO principle is in full effect in my late 30’s as the mortality clock ticks relentlessly. Do more with less. Efficiencies of scale and delivery and purchasing power must be my mantras.
And now I return to my reading on Information Technology for Management, having eaten my flax seed chips and three bean salad. This book I am consuming with my mental teeth is already three years out of date but continue the fight in the midst of the information storm for paper is not yet dead and the electrons flow like water around my body but I refuse to be swept under.