Any system admins keep a journal or log?

JockVSJock

I'm trying to keep a log in a MS Word doc where I try to detail day-to-day changes and activities.

There has been a few times where I have to go back to it and read thru a few things. I find that making this a habit is hard.

Was wondering if any other sys admins keep a journal/log and what they fill in and how they keep it up.

thanks

J_86

I do, specially since I work with multiple customers. I used OneNote for the majority since you can create multiple notebooks and tabs. I also use Evernote for a few things.

nachodba

I use OneNote also, it's probably one of my most used programs since it has an ok screen capture feature.

I typically do this sort of thing -

01/06/2015

0715 - Arrive
0730-0815 - Resolve blah blah issue on blah server
0845-0900 - Resolved blah users blah ticket
1000 - 1200 - Meeting with blah group to discuss blah sql upgrade
1200 - 1230 - Lunch
1300 - 1400 - CandyCrush


Stuff like that.

gorebrush

Probably easier in Excel I would have thought. I don't bother keeping a journal. Wish I did when I was a systems admin though just to see exactly how I used to use my days

JasminLandry

I try to do it as well but sometimes I just have to many things to do so I completely forget about it.

darkerosxx

I use Jira as a project tracker and everything I do gets put into an issue under a project. That's for work tasks where I actually do work. I use Stash to tie my issues/tasks to git commits, so if I can't remember how to do something that I did before, I just look up the task and if the task doesn't explain how it was done, I pull up the attached git commit and there it is in code.

I use my Samsung Note 10.1 tablet to keep a handwritten journal of my daily highlights. There is a page template in there with 3 lines for each day, so I drop highlights in there. This is so I can create monthly reports of big highlights.

4_lom

I do this with a Notebook in OneNote. That way it gets synced across all my devices, so no matter where I'm at I always have access to my notes. I create notes on problems I encounter throughout the day, with my own findings/troubleshooting steps and links to any webpages that have useful information.

alias454

We use JIRA also for change management tracking. We don't do any work that affects more than one person unless there is a change request put through, discussed, and approved by a manager (at-least, that's the policy). the reality is we do document changes to systems but not always with the discussion and approval part. Some of the regular chores have different processes so they don't require disccusion or management approval. As far as tracking my day to day activities, I don't do anything special. I try to add appointments for myself to mark that I have done something but I get interrupted a lot so sometimes it is hard to be consistent.

kohr-ah

For meetings i use a cheap moleskin style notebook and usually something like a G2 pen.
Easier for me to reference as I know this book is just what was covered in meetings.

When doing technical work I use one note and have a notebook for work, one for studies, and one for stuff i want to remember for myself

Verities

I used to keep track of my daily activities, but it became too cumbersome over time especially when stuff hits the fan. I highly recommend keeping track of your activities if you can as it can make you more efficient in your time as well as track what you've done for the day or the week (if you're looking back on it).

I do the same as other in here and use OneNote to keep track of all my t-shooting resolutions and commands. I have a section in my OneNote for each of the 5 operating systems I work with daily: Windows (Powershell), HP-UX, Solaris, RHEL, and VMware. Its extremely handy as it saves you time in the future, when you run into that problem again and have forgotten how you fixed it in the first place.

--chris--

This is one of those things that should be a "best effort" (so that you don't get discouraged should you miss a couple entries) and also be technically simple to use.

I use notepad and split it into weeks or months depending on how active the client is. We use AutoTask and Kaseya for ticketing and put the bulk of change management / work related info into those tickets, then use the .txt files for each client as a way of quickly summarizing the days work so that if that client has an issue the next day or soon after we can at least see what the last thing that changed was.

This lets anyone pick up on the work quickly and gives a good starting point for pin pointing change.

jvrlopez

I only do if I'm told to. It helps a lot for recalling things at the end of the week, but it's such a hassle to stay on top of it when you're busy during the day.

kohr-ah

Besides what I stated earlier - I dont keep a daily list more of "What to do" and a tab named "Completed" that I move it to when done. It helps me remember :P