Table of Contents

A Brief Note

Real quick—most of what I’m about to cover comes from my own experience and the book Time Management for System Administrators by Thomas Limoncelli. If you work in tech and haven’t read it yet, I highly recommend giving it a look. It breaks things down to a science. While I’ll be focusing on how I’ve adapted the ideas in my own day-to-day, his insights provide a rock-solid foundation with way more depth than I could cram into a single blog post.

IT Work Can Be Overwhelming

Plenty of jobs get chaotic, but IT tends to crank it up a notch. When your department is central to how the entire company functions (which it usually is), you’re constantly fielding interruptions, quick-fix requests from your manager, and juggling a mountain of projects that only seems to grow.

Unfortunately, most of the ways to eliminate that chaos are out of your control. But you can definitely make things more manageable by forcing the workload through a single, organized path.

Here are a few ways to do that:

Centralize your tasks. Whether it’s a ticketing system, a to-do app, or a notepad duct-taped to your monitor. Everything needs to funnel into one place.
Block off focus time. Some tasks just need a time slot so you can structure your day and track progress. Bigger projects, though, require dedicated, interruption-free block. Because nothing meaningful gets done between interruptions.
Automate or repeat. Identify your repetitive tasks and set them to repeat in your to-do app so they stay on your radar. When you’ve got a bit of breathing room, look for ways to automate them. PowerShell/Python, Ansible, and similar tools can save you a ton of time in the long run.

Funneling Tasks Through the To-Do List

Once you’ve picked a to-do list (and hopefully synced it with your ticketing and project platforms), the next habit to build religiously is funneling everything through that one system.

Doesn’t matter what it is: walking the dog, a request from a coworker, a project, a reminder to follow up on something. It all goes into the list.

Taking In Sudden Requests

If you work in IT, you’re probably hit with tasks from every direction: ticketing systems, project tools, emails, Slack, Teams, and of course—the classic walk-up (or surprise video call if you’re remote).

Most of these channels just need a quick acknowledgment—a reply, a reaction, or clicking a button. Walk-ups, though, are different. You have to be more intentional how you respond, unless you want to earn the “grouchy IT person” title.

Unlike messages or emails, a simple “got it” can feel cold or dismissive when it’s face-to-face (or face-to-screen). You’ve basically got three ways to handle these interactions:

Match their urgency and tone. If they’re stressed, show a little concern—even if it’s a minor issue.
Acknowledge and write it down. Let them see you logging the request. It shows you’re listening and helps you actually remember it.
The classic brush-off. “I’ll get to it when I can.” A favorite among some IT folks… but not a great look.

If you’ve worked with vendors that have solid Customer Success or Account Managers, you’ve probably experienced option #1. It’s a common technique in Sales and Customer Relations for a reason, it works. But if being socially smooth isn’t your thing, just visibly writing down the request (in your to-do app or even on a sticky note) is usually enough to show you care.

As for option #3—tempting as it might be, maybe just skip it. Grouchy or dismissive responses rarely end well. A little goodwill with other departments (and your own) goes a long way.

Don’t Forget Your Own Tasks

It’s easy to get caught up in everyone else’s requests, but don’t lose track of your own work. Especially the kind that makes your job easier or aligns with long-term business goals. These tend to be more technical and less structured, but that doesn’t mean they should be treated as vague background noise.

For tasks like that, always write down what, why, and how you’re doing them. I’ve made the mistake of tossing a task into my list, putting it off for months, and then forgetting what it was even for. Honestly, that’s usually a sign it’s safe to delete. But ideally, we avoid getting to that point.

Personally, this habit helps me stay grounded. When you’re bouncing between small tasks all day, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture and that’s a fast track to burnout.

If your to-do app supports descriptions, try using this simple format:

What do I want?
Why do I want it?
How can I best achieve it now?

The first two are pretty straightforward. They help you clarify your goals and make sure the task has purpose. The last one can be a short strategy, a list of tools you’ll use (PowerShell, Ansible, Python, etc.), or links to helpful articles. It gives you a jumping-off point and makes it easier to pick the task back up later without re-learning everything.

Most importantly, it helps filter out busywork. If a task doesn’t serve a clear purpose, it’s just clutter—and that kind of clutter leads straight to unnecessary stress.

Cycle Method

I use the “cycle method” from Time Management for System Administrators with only minor tweaks.

The core idea is simple: spend a short part of your day—ideally no more than 15 minutes—reviewing your task list and slotting items into your calendar around existing commitments like meetings. With rough time estimates, you can pick a realistic set of tasks as your “daily goals.”

This structure helps shift your mindset from surviving the day to completing it with intention.

While the original method is typically done at the start of the workday, I personally prefer to plan tasks a few days in advance (or at least the day before). Having a clear picture of what tomorrow looks like keeps me grounded in fast-paced environments and helps me actually enjoy my free time without that lingering anxiety.

What I Use

Personally, I’ve used Microsoft To Do quite a bit. Not because it’s amazing—but because I’m usually in an enterprise Microsoft 365 environment, and I make do with what’s available.

Is it the most feature-rich to-do app out there? Not even close. But it’s clean, simple, and integrates well with other Microsoft tools like Jira, Planner, and Power Automate. Since I’m comfortable with PowerShell and the Power Platform (Power Automate, Power Apps, etc.), it’s easy for me to hook it into other services with a few REST API calls.

One fantastic feature of Microsoft To Do is that it syncs with your Outlook and Teams calendars. You can actually open your task list in Outlook and drag and drop tasks directly into your calendar. It’s a small thing—but it makes time-blocking ridiculously easy.

Now, if you’re not in a Microsoft-heavy shop, you’re an hourly worker, or your job leans more toward time tracking, I’d recommend checking out Super Productivity. You don’t need to use all its bells and whistles, but it’s a fantastic option for developers, engineers, or designers.

Especially if you want a free, standalone tool that respects your time.

Focus Time

As mentioned earlier, dropping small tasks into your calendar is great—but you also need dedicated focus time for the big stuff. I’m talking about the kind of deep work that lives in epics or stories in Jira (or whatever tool your team uses).

Ideally, your focus time should be:

Repetitive (same time every day)
Consistent in duration
Protected like it’s sacred

If you work on a team where constant interruptions are the norm, try rotating coverage with teammates—one person handles the noise while the others dive into their projects. If you’re flying solo or have a unique role, talk with your manager to block off time and make sure they know not to schedule meetings or throw “quick” tasks your way during it.

The setup is simple: carve out a 2–3 hour block of uninterrupted time each day or a few times a week for project work. If you can swing it, add a second, shorter session for learning. Maybe assign an hour a week to mess with new tools or catch up on documentation. IT never sits still and you shouldn’t become stagnant either.

What I use (Viva)

If you have access to Microsoft Teams with the correct licensing, the free version of Microsoft Viva is able to set all of this up for you and it’ll adjust the times as much as it needs to to incorporate existing meetings. The times will even automatically show up as “busy” for others in order to help protect your focus and learning time.

But, if you don’t have access to that, it’s not that big of deal. Manual assign these times weeks out on your calendar and you will achieve the same outcome.

Automate or Die

This isn’t just a DevOps mantra or a business buzzword. It’s something you should apply to your own workflow. Take a look at your recurring tasks in your to-do app. Anything that’s become painful or mind-numbingly repetitive? That’s a target for automation.

Identify what you’re doing over and over again, and figure out what tool can make it disappear. Here’s my personal toolkit:

Ansible

Configuration Compliance, Provisioning, Deployments

For on-prem provisioning and enforcing consistent configurations, Ansible is my go-to. (Though Puppet or Chef also work) One of the most underrated benefits of Infrastructure-as-Code tools is that they self-document. Maybe not in perfect plain English—but every step is written out, reusable, and repeatable.

That said, if you’re working in a team, don’t run Ansible locally. Different environments, Python versions, and local setups will quickly turn into chaos. You need a shared interface and execution environment.

Use a dashboard:

Ansible Tower (official, but expensive)
Ansible AWX (open-source, but requires Kubernetes or an OCI-compliant system)
Semaphore (Docker-friendly, lightweight, and supports both Python and PowerShell natively)

I personally use both Semaphore and AWX, but unless you already have a Kubernetes cluster, Semaphore is the better place to start. Clean UI, simple Docker deployment, and just enough structure without getting in your way.

Terraform

Cloud provisioning, multi-cloud sprawl, infrastructure management

To be honest, I’m not as familiar with Terraform as I am with Ansible. Typically, I just use Terraform for cloud Infrastructure versioning and deployment of test environments. If I provision something to production, after provisioning, I typically hand it off to Ansible (or whatever I am using at the time). While that’s expected behavior with Terraform, to hand it off to a configuration management tool, I personally don’t feel as experience with it because I am configuring much more than I am creating from scratch in most environments.

But if you work for an MSP, SaaS, or some other fluid environment for a companny, this is significantly more important for you.

PowerShell, Python, API Platforms (Insomnia)

Data management, application workflows, API interfacing

Now that we’ve covered configuration and provisioning, let’s talk about what ties systems together: automation that moves data, triggers processes, and links platforms.

These tools vary depending on the task. Sometimes, you’re building a full automation pipeline, other times you just need a reliable way to send off a few API calls. Either way, they serve the same goal: getting systems to work together to complete a workflow.

Whether it’s automatically reorganizing Active Directory, auditing NTFS permissions, managing user accounts, or dozens of other tasks, PowerShell and Python have always delivered for me.

PowerShell is the go-to in a Windows-heavy environment. Python thrives in Linux. And when I’m starting to dig into APIs, before I’ve written a single script, I use Insomnia or Postman to test and explore endpoints. It helps me figure out exactly what needs to happen before I start wiring it all together.

Summary

Managing chaos in IT isn’t about eliminating it—it’s about organizing it. By funneling every task through a single, centralized to-do system, blocking off focused work time, and automating anything repetitive, you can regain control over your workflow.

The biggest lesson here? Your brain is for solving problems, not storing them. Every tool, every process, every automation should serve that goal—freeing your mind to think, not to remember. Once I embraced that, everything got easier.

The more you can trust your systems—whether it’s a to-do app, calendar block, or automation pipeline—the more energy and creativity you free up for the work that actually matters. That’s when the job gets easier, and the burnout fades.

If this resonates, I highly recommend diving into Time Management for System Administrators by Thomas Limoncelli. It breaks these ideas down with even more structure, science, and practical examples than I’ve touched on here.