SUMMER is a good time to re-evaluate things. I’m spending a lot of time on the beach this summer. Waves crashing in all around you have a way of clearing the mind, I find.

Mother Nature is simply awesome.  When you watch the relentless force of the ocean, it makes you realise that you are absolutely powerless to change things that big. All you can do is watch and try to survive. Makes me realise that what we are really meant to do is focus on the small things that we can affect — because aiming too high is a fool’s errand.

In our business, it’s the same thing: if we focus on issues too large to effect real change, we’re wasting time. If we focus too myopically without understanding how our actions fit (or don’t) into the bigger picture, we’re wasting time. If your job is to rake the beach, but you do it as the tide is coming in, you wasted time. If your job is to keep the tide from rising, you are really wasting time.  IT administrators can be beachrakers. Senior executives like to focus on altering tides.

In IT, we spend way too much time on both ends of the spectrum. We either spend all our time on myopic efforts that have little bearing on the overall mission at hand or too much time trying to change the way our entire business operates in order to fit some neat IT process. Neither works.

Instead, it seems to me that it would be better for all concerned if we occasionally re-evaluated our situation and adjusted to current realities. It sure would be better for your mental health, if nothing else.

The easiest way to evaluate your situation, regardless of what that situation is, is to ask yourself “WHY?” Ask it over and over, like a two-year-old. Why are you doing what you are doing? Is what you are doing relevant to the overall mission? Is the overall mission reasonable and attainable?  If, at any time, your answers are at odds with your intent, it’s time to stop. The key, of course, is honesty.

You can convince yourself that you simply must find a solution for interplanetary replication, but you aren’t being honest. If you are, you’ll discover that you are wasting time.

There are 1,000 problems to be solved in your data centre. Half of them don’t matter, but which half?  Try to focus on ones that matter — that lead to a positive outcome. Stop keeping yourself away from the beach with the family because you can’t figure out lunar snapshotting. Ask yourself this: “What problem am I trying to solve? Why? If I don’t solve it, what is the real implication? If I do solve it, what are the real benefits?” If the answers are shaky, move on to another problem to be solved. There will always be another problem, as sure as there will always be another tide.

Work to live, my friends, don’t live to work. It’s easy to find yourself on the wrong side of that equation.Summer is a good time to re-evaluate. Surf’s up.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Steve Duplessie is the founder of and Senior Analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group. Recognised worldwide as the leading independent authority on enterprise storage, Steve has also consistently been ranked as one of the most influential IT analysts. You can track Steve’s blog at http://www.thebiggertruth.com