Certification Magazine - November 2007 - (Page 34)

TECHNIQUES Time Tips: How to Fit Certification into Your Schedule MATT MCGRATH “To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.” – Leonard Bernstein, Conductor In my career as an education consultant, I have witnessed thousands of candidates attempt to obtain dozens of IT certifications. Some were successful, others were not. I have seen a former salesman pass five difficult Microsoft exams in one week. I also have witnessed an experienced hardware engineer take four years to pass his A+ Hardware Exam. What separates these two individual experiences has little to do with aptitude, training or realworld skills. It has everything to do with how they managed their time. Despite the relatively good economic times the IT sector has enjoyed recently, ever-increasing workloads and never-ending project deadlines have made it tempting to put certification on the back burner. Don’t. Although times are good now, we all remember the dot-com collapse just six short years ago. In times of economic upheaval, it is those who possess the most up-to-date skills and certifications who will be able to withstand change and experience continued career growth and advancement. Finding the time to fit certification into your schedule involves changing your priorities, making a plan and then sticking to it. The following are some time management tips that will help streamline your efforts, getting you certified in the least amount of time possible. Eliminate “Time Wasters” at the Ofﬁce Time management guru Brian Tracy estimates 80 percent of the value of what each of us does each day is contained in only 20 percent of what we actually do — most people person spend 80 percent of their workday on trivial tasks that really do not contribute to their vital role within the company. Examples are reading nonessential e-mails, making nonwork-related phone calls, meetings that stray off-topic and chitchat. Keep a time log at work and record everything you do throughout an average workday. You will be amazed how much time is wasted, time that could be spent studying for your certification exam. Here are some ways to deal with the four biggest office time wasters: • E-mail: Dedicate 30 minutes each day (the end of the business day works best) for responding to nonessential e-mails — those that do not pertain to your core business function. Even better, come in on Saturday for an hour to respond to such e-mails or don’t respond at all. • Meetings: If you can get away with it, don’t go. But if you must, keep the meeting on target. If it starts to drift aimlessly, excuse yourself by saying you must tend to a client, go to the bathroom, etc. Almost 100 percent of the time, nobody will even notice you are gone. 34 CERTIFICATION MAGAZINE November 2007

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Certification Magazine - November 2007

Certification Magazine - November 2007 Contents Editor's Letter Data Stream Tech Careers Academic Connection Dear Techie Virtual Village Certification Outside Technology Inside Certification The Webmaster: Online Everyman Interface Time Tips: How to Fit Certification into Your Schedule Ad Index Endtag

Certification Magazine - November 2007

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