How can you improve your system administration skills without sacrificing daily productivity?

When work is slow, deep dive into the systems you are responsible for, trying to optimise them and identify issues that may not be obvious at first sight. If you are in AMS, get involved with multiple supported clients. Best way though to improve your admin skills, is to get yourself on Projects. Although counterintuitive to some, getting on Projects, seeing that side of the fence will make you better in all aspects of your work, admin skills included. Make sure you interract with non-technical people and not alienate them even if they blame admin when it's not an admin issue. It gives you a wholistic understanding of the systems / environment you operate in. Understanding the whole, will help you understand the part way better.

Attend Webinars or Virtual Workshops: Promote webinars or VR seminars that deal with the administration of the software. Having tips and things real cases for learning is always a plus, and everyone has the opportunity to interact with each other as well. Consider holding classes during times when the team is less busy to ensure that daily functions remain undisrupted. Document and Share Your Learnings: Along with acquiring new knowledge and abilities, making sure that you are documenting these in a suitable manner is important too. This can be in the form of smart notes, blog posts or even tutorials embedded with a video channel, for instance.

I like to build SMART goals and learning into my daily 'real world' work as and when an opportunity presents itself. I once started a new role and was tasked with setting up Azure Virtual Desktop to replace an on-premises RDS. I needed to learn more about the Azure service, so I flagged to my manager that I needed a bit of time to read up on it and do some testing. It's good to communicate your learning needs and be honest about any gaps in your knowledge. It's perfectly fine to say 'I need to up skill in this in order to achieve that.' Being open about it will help you and your manager make sure time is built into a project for learning before your newly acquired knowledge is applied to achieve the end result.

When it's all about the productivity and new skills, I believe in the same domain one can more deep dive the related issue you encounter. So it will bring one to the step ahead and towards the new technology as it's related to your domain

Specific: Clearly define what skill you want to learn. Don't just say "get better at public speaking," say "deliver a persuasive 5-minute presentation to a mock audience by next week." Measurable: Establish how you'll track your progress. This could involve quizzes, completing projects, or being able to perform a specific task. Achievable: Be realistic about what you can accomplish in a given timeframe. It's okay to challenge yourself, but set yourself up for success by starting with achievable milestones.

Gamify Your Learning: Invoke fun in studying system administration by challenging students with some sort of technical quizzes. You may do it alone or ask your co-workers to join you in this love for learning, fostering a friendly competition that will motivate you to click tick(?81) and learn. Participate in Online Communities: Participate in the web or places that handle the system administration. This gives you the chance to be able to receive information from different people and even through them you can get answers to your question. Shadow Experienced Administrators: Look for shadowing opportunities where you can watch system administrators use their skills in your organization or industry circle.

Microlearning: Break down your learning into smaller, bite-sized chunks. This could be 15-minute bursts during your commute, listening to podcasts while exercising, or using flashcards during your coffee break. Utilize downtime: Repurpose those waiting periods, like lines or commutes, for quick learning bursts. Download audiobooks, podcasts, or learning apps to maximize those short windows. Multitasking (carefully): Some skills, like practicing a new language with audio lessons, can be combined with other low-intensity tasks like walking or household chores. Just be sure the activity doesn't require your full focus. Review before bed: Take advantage of the time right before sleep to solidify what you learned.

When you seek to streamline an awkward process, be sure that the end result is not more complicated than the original problem. Use automation to simplify processes, not foster excessive dependencies. Use idempotency in whatever language you choose. If it's already set. Leave it untouched. If it's misconfigured, fix it, and then move on. Change as little as needed to ensure desired state is in place. Review others work, adopt what is appealing, but stick to your own standards.

Application of what have been tackled in the course trainings is the most efficient way to enhance your skills. You will get to overcome issues and challenge yourself in fixing it, thus, will be an effective experience in applying it in real-life scenarios. Setting up a dummy environment as a test environment always help on improving skills specially if you are the type of person who learns faster with visuals.

Practice Environments: Utilize what's available! Experiment in your personal IT environment if applicable, or create virtual machines or cloud instances to test and troubleshoot without affecting real systems. Real-World Application: Look for opportunities to integrate your new skills into your current work. Can you automate repetitive tasks with that new scripting language? Can you leverage your design skills to improve a presentation at work? This not only reinforces learning but also showcases your newfound abilities. - volunteer your skills - personal projects - find a skill buddy

One invaluable aspect of improving system administration skills while maintaining productivity is to cultivate a mindset of curiosity and experimentation. Don't shy away from diving into unfamiliar territory or trying out new tools and techniques, even if it means making mistakes along the way. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and grow, so embrace the journey of discovery. Whether it's troubleshooting a complex issue or optimizing system performance, approaching tasks with a spirit of exploration can lead to unexpected insights and breakthroughs that propel your skill development forward. Remember, it's okay to step out of your comfort zone; that's where the most profound learning often happens.