Tech Tip: Mac Maintenance Checklist.

Friday July 28th is System Administrator Appreciation Day. In honor of our fellow left-brain professionals, we've put together a couple tips that may be helpful to those of us tasked with the challenging job of keeping creative teams stable, happy and productive.

First up: A Mac Maintenance Checklist.

This is something we've been playing with at CreativeTechs -- for our clients who've scheduled regular monthly maintenance visits to keep their computers fit and healthy.

The checklist is a simple, low-tech way for clients to make sure their computer issues get addressed. Plus it helps the tech avoid missing sporadic maintenance details.

How to use: Hand out a packet of these forms the week before your scheduled maintenance visit. Ask your clients (or co-workers) to jot down a list of the issues they want addressed on the left side of the form. As you do your rounds, check off the items one at a time. It helps keep you organized, and it will make your clients feel better in the process.

Got a better idea? This maintenance checklist is a work-in-progress. We continue to build consensus within our own team on what maintenance steps are appropriate, and how frequently different tasks are needed. Leave us a comment on our blog with suggestions on how you'd improve this form. We'll incorporate ideas into future updates of this checklist.

Source: This form is offered freely to anyone providing Mac support to creative teams -- or for creative studios to use with their own computer consultants. The form itself was designed by Chris Holt of Coolstone Design Works, and partially inspired by a collection of lighthearted information pads at KnockKnock. At CreativeTechs, we're always looking for ways to avoid showing up on one of Knock Knock's blamestorming pads!

Sign Up for Weekly Tips

Business Tip: Time Management for System Administrators.

Providing computer support for a busy team of graphic designers, account managers, and other creative pros is a challenging job. It demands an odd combination of long-term planning and short-term crisis response.

A new book published by O'Reilly does a good job addressing the real-world, interruption-based environment most system administrators find themselves working in:

Time Management for System Administrators.

As author Thomas Limoncelli says, "A System Administrator's life is divided between putting out fires and building new buildings."

Good time management is crucial to keeping creative teams happy. There aren't many mentoring opportunities that teach these crucial skills to professional system administrators.

While this book does not address the unique issues involved in supporting creative teams, we do recommend this book for anyone who finds themselves supporting clients and their computers for a living.

Source: We also like a related book by Thomas Limoncelli: The Practice of System and Network Administration. This second book focuses on general principals of providing IT support to extended teams. The general principals can be applied to any type of computer network-- although at 776 pages it is not a casual read.

Sign Up for Weekly Tips

Mac Consultant Wanted: Know a tech-savy designer?

Are you the person that other designers turn to when they have tech questions? Can you support creative pros using Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, QuarkXPress, FreeHand, etc? Have you lived with the rhythm and flow of a creative studio?

We recently talked with a couple good, technically-minded designers who were intrigued by our Mac Consultant position, but were intimidated they didn't have as much technical skill as CreativeTechs' current team. While this is definitely a technical position, we are more interested in a broad understanding of design software than deep Mac OS X troubleshooting. We've adjusted the position's wording slightly to reflect this.

Position Open: Become a Tech at CreativeTechs

Status Update: Our hunt may be nearing the final stages, so email today if you are interested. It is possible the position will be filled by one of the people we've already talked with.

Bonus Lead: Here is a lead for Seattle-area Mac techs without the design software strengths we need at CreativeTechs. The Omni Group, makers of OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, (and the intriguing new OmniPlan) have a current opening for a System Guru to maintain their Mac OS X servers and workstations.

Sign Up for Weekly Tips

Share tips and win music! Each week we give away a pair of $15 iTunes cards to a randomly chosen new Seattle-area subscriber PLUS the friend who referred them. Pass this newsletter along using the "Forward to a Friend!" link at the bottom and tell your friend to give you credit when they sign up! Last week's winners: Tom Schroeder at REI, referred by expert color management consultant Anne Taylor.

QuickTips is a free weekly e-newsletter from CreativeTechs, Inc. Each week we publish a fresh mix of left-brain and right-brain tips based on our real world experience supporting hundreds of creative teams in the greater Seattle area. For a complete archive of previous tips, visit www.creativetechs.com/tips

Your referrals wanted! CreativeTechs relies on word-of-mouth introductions. If you know a Seattle-area creative team who might benefit from our unique mix of computer support for creative professionals, please introduce us. We are never too busy for your referrals. Email help@creativetechs.com, or call us at 206-682-4315.

Copyright 2004, 2005, 2006 CreativeTechs, Inc.