Through-out my career as a Software developer, Support Engineer & IT Consultant there are many times where difficult tasks are encountered and the completion of a difficult task can be something as simple as a white "OK" button.
However, sometimes that white "OK" button is also on a white background.
So I'm posting some tools that help me in my day-to-day activities along with any tips & tricks of the trade.
(No one has paid me to promote their software)
Sticky Notes
No, not the physical sticky notes - the built-in Windows app. Sometimes making quick notes are crucial. I previously used a notepad but found recording them on my computer was easier. (Because I type much faster than I write)
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You can also sync sticky notes to a Microsoft account, so if you work between an office and home there's no need to worry about forgetting your notepad.
WizTree
rogue logs, giant Outlook files, thousands of temp data. All good reasons as to why a file system becomes full. And finding that large log file can take some detective work. Using a tool like WizTree allows me to see where large files take up space in both a statistical & visual manor.
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I've been using WizTree for years and it's a handy addition to a technicians software toolkit.
Actually read the results of the thing you googled
Like many IT professionals multiple times a day I will open a new tab and search for something. When googling for a resolution or fix to an issue it is very easy to glide over many web pages and never actually take the time to fully read the contents.
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Taking time to read is especially important on user-oriented sites, like forums. User's reporting their own issues can offer an entirely different perspective of the issue and sometimes even present you with the fix.
Slow down
I used to be guilty of this and it is something I often see junior engineers do. Computers can do millions of actions a second but it doesn't mean us humans should, so slow down.
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It could be as simple as the box you're looking for just hasn't loaded... I wish it were that simple but this is often not the case. However, stopping to think about an issue can be the difference between a 30 second fix or 30 minute waste of time.
Logs
Any good IT professional, when investigating an issue will look at the log files. But it is easy to forget if you're just starting out or having a rough day...
Event Viewer for example is the built in Microsoft log viewer with lots of helpful features such as filtering. If you're not familiar with it just yet, take a read of the dummies.com "how to" page.
Make mistakes (but not too many)
"To err is human" - Making mistakes is paramount to being a better anything or anyone. It is especially the case in the IT world, a misspelt command or line of code can break anything and in some cases everything...
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As long as we're learning from our mistakes, then they're not so bad.
Would you like to contact me?
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Send me an email at