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4 Ways to Get More Done in
Your Job Search
(by
Kevin Donlin) |
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It's been
said that time isn't everything, it's the only thing.
That applies to your job hunt, especially. Because every
day spent in the wrong job (or in no job) can seem like
an eternity to you and your family.
As we get ready to begin a new year, here are four tips
to help you save time and get more done every day, so
you can find your next job faster ...
#1: Plan Every Day
"A lifetime is composed of days, strung together into
weeks, months, and years," wrote Earl Nightingale. "A
successful life is nothing more than a lot of successful
days put together. As such, every day counts."
To make every day count in your job search -- and in
your life -- it's best to plan ahead, so you're doing
the right things, at the right time, in the right order.
Most folks don't, unfortunately.
If you ask any 10 people to show you their daily to-do
list, only one or two could produce one. And it's no
coincidence that only about 10-20% of people ever
achieve real career success.
So, to join the top 20% in your field, whether you're
employed now or not, the first thing to do is to plan
every day in advance. It need take only 10 minutes, but
it could easily save you one or two hours a day.
Start by jotting down the five career-related things you
must do tomorrow. Be specific. Don't write, "Find job
leads." Write, "Find 3 job leads."
Then ...
#2: Prioritize Your Tasks
Once you determine the five things to do tomorrow, rank
them in order of importance to your job search. This
should take no more than a few minutes.
It doesn't matter whether you use a Day Planner, a sheet
of paper or a PDA, just jot down and number the five
things you need to do tomorrow, in order of importance.
Tip: It's a good idea to plan and prioritize your tasks
the night before, so you can "sleep on it." About one
hour before bed, take a few minutes to review your plans
for tomorrow, then put the list away and do other
things. When you wake up the next morning, you may find,
as I have many times, that your subconscious mind has
worked out the answer to a problem while you were
sleeping. Try it tonight!
#3: Work on Top Priorities First
First thing tomorrow morning, take out your to-do list
and look at item #1. Start working on it and keep at it
until you finish. Then work on #2, and so on, until it's
time to stop for the day.
According to Earl Nightingale: "Don't worry if you've
only finished one or two; the others can wait. If you
can't finish them all by this method, you could not have
finished them with any other method. And without some
system, you'd probably take 10 times as long to finish
them and might not even have them in the order of their
importance."
Sounds simple, doesn't it? The best ideas usually are.
(Here's where I might lose readers. You may think, "This
is too simple. I've heard this before." Have you? Fine.
But ... are you doing this? Unless you have a better
system, why not?)
#4: Plan for the Long Haul
It's not enough to plan the days and weeks that make up
your job search. You should also plan for the months and
years that make up your career.
One way is to set up a system to collect and manage the
information that accumulates over the course of your
working life. "You want to plan not just for this job
search, but for the ones that will certainly happen in
the future," says Jason Alba, creator of
JibberJobber.com.
While it might be nice to remember the names of everyone
in your sixth grade class, it would be really, REALLY
nice to remember the names of everyone you networked
with, say, two years ago, when you last looked for a
job.
Contact management software can help "connect the dots
between people you've met and things you've done," says
Alba, who designed JibberJobber.com to solve the problem
of lost opportunities that plagues most job seekers at
some point.
"I tried managing my job search in a single spreadsheet
that grew until it became unmanageable, and then I
started missing appointments and losing details," says
Alba.
If an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,
surely a bottle of planning is worth a keg of time. (A
mangled analogy, yes, but you get the idea.)
To get the most out of the minutes, hours and days that
make up your job search, take a few minutes tonight to
plan for tomorrow and the long haul after that. You can
then string together enough good days, weeks and months
to create a truly successful career.
Kevin Donlin is President of Guaranteed Resumes.
Since 1996, he has provided job-search help to more than
10,000 people. Author of "51 Ways to Find a Job Fast --
Guaranteed," Kevin has been interviewed by USA Today,
The Wall Street Journal, CBS Radio and others. His
latest product, The Instant Job Search System, is
available at
www.gresumes.com/instant. |
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Editor's Note |
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If you are a
career coach or a human resources professional
and would like to contribute an article to
WorkBloom, please
contact us. |
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