How Time Management Can Help Your Job Search

Let’s discuss an important part of a successful job search: How to take the elements/tasks of your job search plan and break them down into daily chunks. I am a nut about planning and time management. Planning your daily schedule must happen if you are to obtain your goals faster, but it takes discipline and a system. Take what you have in the project plan and put each of these tasks into your paper or online planners for the days and weeks you want to accomplish them. Be sure to book things as meetings when you need to have devoted time. I have to do this for my writing. I will book on the calendar a time slot to work on an article, a clients resume or project plan, just as I would a client call or meeting. I turn off e-mail and get to work. You have to be this disciplined to get it done. If you feel disorganized, take the time, an hour or more if needed, to organize your plan and even your work environment. I know there are times when I take 30 minutes on a Saturday or Sunday just to clean up my desk, put files away, pull out new files for the clients I will be working with in the coming week, and access my coming schedule for the week, even month. I find if I walk into my office Monday morning and I have piles and piles on my desk, it throws off what I was planning to work on that morning and causes me to spend more time looking for things in piles rather than focusing on the task at hand. This same process will help you plan out your calls, meetings,interview preparation time, and so on. This chunk of time will help you to be more productive and focused come Monday morning. Now, for calendaring tools, here is what I find helpful. I utilize digital as well as paper time management resources. I have tried going paperless several times but it just doesn’t work for me. I really need to be able to view my month or week at a glance with all the big appointments standing out for me. Find the best that works for you, but you must have three things:

1. All appointments in one place
2. All tasks in one place
3. You have to be able to see it quickly and easily and regularly

Time Management Tools

Online:

• Outlook Calendar
• Cozi Calendar app – for computer and smartphones
• iCal
• GeeTasksPro app

Offline / Paper:

• Staples ARC
• Franklin Covey
• Dayplanners and Dayrunners
• Mead (simple, inexpensive, small)

Source: Careerealism