The first step to making your job search 50% more effective, is to really know what is happening. Yes, get a job in half the time. Let me give you an example that changed my life that applies to your job search.
I was overspending by 20% every month. I had an absolutely fixed income. So I bought a notepad and kept track of every expense. In one week it was obvious where the money went. In a month it was unavoidable. The truth? 20% of my very limited income was going for lemonade from cozy little shops in Murcia, Spain.
Your time is very limited. You only get 24 hours a day. You can’t buy more time. Do you really know how you use it?
Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace. (Sawyer)
Buy a small notebook. Exert incredible discipline for one day each month. Every time you shift tasks, write it down. A phone call is a shifted task. An internet link can be a shifted task. Write it down.
It may help to create 15 minute intervals on the paper and write down what you did for each 15 minute period.
Now get out the chainsaw. What was really REALLY productive? Do you spend 2 hours daily trying to avoid offending people by chatting amiably or reading their useless emails. Cut out the unproductive stuff.
Make sure you do what is important. Education is essential. Networking is critical. Talk about the NCAA tournament with Larry—don’t kid yourself. That email of funny things kids do—delete it.
I tried it. I found I was spending hours each day with candidate email that wouldn’t do any good. I did a 2 month experiment. I took all my job openings off the internet. Instead I started calling up people. In the recruiting business that is taking a chainsaw to your daily schedule. Nothing neat and clean, I just cut 25% of my time wasted. I have since added back some job ads, but not where everyone else advertises. Now I get better candidates and less time wasters.
Create the log. Keep it for a day or a week. Get your chainsaw out. Cut off the termite riddled, least productive part of the log. Use the time you save to get the most useful things possible done.
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Something To Do Today
Create a time log. Use it for your job or your job hunting. Keep it. Analyze it. Chainsaw it.
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Next: Unbelievable networking facts.
Later: Take unfair advantage of those networking facts.