Managing Your Time - Tips on Time Management for Job Seekers

Managing your time effectively can play a big role in your job search success, but developing good time management methods and habits can be a bit of a challenge for job seekers. When you lose your job, you suddenly lose the structure that was once a part of your day. Managing your time becomes your responsibility ; you'll need to create some structure to ensure you reach your job search goals.

Tips on Time Management for Job Seekers

Set smart goals.

• Smart goal setting is closely connected with managing your time well. When you determine the results you want to achieve you'll be better able to plan and accomplish the tasks that will lead you to those goals.
  
• Determine your career goals and then create an action plan that will get you there.
  
• Create daily prioritized to do lists based on your action plan.
  
• Reward yourself for accomplishing your daily goals and tasks and managing your time well. Whether you enjoy a good book, a movie, a walk in the park or a great cup of coffee, create rewards that you will enjoy and savor them when you've met your targets.
  
• At the end of each day, plan and write down your activities for the next day; it will help you to keep your momentum going from day to day.
  

Beat procrastination.

• Do not wait for the right mood to strike or the right time to appear before you start working on your job search tasks; it may never happen.
  
• Break your tasks into small, manageable sections. People often procrastinate because they feel overwhelmed by the size of a task. Determine some productive tasks that you know you can manage and start there. Try to avoid thinking about your entire job search all at once, and remember the Peruvian proverb "little by little, one walks far."
  
• Make yourself accountable to someone else. This strategy is particularly helpful for accomplishing those daunting tasks that you know you should do, but you find really difficult. Tell someone supportive that you intend to accomplish a specific task by a certain time and that you will report to that person when you've finished the task. Ask that person to call you if you do not report back to them by the agreed upon time to determine whether you have finished the task. Peer pressure can work wonders.

Create a schedule.

• Creating a daily schedule for yourself will help you to manage your time during your job search.
  
• Set your alarm, get up and get dressed just as you would if you were going to work. That routine helps you to maintain your confidence, manage your time and stay focused on your job search goals.
  
• Set office hours. These are the times when you will be working on your job search. Expect people to respect that time.
  
• Before you dive into your tasks for the day, prioritize them and determine when you will be best able to complete each task. For example, if you have children, try to complete tasks that require focus and concentration while your kids are at school or having a nap. Save simpler tasks that you can do with your children, such as mailing your resumes, for later when your kids are home from school or after they wake up from their nap.
  
• Within your schedule, allow times to give yourself a break. While finding a job is a full time job, you need and deserve breaks in order to be able to work effectively.

Beware of self sabotage.

• Self sabotage happens whenever you work against yourself. You may either be avoiding certain tasks that you know will lead you to your goals (like constantly putting off making a call to a great business contact), or you may choose actions that will limit your ability to reach your goals (like leaving 30 minutes late for a job interview).
  
• It can be tricky to realize you are self sabotaging and even trickier to understand why you're doing it. You must be willing to really examine yourself and your deeper motives in order to beat self sabotage.
  
• If you are not following through on your job search tasks, consider whether you have any underlying fear that you may fail.
  
• You may even have a fear that you'll succeed, and that success may bring things into your life which don't fit with your deeper view of yourself.
  
• Determining the source of self sabotage requires some really honest soul searching, but if you're consistently not following through on tasks that will lead to achieving your career goals, do consider whether there's something deeper that you want more than you want your goal. That may be exactly what is preventing you from achieving your goal.

Use your community resources.

• Even if you have computer access at home, you may want to head out to your employment resource center or your library a couple of times a week and work on your job search there.
  
• If you can't seem to get focused at home, consider using your local employment resource center or library as your office away from home where you go to work on the task of job searching.
  
• Managing your time can be an easier task when you remove yourself from the distractions at home. In your office away from home, you may be more focused and able to stay on task.

It's important to treat your job search with the same focus and seriousness of purpose that you would bring to a job. You won't have anyone but yourself monitoring your progress, so managing your time effectively becomes your responsibility. If you create the structure you need, you will be bringing yourself many steps closer to reaching your job search goals.