Keep a Schedule

“Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.”

Peter Drucker

In your job transition, your job is finding the next job.  Time is one of the few resources that you cannot get more of.  While this seems sort of obvious, in this world of remote work and flexible schedules, this might not seem like a critical detail, but it is. To help yourself and to help the loved ones around you, it will be important to keep a schedule.

You will argue a couple counter points:

• ‘I have been working 8-12 hours a day for my whole career, now is a chance for me to relax just a bit.’

• ‘The work in finding a new job will be sporadic and lumpy…a strict schedule won’t help this.’

• ‘I’m a professional and I can be organized enough to get the work done when I need to.’

All of this is true.  Finding the next J-O-B is going to be a combination of effort, timeliness and opportunity.  Very little of that can be scheduled.  However, when you think about athletes and musicians and anyone working hard to succeed at their work…putting in the hours is usually a defining parameter for success.  Don’t trust yourself to make the time when you need to.  Put the time in and be diligent.

Salespeople, or I should clarify, successful salespeople, will tell you that deciding to put certain hours in and make a certain number of calls will make a difference.  Some of the success in sales is a numbers game.  The more calls you make the better your odds of finding the next opportunity.  Where you look and what kinds of opportunities you pursue matter also.  But sometimes, it is just creating the right timing by persistent pursuit.  Making a certain number of phone calls, sending a certain number of e-mails, meeting with a certain number of people.  Sound familiar?

In the job transition you are selling yourself.  Put in the time to log enough shots on goal so that one of them will hit the back of the net.  You should put at least 3 hours a day into this effort and more if you are up to it.  Don’t put 12 hours a day into this effort.   That will burn you out and blunt the effectiveness of your efforts.  Choose a time that you will start and a time when you can call it quits…unless you have more good work to do that particular day.  By dedicating a certain amount of time, it is going to help you make the extra calls, send an extra e-mail, search for an extra job posting, etc.   This is probably best done in the morning, but you get to decide what works for your personal life.

You should also find a space to do this work.  You can have some flexibility, but by spending the vast majority of the time in the same place doing the work…it will feel more focused.  When I am in this space, this is the work that I am doing.  If you move all over your apartment or house, you will start to blur the lines between when you are looking for the next job and when you are living your personal life.

There is another benefit to this schedule thing.  The people closest to you will also benefit from this.  The benefits are in a couple different ways.  First and foremost, they will see you focusing time on the job search.  While they care about you, they also care about you being successful in this transition.  If you are not putting the time in, they will question how hard you are trying.  They will try to give you the benefit of the doubt for some period of time, but eventually the questions will creep into their minds.  “Is she really trying to find this new position?”  The other benefit is that they will also know when not to disturb you.  Be supportive, but don’t try to contact them, if possible, during these hours.   The definition of when you have ‘office hours’ will help keep the job search distinct from the personal time.

For your sake and for the people around you.  Set a schedule and stick to the schedule.  One definition of LUCK is when opportunity meets preparation.  Spend the time to find the opportunities and be prepared when they present themselves.