What? 2009 a long year? But we’re only a third of the way through! It’s just that even though only few months have gone by, all the miserable employment news has made it feel like a decade to me. I mean could the numbers get any worse? Well, as we struggle to get our economy back on track they just might. On the other hand, maybe we HAVE seen the worst. Unfortunately, my skills as an economic forecaster aren’t all that great and quite frankly, I haven’t heard anyone lately who seems to be much better at it than I am – no matter how much money CNBC pays them to predict the future.
So, while we may not be able to foresee what our financial or employment future holds, we do have control over how we respond to what happens. And if you’re out of work then the right response is Take Action NOW. Yes, I know that is pathetically simplistic. And I’m sure that everyone out there who is unemployed can document all the effort they’ve made to get a job. But when I really take a close look at how my clients are spending their time each day, I typically find hours spent on efforts that have little chance of resulting in a job. Or they’re engaged in mindless distractions, or squandering time on tasks that must be done but that could be done so much more efficiently. There’s a wonderful book by Timothy Ferriss called “The 4-Hour Work Week”. While it was primarily written for entrepreneurs, anyone looking for a job can and should follow Tim’s basic philosphy – that we spend far too much time on things than we really need to.
So, take that principle and apply it to the amount of time you’re spending looking for your next job. Let me start by asking how many hours do you spend each day Online surfing “job porn”? (That’s what I call all those postings on Monster that you’ll apply to but from whom never get a response.) Multiple studies have shown that only a small percentage of jobs are obtained using employment sites. Which means you should only be spending a small percentage of your available job search hours cruising them. Instead, use that time applying my New Networking approach to meet new contacts and follow up with them in a way that builds relationship that eventually leads to job opportunities.
Next, I’d be curious how much time you spend on personal tasks like shopping, cooking, cleaning, and eating? Now I’m not suggesting you cut down from three meals to two in order to save time. But are you as efficient as you can be with that task? Could you prepare enough of one dish that you can have it a few days in a row. (Reheating is a lot faster than cooking something from scratch.) In other words, take a look at every task in your day and really look for ways to get those done faster and more efficiently. That will free up time for your job search. The reason for the focus on efficiency is that job-finding is a numbers game. The more effort you put in, the more real opportunities you’ll come across, and the sooner you’ll be successful. It’s a simple concept but a powerful.
Yes, 2009 hasn’t gotten off to a very good start. But so what. Don’t dwell on how miserable things are – instead take action now to use your time as efficiently as possible. Not only will the time move faster, but in the end you’ll be trading those hours searching for a job with hours ON the job.