5 Simple Ways to Find 9 Hours of Job Search Time Per Week
Do you want more time to look for a job? Would you like to find 9 hours of job search time per week? Do you find yourself asking yourself these questions?
“How am I supposed to look for a job, when I’m employed?”
“Finding a job is a full-time job…and I already have a job. How am I supposed to do this?”
Sounds familiar? It’s a perplexing dilemma in today’s world of overscheduling, multitasking, and super-achieving. But there is help. These strategies and tools have been proven to generate at least 9 hours a week that can be used for job hunting, when these tactics are employed consistently and diligently.
Are you ready for the challenge? Here goes – 5 ways to find more hours for your job search:
(1) Turn off all notifications on your smartphone and your computer. (Earnings 2.5 hours minimum)
This is not as easy as it sounds. It can be a multi-stage process and may actually take a couple of weeks to figure out. First of all, just turning off Notification Center for a particular item (eg email, Facebook) doesn’t necessarily mean you won’t get notifications anymore… oh no. There is more to do. In addition to that, you need to disable the alert style (to avoid getting banner alerts) and the Badge app icon (or you will get the icon popup notification number which can make your notification addiction frenzy again) .
These steps must be followed for EVERY app/feature on your iPhone. This elimination of constant distractions (SQUIRREL!) can save about 10 seconds checking each notification, about 150 notifications per day conservatively, which is a savings of 2.5 hours per week (10 seconds x 150 notifications x 7 days) .
(2) Unsubscribe from newsletters. Or at least get them out of your main email account. (Earnings 3.25 hours per week).
Unsubscribe from newsletters you haven’t read for more than a week after receiving them. And others you read/scan for professional development and general interest, please redirect them to another dedicated email address just for newsletters. Some have decided to use Feedly as an alternative to Google Reader. Gmail users can now use sorting and prioritizing features to move newsletters to another area. Choose your poison, but do it now.
The good news: Your email may slow down to the point where you feel like you need to check that your email is working occasionally. (Can you say detox?) The time saved by not reading these emails on the fly, being interrupted, and having to refocus on a project at hand can be quite significant. At least 45 minutes per day, or 5.25 hours per week. Instead, schedule two 1-hour slots per week to read the articles in the designated newsletter email account. And since you’re focused on reading, you can create definite action items from the newly absorbed knowledge. Net time saved? 5.25 hours minus 2 hours is 3.25 hours saved.
(3) Establish job search processes and systems to streamline your time. (Earnings 1.25 Hours)
Not having to create letters, personalize resumes, and other communications from scratch each time will easily save you 1.25 hours a week. For example, if you send 5 shipments per week and each one takes 45 minutes (3.75 hours), if you set up custom templates for the document types you use most often and don’t start customization from scratch, you can easily cut that time. of application by 33%, or a saving of 1.25 hours.
The suggested processes to create are:
• Save your resume as a personal template with highlighted sections to customize every time, but in a simple way that saves you time. Once you’ve made all your customizations, save that version of your resume to a named resume file for easy future search.
• Have multiple templates of your personal cover letters created (ie Formal, Job Posting Response, Networking, Recommended by So-in-So). Like the tip above, don’t start your customizations from the beginning every time. Have template variations made with the common changes you make and start your customization later in the process, saving you time.
• Organize your time and applications with an Excel spreadsheet or applications like ApplyMate or JibberJobber to track contact dates, contacts made, and future actions to take.
(4) Set up job alerts to get the right jobs sent to you. Don’t troll job boards. (Easy 2 hours/week of time savings).
The most popular and specialized job boards have an alert function. On Google, you can set up Google alerts, where common searches you do for job openings can receive search results periodically. There’s no greater time waster than scrolling through long job listings looking for the right jobs to apply for.
(5) Finally, and this is the most important step, you have to prioritize it.
Learn to say ‘no’ to commitments that don’t support your ability to create time for your job search. If you don’t prioritize it, no one else will. Not your spouse, not your co-workers, not your executive coach, not your responsible partner, not your manager, not your children, not your friends…no one will prioritize this for you. So you need to protect your time and protect it with your life. Saying ‘no’ is the most powerful way to achieve this. If you want to do a job search, you will. There’s no ‘time saver’ for this step, per say, but if your head is focused on your job search, you’ll find a way to make time for it.
Hopefully, these tips will help you find more time to search for a job and land the job you’ve been looking for. Another great tip is to find a professional resume writing and job search service to help you with your job search. They can save you a considerable amount of time by providing you with a great targeted resume.