Last week I shared two tactics that help me get things done.
Here’s a third: make sure you are doing the RIGHT things.
I remember when I was young, just starting my career, I was a mail/file clerk at the FBI. We had various duties but were basically gophers, and got miscellaneous small projects that didn’t require much skill or training.
Sometimes there were projects we were trusted with, which we proudly plowed through, other times we really didn’t have anything to do.
Nothing.
There was always busy work, of course, but who wanted to do that?
So I found something I could work on on my own, and appear busy.
I would organize, and reorganize my file drawer.
I’m not an orderly, organized person, so it’s not like I had a method to my madness. I also wasn’t bugged that it wasn’t amazingly organized to begin with. I was just killing time.
It was meaningless work. There was NO benefit to anyone, my employer or me, to doing that.
Since I’ve become self-employed I’ve had to rethink how I spend every minute of my day.
Reorganizing my files doesn’t bring my company any value. It doesn’t get me new customers, it doesn’t pay any bills, it doesn’t take me towards my goals.
If I were to spend 8 hours a day playing with my files, I would be out of business quickly.
I have certain priorities (stay in business, earn money, etc.) and when decide to spend time on something I ask myself “is this helping me toward my goals?”
Same thing in your job search. If you want a job you have to ask yourself (and respond HONESTLY) “is this helping me in my job search?”
Is doing the honey-do list for six hours during prime job search time helping you in your job search?
Is spending 10 hours a day (like I did) on the job boards helping you in your job search (especially when I knew I was really just hiding from networking)?
Is spending three weeks writing and rewriting and rewriting your resume helping in your job search?
Is ________ really helping in your job search?
Make sure you are doing the right things, not just things that make you feel busy.
Feeling busy does not necessarily equal doing the right things.
Are you doing the right things in your job search?
