On the job hunt: Schedules

Creating a schedule for finding a job is something I have found extremely useful and motivating. This goes beyond setting goals and making lists - although I recommend doing those things, too. Creating a schedule helps keep you on task and prevents you from spending the entire day watching daytime television (which I condone only if I've first done everything I could possibly do in support of my job search for that day, you've got to reward yourself!).

My first step in creating a schedule is listing everything you want to accomplish during your unemployed-free time. Here is a sample of the things I included in my "must-do" list:

1. check job post sites (will post my favorites at a later date)
   
2. check companies' career web pages
   
3. read Google alerts on targeted companies
4. read industry news every day
5. networking - examples include: e-mail my contacts, connecting with people on LinkedIn, setting up informational interviews, attending industry events, etc.
   
6. Twitter - both posting and following (I use TweetDeck to organize and follow important topics/people).
7. Read for fun at least 1 hour each day
8. Cook 2-3 times each week (which also entails finding recipes and planning the meal)
9. blogging
10. miscellaneous personal branding (includes improving resume, updating LinkedIn profile and Twitter account, commenting and connecting on Brazen Careerist, blogging, etc.)

Then decide how often you need to do each task. Frequency depends on not only your schedule, but also realistically how often should you be doing each task? For example, I don't check the same job posting sites everyday because realistically I can afford to find a posting a day or two after it is posted. It is easier - for me at least - to search job posting sites a couple times a week to make sure I'm on top of recent postings than to search everyday and maybe waste time doing so because there are no new posts.  This is how I break down the frequency of doing all these activities:

• 3, 4, 6, and 7 are things I do everyday
• 1, 2, and 5 are things I do 1-2 days per week
  
• 8, 9, and 10 are flexible depending on my schedule
  

It's also important to remain flexible. If you have a meeting or need to run errands, scale back on activities for that day and beef-up your efforts the day before or day after.

Here is an example of a typical Monday for me: read Google alerts on targeted companies, catch up on e-mails, check LinkedIn and Agency Spy for new job postings, read industry news,  break for breakfast/lunch, work on some personal branding or job applications, read for fun, and cook a meal for dinner before watching House and Monday Night Football. And I'm on Twitter throughout the day.

I'm a visual person, so here is an example of a schedule:

 

I find it's easiest to create a separate calendar for job search activities (I use Google Calendars, which I love because I can assign a different color to each of my calendars - personal, job search, sports, TV, etc).

Hope this is helpful. Really it's about forcing yourself into a routine so you don't become your former college-slacker self. Once you set-up a schedule and stick to it for a couple of weeks, these activities will become a natural part of your day. You may even get so good at it that you find you have time to squeeze in more activities! Remember to be flexible, but stay on-task. If you get in the mind-set of holding yourself accountable for completing all your tasks it will certainly be rewarding in the end.