“I am not blessed with patience,” said Kevin when he stepped into my office.  He had been laid off from a Vice-president’s position seven weeks ago, and he was feeling restless, scattered and out of control.  At the end of our time together, he was calmer, more optimistic, and raring to go.  So, why the big shift in demeanor?  One word: Structure.

Structure gives shape to days, meaning to work and enables a sense of accomplishment.  The big “Ah-ha!” for both of us was the realization that most people do better when operating in some kind of structure, and we further realized that Kevin did not have one.  So, we concluded that Kevin needed to transform his current random activity into a purposeful plan so he did not feel he was frittering away his time.  He needed to regain a sense of control over his life.  Therefore, we created a system for him giving his time and his actions purpose.

Here is the process I used with Kevin.  You can adapt it to meet the needs of your own situation:

Step 1: Brainstorm everything you have been doing even remotely connected with finding your next job.  “Everything” includes: reading blogs like this one; scouring job boards online; writing cover letters; rewriting your resume for the millionth time; formal networking activities; informal conversations; time spent researching organizations; phone screens you’ve been through, and even time you have spent worrying or daydreaming.  Write them down in a list.

Step 2:  Create a table with two columns. Label one Types of Activity, and label the other Time Spent in a Week.  Some suggested headings under Types of Activity are: Research; Networking; Online Search; Recruiters; Interviews, and Downtime.  Or, you could analyze further with subcategories.  For example, under Research, you could separate Reading from Talking to People, and under Networking, you could separate First Degree Contacts (ie: People I Know) from Second Degree Contacts (ie: People To Whom I Am Referred).  Be creative, and find categories that work for you.  The point is to get a sense of how much time you are spending (Too much?  Not enough?) and how productive you are being.

Step 3: Now that you see what you are actually doing with your time, the next step is to create another table.  It will probably have similar headings in the first column– unless you discovered you better eliminate some of those Downtime activities! – but, this time, only fill out the Time Spent column.  This is future oriented and will give you a sense of how much time you think you should be spending in each of the categories.  You know yourself best, so be realistic.  Also, make sure your proposed schedule is balanced and contains a bit of stretch.  For those of you motivated by goals, create a third column, and set up some SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, time-based) goals so you have something by which you can track yourself each week.  This also allows you to measure your accomplishment.

Step 4:  This is really important for some people: Find someone or a peer group to hold you accountable.  For some, having the plan is enough.  But, others just need an extra push to keep going and to achieve targets.

Step 5:  Once your efforts start bearing fruit and your job search is in full swing, with a series of meetings or interviews lined up, you’ll need another system or template to help you keep track of your “project.”  Here is what I call the Project Maturity Pipeline which captures the different phases your search goes through after your Research and Networking produce some results.

Create a table with 5 columns.

Column 1: Organizations/Positions of interest

Column 2: Work the network to find people there

Column 3: Start meeting/interview process

Column 4: Deepen interview process

Column 5: Negotiation

This template assumes you are looking at multiple opportunities, that you have a proactive mindset and that you believe there is something you can do to add names to each column.  Of course, whether you are invited to an interview is not up to you, but you don’t have to be passive all along the way. Be very active in columns 1 and 2, and be selectively active in columns 3 and 4 (for example, send well-worded thank you notes, or send gentle reminders – no more than twice – when the process starts to drag).  In column 5, your activity should be getting very clear on what you really want and need and what trade-offs you are willing to make so you can secure both the best job and the best terms possible.

Let me know how this works for you.

Fredia Woolf, Founder of Woolf Consulting, blogs about career and workplace issues.  She provides Leadership coaching and Organizational “seasoning”, spicing up Productivity, Effectiveness, Performance, Personal Engagement, and Results (PEPPER), while enhancing Strategy, Alignment, Leadership, and Teamwork (SALT).  She can be contacted at fwoolf@woolfconsulting.com.

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