Time management and procrastination do not come easily to me.
This makes doing things I don’t want to do so. much. harder.
As a result, I’ve had to develop a lot of strategies to cope and to work on these things.
The strategies below are all my personal strategies but they also are strategies that I share with my clients in my one-week intensive, The Pandemic Edition of Guidance Counselling for Adults.
Why?
Because they can also work for your job search.
What I’ve seen with working over 500 clients over the past few years is that you can know all of the strategies about HOW to job search…
But if you don’t have accountability or a way to deal with procrastination and manage your time, it’s really, really hard to figure out your next step and job search.
The Pomodoro Technique: You can do anything for 25 minutes
If I’m having a really hard time focusing or I don’t want to do something, I use the Pomodoro Technique:
You work for 25 minutes straight and then take a 5 minute break.
Apparently its name relates to the Italian word for tomato, “pomodoro” because it’s based on those tomato kitchen timers things and the kitchen timer (or any timer) is essential to the Pomodoro Technique.
The idea is that you can work on anything – no matter how boring or how hard it is – for 25 minutes.
No distractions, no multi-tasking, no checking your phone.
Then you take a screen-free break for 5 minutes.
And then you set the alarm for another 25 minutes.
You do that for a series of four or five rounds and then you take a longer break for 20 or 30 minutes.
This is actually a strategy I use when I facilitate a coworking session with clients in my one-week intensive, The Pandemic Edition of Guidance Counselling for Adults.
We jump online. Everybody says which GCA homework they’re going to work on during that time. And then we Pomodoro.
If it’s not in the calendar, it’s doesn’t exist
My Google calendar containts my life.
I’m not a naturally organized person, so I try not to make it too complicated so I don’t get bogged down by the process.
I have several Google calendars that I share with various people:
- One for my work
- One for my family that I share with my husband
- One just for me
Sure, sometimes I accidentally add the wrong thing in the wrong calendar but I try give myself permission to be okay with that because getting something in the calendar somehow is better than getting nothing in the calendar.
I live and die by my calendar. So much so that I even send out calendar invites to friends.
Because if it’s not in the calendar, it doesn’t happen.
Time blocking
I time block everything in my calendar.
Not just dates or that kind of thing.
If I need to do a task, I put it in my calendar for the amount of time that it will take as well as some buffer time as well.
If I have to go somewhere (well, when I went places before COVID), I’d actually block in the travel time, when I needed to leave, as well as the travel time home.
I do this for myself but because whoever I’m sharing a calendar with (ie my husband or my assistant), they may need to know how long it’s going to take me to get home or when I’ll be home
Put your phone in another room
I have to find the citation for this but there is research that shows that when you’re touching your phone or have it in your pocket, your brain is constantly staying vigilant looking for an alert.
This means your phone is taking up some of your attention, even when you can’t see it.
The solution?
Put your phone more than one arm’s length away, ideally in another room. And put it on Do Not Disturb so you don’t get any alerts.
Want to stop procrastinating on finding a better job?
These are just a few of my time management and procrastination strategies, ones that I personally use in my life.
I’m not a naturally organized person so I have to develop coping mechanisms to help me do things that I don’t want to do or have been procrastinating on.
And if this sounds familiar, these strategies may be useful for you, too.
They’re also useful for when you’re going through your job search or switching careers.
If you want support – and accountability – with figuring out the next step in your career, check out The Pandemic Edition of Guidance Counselling for Adults and book a time to talk with me.