Earlier this week we talked about the power of incremental choice and how you can achieve big things through focusing on the individual daily choices that you make that bring you either closer to or farther from your goal.
So how do we apply this concept to job search?
- Track your job search activities. Keeping a spreadsheet or log of your job search activities helps you organize your follow-up and remember which positions you have applied to where, but it also helps you quantify your efforts. As you go about your day, you’re making continual choices on how to spend your time, and this can help you monitor how consistently you’re choosing productive job search activities.
- Be aware of opportunities you say no to. If you don’t apply for a position, don’t contact a company you’d like to work for, or don’t attend a networking event, you’ve made a choice. There are always legitimate reasons to say no — time management, values, focus, etc. — but if you’ve said no despite your job search goals, did that choice bring you closer to getting your perfect job, or farther away?
- More fully embrace those opportunities you say yes to. When you decide to invest your time in an activity, you can know with a level of certainty that it’s because it benefits your job search, rather than because it happened to catch your attention at the time (“ooh, shiny!”).
It’s impractical to do for every decision that you make, but before you devote substantial time or energy to an activity, think about your job search plan and ask yourself:
Is this part of my path, or is it a diversion from it?
photo credit: Gret@Lorenz
Related posts:
- Incremental choice and your priorities: Get what you want faster
- Seth Godin: Incremental Choice and mediocrity
- The Power of Incremental Choice
- Daily leadership: Incremental choice and relationship building
- Not getting the job you want? Double your efforts
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