Space and time for job searching.

Dear Coach:


I know I should eke out some time for finding a job after graduation. But, frankly, with school and other obligations I feel buried. Any tips?

Buried Alive

Dear Buried:

Of the people I coach I’d say 100% feel overwhelmed at one time or another. In most cases it’s a question of creating space in your life for what you want to occur. Then, assigning a time when you’re committed to making your goal happen.

So what does it mean to create space? Take a good hard look at the where you work. Is the surface of your desk as buried in papers as you feel? Do you even know the color of the rug in your room because there is so much piled on it? Have you given up working on your desk and moved your studying or other work to the dining room table or, worse, to your bed?

Time to back away from the clutter that’s making you feel buried alive.

The first step toward feeling less overwhelmed is to create a clean slate – a dedicated space – where you can work. Put the notes and information for a given course in a file folder or notebook. Put all your bills in another folder. Honestly, you don’t have to be obsessive, just group like things together in a way that makes sense to you. Lest you get overwhelmed by the prospect, start small. Every day file one course’s information or tackle just one thing you’d like to track and put it in the same stack or file.

Nearly every client I’ve had finds this process of clearing the decks invigorating and one that helps them to move away from stuck in overwhelm.

Next, using the same principle of starting small, figure out an amount of time you would happily devote to starting your job search. Keep it small to let you develop your “honoring time” muscle. Could you devote an hour a week to looking at websites related to your career? Or researching companies you really want to work for? Or looking at job ads to see what companies are looking for? Now commit to that one hour more specifically. “For one hour on Sunday afternoon, I’ll commit myself to doing something related to job search.”

If you’re like many of my clients, I think you’ll find honoring the space you need to do what you want and committing specific time toward achieving your goal makes you want to do more. At the very least, you’ll have a clean desk.