How to Stop Procrastination During Your Job Search

Have you thought about how procrastination affects your job search success? Performing a job search is tough enough on the ego if you receive numerous rejections.

Job searching is hard work for many job seekers without an active and supportive network.

More often than not, you will hear a lot of familiar phrases like ‘no vacancies,’ ‘not now,’ or anything else that sounds like an organization is not looking for new employees. As a result, job seekers tend to downgrade the importance of job searching tasks because they think they will return to it later when it gets easier.

Until you try to fight your tendency to postpone action until a later date, you’re making it more difficult for yourself to find work.

What I know as a resume writer and a career coach…

If job seekers have an accomplishment-based, skill-based resume to showcase their value to an organization, their job search will end quickly.

Why?

When you write a compelling resume, you will increase interview confidence and fully understand the worth you can bring to an organization.

One way or another, people who recently lost their jobs develop their motivators (like the need to pay rent and other bills) against procrastination when they perform a job search compared to those still employed. If you still have a position, putting off your job-hunting tasks is much easier because it’s not a necessity to secure a new job. Maybe you haven’t realized the misery of living without a job to support your needs.

Procrastination is a form of inaction, and using some vital steps to help combat it will bring you closer to the perfect job. To help you fight the tendency not to take action, here are some helpful tips you can follow in your job search.

Set Reasonable Deadlines

One of the most effective ways to curb procrastination is to set deadlines for your job-hunting tasks, even if they seem artificial.

If you spend full-time hours in your job hunting activities, set yourself daily or weekly deadlines and make it a point to meet them. For example, at the beginning of the first week of your job hunting, send out as many resumes as possible and give them a specific deadline. Make your deadline calendar a method to track your progress. If you have a career coach helping with your job hunt, tell them about your self-imposed deadlines; they will help you meet them.

Take Baby Steps

Small steps matter a lot and can further your job search progress. This, in turn, will help you avoid succumbing to procrastination. Even with little progress, you know you are making a difference in your job hunting. If job hunting seems like a monumental task for you, break it into small, manageable tasks, enabling you to accomplish things by the end of every week.

Procrastination can hamper the success of your employment search. Learn what can help you avoid it, and you will be on your way to finding the correct position.

How do you avoid procrastinating during a job search? Comment and share below! If you need additional help, reach out to Candace for assistance!