Structure Builds Confidence

Remember the first day of first grade? Scary time! It felt veryn strange to be in a new school room with some friends but mostly new kids andn a teacher you had met just that day. It probably didn’t take long ton realize that things would be ok though.

What did the teacher do to make us feel comfortable? She started byn giving each day a structure so that we knew when our group would ben reading, when we had our milk and cookies, when it was music time and whenn it was recess. Knowing what to expect each day, made us feel confidentn and comfortable.

Just as that structure helped for first grade, a structure in our workn life can help us today. What kind of structure do you have in you
work or job search to make you feel confident and comfortable? Have youn made a schedule that has blocks of time allotted to your activities?
Most people do use a schedule to keep track of appointments with others.
How about using it to keep track of appointments with yourself?

Tom was searching for a new job. When I asked him what he did eachn day, he told me the major portion of his day was spent applying for jobsn on line. Tom said he also made calls to his network and followed up onn jobs he had applied for.

He identified all the tasks he needed to do but at the end of the dayn he had the feeling he had not accomplished much.

Frequently Tom got caught up in the online application and/or researchn process and never got to making calls or follow up. Does that happenn to you?

With a daily schedule Tom blocked out times to do the differentn activities necessary to complete his job search tasks. His schedule ended atn 3pm so he had time to workout or do something for himself.

Now he could look at his schedule at the end of the day to see what hen had accomplished. In addition he could start the day knowing exactlyn what he was going to be doing. Of course it takes commitment to stickn to the schedule rigorously.

Just like the first grade structure this new job search structure made
Tom feel in control and confident. Sure he still needed to find workn and being out of a job was scary but now that he was really focused onn the job search he had confidence he would find something.

Mary became a client because her practice was not growing. She gotn some referrals but she never had time to market her practice. She saidn she was just too busy doing the work.

The amount of time Mary decided she needed to spend on marketing wasn relatively small because she had a good referral base – maybe 3 or 4n hours a week at most. Sometimes the marketing activity was a breakfast orn lunch with a referral source; other times it was a couple of phonen calls to prospective or former clients. She sometimes used the time ton work on writing an article for a publication.

What helped Mary most was to see that she could complete her work ifn she stuck to the schedule. Mary chose marketing activities that were funn for her so that she looked forward to them as a nice break from hern legal work.

I use this method myself. I make my schedule on Monday morning from myn active project list. (My client appointments are already on myn calendar.) Some of my clients choose to make their schedule on Friday beforen they leave for the weekend. A few have decided that it is an activityn they can do late Sunday afte
oon. Choose a time that works for you andn then create your schedule and stick to it. Another benefit to doingn this is that you’ll begin to schedule outside or client appointments ton allow you to have blocks of time for your desk or computer work.

Take Actio

1. Take a few minutes at the end of the day today to decide what youn must do tomorrow. Block out the time to complete the work on you
calendar. See how it works for you? If you feel it supported you, move onn to #2.
2. Decide on a day at the end or beginning of the week to write an schedule for the whole week. Be sure to look two or three weeks out to known exactly what is coming up so you do the necessary work.
3. Make a list of fun activities you have wanted to do regularly butn have never had the time. Perhaps it is working out, going for a walk,n reading a book, or meditating. Fit one or two into your schedule as an reward for yourself. Commit to working the schedule.
4. Systems such as scheduling time are important to every business.
What other systems are necessary for your business? Here is a top tenn list I wrote on that topic http://www.asparker.com/ppts0507.html