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Attention
business owners, corporate executives and professionals:
During Career Change, Time Management Is a Whole New Ball
Game
Summary: Usually
we’re most productive when we focus on one thing at a time. We avoid
distraction. But when you enter a transition zone, you discover how to
juggle several balls in the air. And often your best guidance comes in
the form of a surprise that completely changes your well-planned
schedule.
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You’re considering a whole new career change. Maybe you’d like to
return to school or even start a business. You’re feeling overwhelmed.
What should you do first?
Most of us want a linear, step-by-step guide to our next career. We
want to begin with introspection, filling out forms that list our
values. We want to take tests. Occasionally a client even asks, “Do you
have a test that will tell me what to do for the rest of my life?”
These questions make sense if you’re coming from ten or twenty years in
a corporate setting. I like to compare corporate life to pro football:
team members get rewarded for following a game plan and being in the
right place at the right time. Your teammates don’t want surprises.
But when you enter your
transition zone, your game begins to resemble playground basketball.
No rules. No referee. Fight for your playing time.
The first thing that goes is your step-by-step, one-thing-at-a-time
approach that served you so well in the corporate world. Now you learn
to juggle several balls in the air. You have to risk distraction
because you need to be open to new and innovative ideas.
(1)
Get ready to be surprised.
During the exploration phase of a job search, I recommend keeping
several irons in the fire. You might be considering careers in
marketing or consulting – and wondering if you should return to school
to become a lawyer or librarian.
Following one trail to the end may take weeks, even months. If you
arrive at a dead end, you’ll have nothing to show for your efforts.
So make career search your priority and focus your efforts in this
direction. But you’ll probably have to juggle two or three specific
searches.
And believe it or not, research shows that most career-changers find
their next niche by serendipity. They’re interviewing for information,
surfing the Internet and attending workshops.
And then a neighbor says, “My sister just finished her degree in
biomedical engineering” and you say, “Wow! That sounds perfect for me.”
(2)
Recognize your working style.
Some people need to jump back and forth between activities to keep from
getting bored and restless. Often gifted and creative clients report
this pattern.
If you’re getting things done, you may have found your natural work
style. But if you have half a dozen half-finished projects, you need to
raise a red flag.
Once again, think priorities. Are you spending most of your time on
your most important projects? Or do you get distracted by
non-essentials?
For instance, if you’re just starting a new business, you may work on
multiple projects, but all serve your main goal of getting yourself
established in the market.
(3)
Choose a career that matches your working style.
Some careers require multi-tasking. Within one week, a college
professor might (a) teach an introductory overview course, (b) lead a
graduate seminar on a narrow topic, (c) design a research experiment,
(d) revise a paper for a journal, (e) give a talk to a community group
and (f) participate in committees to recommend procedural changes. And
they’re also advising students, planning next semester’s class and a
whole lot more.
Similarly, a trial lawyer may supervise interns, teach a class, appear
in court, take a deposition and conduct research.
If you thrive on variety and can keep a dozen balls in the air, you’ll
love these careers.
But often you can customize your schedule to meet your unique needs to
balance focus and multi-tasking.
• When “Samantha” consults with live clients, she has
a hard time returning to her research and writing projects. So she
decides to schedule all her clients, back-to-back, on Tuesdays and
Thursdays, leaving her other workdays free to commune with her computer.
• “Vincent” needs variety. After giving a
presentation, he’s eager to return to quieter tasks. He schedules
presentations for morning and writes in the afternoon. He may even
break up his day with client consultations.
• “Ken” prefers to focus, but realizes he can’t
follow a rigid schedule while job hunting. He decides to focus on the
most urgent activities for two hours each day. And he hires a coach to
be sure he stays focused.
Bottom Line: Choose
a career that supports your preferred working style. Look up every so
often to see if your style is working – based on what you’re
accomplishing, not on what “everyone else” is doing.
This article is based on Cathy’s 21-Day Time Management Makeover:
http://www.cathygoodwin.com/timebook.html
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Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., works with midlife corporate executives,
business-owners and professionals who want to win their Second Career
Game. Cathy has created the 21-Day Extreme Career Makeover and authored
Making the Big Move: Transforming
Relocation into a Creative Life Transition.
Fr*e Download: Why most career change fails
(and how you can write your own success story).
http://www.cathygoodwin.com/subscribe.html
http://www.cathygoodwin.com/21days.html
cathy@cathygoodwin.com or (206) 819-0989
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