Can Your Business or Job Search Benefit from Planned Neglect

Can Your Business or Job Search Benefit from Planned NeglectCan Your Business or Job Search Benefit from Planned Neglect1Imagine this scenario (or perhaps its familiar enough that you can recall it)Youre a freelancer working on deadline. Like many self-employed people, you work from home. But as you prepare to sit down at your desk and start cranking out your clients deliverable, you suddenly elendice a stack of bills off to the left of your computer, waiting to be processed and paid. As youre wondering whether you should squeeze in that task before firing up your brainpower for your work project, you see out of the corner of your eye that your clothes hamper is overflowing in the other room. Why not just throw in a load of laundry before getting started? you think to yourself.The saatkorn types of decisions may confront you if youre conducting a job search. Youve identified three positions online that youd like to apply for. But since youre understandably working from home on findin g a job, youre surrounded by countless other possibilities of how you might spend your time. Whether its trying to keep up with domestic tasks, getting some exercise, or indulging in the guilty pleasure of surfing online, the reality is that you only have so much focused time and attention to direct toward your goals each day.This is where the concept of planned neglect can be a lifesaver- or at least a career saver. The idea behind planned neglect is that when you feel overwhelmed with a plethora of potential things to do each day, you can strategize being mora productive and successful in the most important area(s) to you by purposely planning to ignore the rest of the noise.By channeling all of your efforts and attention toward the goals that matter most to you during any given period in your career or job search, you can harness that much more time and energy for what really matters.Here are some examples of how to practice planned neglect, whether you currently are self-employe d, are engaged in a job search, or have a full-time positionLeave chores for after hours or the weekend.One of the biggest ways to recoup your focus and avoid the fragmented feeling that can come when working from home is to stop doing housework when youre on the clock with your business tasks. Your peers with full-time jobs arent dividing their time in the office between vacuuming and making sure that a report gets written- so why should freelancers or job seekers shortchange their billable hours or most productive thinking blocks?It may feel strange at first to just leave the dishes in the sink or the bed unmade, but with the tool of planned neglect, you can get used to it quickly. Planned neglect doesnt mean youll never get the chores done- it just means youll select a specific time to circle back and tackle these tasks, and you wont touch them until then. Its no different, really, than what an office worker is forced to do when he rushes out of the house in a flurry to catch his bus without tidying up beforehand. Hell take care of it after work. You can benefit from this same efficiency by using planned neglect to help you channel your energy toward getting business done, rather than becoming distracted and less productive by splintering your energy in a million different directions.Designate specific times for breaks.When you have the flexibility of working or job searching from home, you might feel compelled to squeeze in a workout or do something else you enjoy, like scrolling through social media, during a critical part of your workday. While your flex schedule does make this possible, the problem with interpreting your flexible hours too literally is that you may end up scrambling to finish your most important goals.Use planned neglect to set aside specific break times that you can use however you wish. If you know you have a half hour carved out later in the day for your activity of choice, youll have an easier time putting your mind to the hard stuf f first.Calendar errands and repeated tasks.This form of planned neglect can work as well for full-time employees as for freelancers or job seekers. Everyone has certain personal appointments and errands that must get done one way or another. But instead of leaving this scheduling to chance, take the approach of planned neglect and batch them for a certain time in the day, or a specific day of the week or month. That way youll have the rest of the hours available to go deep into the work that really needs to get finished, whether thats scheduling networking meetings during your job search or putting all of your attention into finalizing a spreadsheet.If the thought of leaving these other random life tasks undone while you focus on your work makes you nervous, just remind yourself youre not forgetting to do these things or ignoring them permanently. Youre just postponing them to help you achieve your larger goals.Know someone looking for a job? Refer a friend to with this link- youll get a month free service and theyll get 30% off