When I switched to recruiting (nearly three years ago), my advantage was my emotionality. Later it had to be polished by Getting Things Done (GTD). As I wanted to be everywhere and help everyone, I didn’t have time to complete scheduled tasks in an 8-hour day. Overtime schedule suddenly led to burnout. So I:
1. Read the advice of David Allen (he also started GTD) on how to organize things. You can download one of the books using the Telegram bot.
2. Recorded all my actions in google spreadsheets during the week, even going to the toilet. Then I understood that my time was eaten up by stops to talk to colleagues.
3. Followed the Pomodoro technique, used "do not disturb" stickers, asked colleagues to send everything via email.
I also tried Wunderlist and Slack helper bots. Evernote was only for personal notes.
Now I have 3 habits:
1. All business and personal (!) meetings / calls / trips are written in the calendar. In this way, I developed a habit and took away the unnecessary load of the memory — I am against cluttering the brain and home. Believe me, later friends will ask you to send invitations to the calendar :)
2. For team tasks we use Trello. I also have a separate board with my personal tasks. Besides, my husband and I planned our last trip via this tool.
3. To track the time for a specific task, I use Forest. I indicate the time and the virtual tree starts to grow. If I open Facebook or any other social network on my phone, the tree will die.
Frankly speaking, it was not easy to manage my time during the first months of remote work. I lost a sense of the distinction between home and work, even though I worked in coworking spaces and cafes from time to time.
And finally, I want to show you how a day in the life of a recruiter looks like (here should be an emoji drinking cocktail with a laptop):
5:30-7:30
Morning awakening, gymnastics, breakfast, etc. + 15 minutes to read a book.
7:30-8:00
I plan my day and look through professional channels on Telegram for 15 minutes. Here is my list:
Ukrainian Sourcing Community (Friday news)
8-8:30
I check my mail, Skype, LinkedIn, Facebook. I reply to messages immediately and do not accumulate them. I have notifications with a pop-up window about emails (I unsubscribed from unnecessary mailings) and Telegram messages (channels are muted) on my laptop. Also, on IN and FB I reject applications from strangers and without cover letters.
8:30-10:30
I work with the first position. On average, I work with three positions, and I allocate time for work with each ~ 1,5-2 hours.
10:30-11:15
On-line communication with Team Lead (if it is Monday).
11:15-14:00
I analyze the conversation and move to the second position.
14:00-15:00
Lunch, walk + audiobook (podcasts on the phone), read / watch YouTube.
15:00-17:00
I work with the third position.
17:00-17:15
Results of the day.
19:30-20:15
Of course, my perfect schedule is diluted with writing a job description and posting it in profile groups on Skype, Facebook, Gitter, Telegram + longer communication with candidates / personal correspondence with friends / cat coming to my knees / discussing a new task and re-planning. But these moments are uncritical, compared to a pause in the work when the candidate rejects the offer. Then I take a few hours to distract-switch
Recruitment is also diluted with tasks with analytics (when you need to analyze the market of candidates with a certain stack) and watching webinars from eTutor Academy, HeadHunter, Amazinghiring or the latest MarHR marathon.
In general, time flies imperceptibly when there is an inspiration to create team stickers until 2 a.m. or pass the next stage of Sourcing Games.
This is it — #souldrivenhiring :)
