By Tom McKay

You say you don’t even have time to re-type your resume, much less look for a better job? Nonsense!

Your time is precious yet predictable. You get exactly 168 hours per week. When it’s gone, it’s gone forever. To accomplish more, you must take more control over your time.

Begin by doing a time analysis. For a week, keep an accurate diary of exactly where all your time goes, in detail. Be brutally honest! The results will probably shock you. Not only do most of us waste big chunks of leisure time, but we squander dozens of opportunities at work to catch up or even get ahead.  

How many hours a day do you spend watching television? The average American watches over 22 hours a week -- more than one-third of your free time, according to University of Maryland Professor John Robinson. Others lose track of time surfing the Internet. 

Reduce each by half and you’ll have many more hours to devote to your job search and other high priority parts of your life.

If you normally need an hour to get ready for work, can you trim it to 30 minutes? A shorter, simpler hairstyle can shave a half-hour off prep time each morning. That alone would save over three hours a week! Or wash your hair the night before, and it can dry while you write cover letters or scan the classifieds.

If you sleep more than 7-8 hours per night, consider cutting back. Get up one hour earlier each day and really use that time, and you’ll be amazed what you can accomplish. A co-worker of mine back at CBS in Los Angeles wrote 90 minutes each morning before work. In less than two years he had completed a book!

Reclaim your wasted time to hone new skills, take a class, or implement your job search strategy.  

At work, pay attention to those five- and ten-minute nuggets of "transition time" -- the precious minutes frittered away at the coffee machine, chatting with co-workers, waiting for meetings to begin. Don’t forget the time between appointments, traveling from one place to another, on hold, and any time you’re shifting from one activity to another. Recycle those brief transition times into productive time.

What can you do with ten minutes? While it’s probably not advisable to actually look for another job at work, you can accomplish dozens of tasks that keep you from job hunting when the time is right.

Read an article you’ve clipped -- keep a folder of them handy to take advantage of these idle times. Pay bills. Balance your checkbook. Do stretching exercises or lift free weights. 

Update your resume. Make a list of companies you’d like to work for, or jobs you’d enjoy. Mentally rehearse an upcoming job interview. Send a thank-you note to your latest interviewer. Write a letter to your mom. Plan the balance of your workday, prepare for your next appointment or task, organize your purse or briefcase, make or return phone calls. 

The more you can accomplish during these transition times, the more free time you’ll have at home to devote to job hunting.

Or just relax. Yes, that’s important, too. Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths, shut out the world around you and enter a brief period of intense relaxation. Visualize yourself performing the job you’re hoping to get. Repeat a few positive affirmations.

Remember, each moment is a gift. That’s why it’s called "the present". Refuse to squander any more of your precious time, and try to avoid people, places and things that do.

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