Two Hours per Week
How many hours do you think you devote per week to career development?
Benjamin Franklin devoted 5 hours per week to learning a new skill, and former president Barack Obama dedicated one hour to reading every day. If a president can carve out an hour a day for professional development and reading, I think the rest of us can do two hours per week. What keeps us from doing this? Most often, the reason we don’t spend time on our professional development is overwhelm. At the end of a long day, or a long week, the last thing we want to do is spend more time thinking about is work. We’d like to just unwind and take it easy. But the problem is - this attitude of being so overwhelmed by work that we don’t think about it outside of our jobs leaves us with stagnation in our careers. If we’re not spending any time thinking about what we want, and where we’d like to end up, we are leaving our work to chance. It’s time to take an active role in your career planning.
Why two hours?
Because we’re busy! You have a life, and obligations, and it’s important to reset and recharge after busy days at work. But you also have to invest in yourself. Use the two hour rule as a MINIMUM. As in - tell yourself that whatever else happens, you’ll spend at least two hours on your own career development.
But what do I do for two hours?
This, friends, is the sticky question. Because you need to tailor this time to your career goals and your desires. What is it you want to do? And how can you make it happen? Start by utilizing the Zen Career Coach manifestation guide to start to think about what you want. Then, start to do your research to find out what the next best step is.
Examples:
-Tired of commuting? Let’s say you have a dream of working remotely, but you aren’t sure how to do it. Becoming certified in Project Management or working toward your Lean Six Sigma certification could be a good step to get you moving.
-Want to make more money? Perhaps you want to look at continuing your education to find a path that will be more financially rewarding. For the first few weeks into this foray, I’d recommend requesting informational interviews with people in the titles you are considering. Ask them candidly how much they make to start to determine if it would be fruitful for you to pursue education toward the the work they do.
-Ready to be promoted? Perhaps you’d like to grow in your current company or role. This means that you should spend your two hours per week finding ways that you can be more valuable to your company. Remember to utilize the Zen Career Coach manager meeting guide, to ensure your leader is rooting for you in this desired growth.
To find the specifics of how to spend the two hours, we recommend working with a career coach. But in the meantime, just finding out how you can carve two hours out of your week is the first step. Even if you just spend that time scrolling through job postings, that is valuable time spent. Are you a morning person? An evening person? Would you rather work for 30 minutes at a time? Or knock out the full two hours in one sitting? These are the questions you need to ask yourself, in order to make the two hours a week a habit.
