Feel like you’re getting nowhere, even though you’ve been working hard? Start charting your progress, says Graduate Fog. It’s all about having a system.

One of the things that makes job-hunting so tough for graduates is that you have no way to pace yourself. You don’t know how long you’re going to be jobless for. You might get a call tomorrow saying your search is over – or you might still be plugging away in three months’ time. Which is why, as boring as it sounds, organising your job hunt is key to hanging on to your marbles through this strange, uncertain period in your life.

Why not just get cracking – and then press on? Surely all this ‘getting organised’ business is a waste of time, no? Fine then – you try it. And come back in a week when you notice your motivation sliding and your productivity nose-diving.

Three reasons it’s vital to get organised:

- You can keep track of the nuts and bolts of your job hunt. You’re going to be spinning a lot of plates – so having a central log of information (in whatever form works for you) is vital. Know exactly what’s happening and when – and say goodbye to coronary-inducing application deadline panics.

- You’ll spot vital clues to what’s working and what isn’t. As we explain in How to Find Vacancies, using lots of different techniques is vital to job-hunting success. Different methods work for different industries. By charting what you’ve done (and what the outcome was) you can see with your own eyeballs which techniques you need to ditch – and which you should be doing more of. Remember, your time and energy are finite resources. Use them wisely.

- You’ll have proof of your achievements – even if you don’t yet have a job. On those rough days, it’s easy to forget everything you’ve done – and just see a big fat Zero. Looking back over all the work you’ve done will show you how hard you’ve worked. So, you’re still hunting. You’re smarter than you were when you started hunting.

NEXT: MY JOB HUNT IS A MESS – HOW CAN I GET ORGANISED?

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