These days, with a recovering economy and competitive market, time is not something often found lying around. Chances are, you're part of a team that has hunkered down the past couple years and already works 50-60 hours per week. Or maybe you're leading a fast-paced start-up while trying to build a team and still keep a deliverable on target for investors standing over your shoulder.

Either way, it feels like there is not enough time in the day and all you know about the market is that talent is thin, it takes time to find it and more likely than not you're in for a frustrating experience, right? It doesn't have to be that way.

Follow these simple steps to make your next hire feel more like Charlie Sheen (#winning) and less like a helpless child riding the emotional roller coaster of hiring:

1. Be Simon Baker the Mentalist. You have to mentally commit first and foremost. You are hiring. You have an open job which reports directly to you and is officially open and ready to be filled. You will fill this position in a timely manner.
2. Research and Development. Reach out to a trusted resource or two and ask them what they are seeing on the market relevant to your business needs.
3. Facebook, Google, YouTube and you. You have a specific project. You have a budget. If there is a team, then there is chemistry and internal equity to consider. Focus less on a job description that lists all of the skills you'd like the candidate to learn and thus add to your team, and more on the type of person and core fundamentals you want.
4. Use your iCal and Microsoft Outlook Calendar. You have to MAKE time to do interviews. You'll never have time, it has to be made.
5. Speed dating. Interview several candidates representing a cross-section of the available market, also allowing you to compare/contrast them against one another in a reasonable time frame.
6. Capitalism. Let your resources compete; after all, your goal is to hire the best talent, not to worry about the source of the candidate.
7. Momentum. If there is synergy, capture it and move forward. Create your own momentum.
8. Jerry Maguire's "Show me the money." Make an offer to your #1 immediately, keeping http://www.hiringjuice.com/blog/2011/3/4/how-to-extend-job-offers-s... in mind while extending said offer. Move quickly enough that your #2/#3 still feel like part of the process.
9. Be flexible, keep an open mind and stay positive. This is pretty much a philosophy of life, not just hiring.

    

   If you follow these simple steps, like I did when marrying my wife Michaella, you too will find freedom through commitment.