Daily Planning--Do you do it? How much time do you spend on it?

Where does planning fit into your world? Do you do it? If so, how much time do you spend on it and what does it entail?

My typical day used to be like this:

Sit down at desk with coffee, start checking email, and jot down the most important things/meetings/interviews I have to do for the day, and then just dive in and go. No real structure or plan and I'd shift gears countless times throughout the day, reacting to whatever was going on. From what I've seen, it's fairly typical for many recruiters.

Last year I made a shift in how I work, and now do as much of the planning and research work off hours, so that when I come in each day, I have a list of who I am calling.

This has resulted in a significant increase in activity, but the planning itself is very time consuming. I still want to keep planning outside of work hours, but would love to do it more effectively in less time.

For those who plan your calls....how much time does it take you and what tips if any do you have to be more effective with your planning so you can get to those names more quickly?

thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Greg on April 4, 2011 at 3:58pm

gotcha. makes alot of sense. so that many calls a day? i agree with the approach. one of the best sales people i know used to bang the phones all day every day. all she did was the marketing side, but without fail was on the phone all day and i do adhere to this being a contact sport...
bill josephson said:

I have specific recruit/marketing pitches with 3 bullets written down I literally read.

Recruiting, One bullet describes the job, one the background sought, one what makes the opportunity attractive.

Marketing, one describes what the candidate does, one about their major background expertise, and one on why they're a special candidate.

I have clients in Defense Engineering, Manufacturing, and Investment Financial Services looking for any people they have requirements for. What they do is make my recruit universe smaller telling me the companies they'd like a person out of, then I systematically recruit from them. So could be Engineers, New Product Design, Regulatory, I/T where I have 20 years specific recruiting experience--whatever they need.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Monastra on April 4, 2011 at 5:18pm

I will say this without having read all the feedback. Planning it time consuming no matter how you slice it. From research, to planning calls, working around set meetings, etc. - there is definite benefit to planning, however doing it off hours can damage your personal time as well which is important for balance. I have started looking at my weeks rather than my days. This allows for better overall planning I have found.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Christopher on April 4, 2011 at 5:38pm

830 am to 1130 power calling. Only make out going calls.

1130 see who has called back and return those call from 1130 to noon

noon to 1230 eat take a walk relax

1230 to 430 power call only make out going calls.

430 return calls

5 to 530 plan your next day

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on April 5, 2011 at 6:55am

Brian,

What is your secret to gettting your planning done in 30 minutes? The biggest time drainer for me is the researching to gather the names of who to call and putting that list together for the next day.

I'm thinking about outsourcing the research piece, does anyone here do that?

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Permalink Reply by Thomas Patrick Chuna on April 5, 2011 at 11:31pm

some planning will take a long time, so that what you do will be effective. Some planning must not be permitted to be time consuming, or else we will never get going.

For example, the time spent identifying pertinent companies in your industry and the hiring managers and passive candidates within is time well spent...do that whenever possible.spend a day on it, speand a week on it, spend an hour here or there to keep adding to the list. organize and rank the companies you find.

Other time well spent is understanding what opportunities your MPC will move for, and devising a plan for you to cogently explain his value to the client.

Some planning shouldn't take more than ten minutes..if you have your market identified, and understand what the companies in it might want, deciding " I will market this MPC to these 10 companies by lunch" becomes a snap decision..if you come up with 100 potential homes for the guy, great, just don't rush through the call because you want to get to the next one. before you go home for the night, pick the first ten you"ll call, and hit the ground running when you get in.

Same with the recruiting side..if you have the list already made up, happy digging. depending on what you need more of ( openings or candidates ) simply devote more hours to what you need.

point is, the list should be already made, organized, and constantly updated with the hiring authorities and potential candidates you want to talk to...this leads to less planning, and more doing.