Organizing Your Editing Job Hunt with Technology-Part I

Staying organized with the help of technology is a BIG topic, and one I’m learning more about every single day, so I imagine you will see a million other posts, devoted readers out there.

I will share with you a couple of things about job hunting and not so much editing quite yet. Because you are experiencing this journey with me, I am going to refer to my journey as our journey and use “We experience” not “I experience.” I don’t know–it’s just a good way to make your readers feel included.

First thing–Task Management. There are several on the market, but try to find one. I’m using Todoist, which you can get at Todoist.com. Here’s a snapshot of what it looks like:

Ok, notice that I’ve spent a couple of days getting a feel for the software and how it works. You can break it into categories (like Follow-up emails, phone calls) and link it directly to your Gmail Calendar. Also, what I’ve noticed with Todoist is you can link websites and make them a task. So, when you are surfing the job boards and brush shoulders with a prospective job, you are able to file this as a task and return to it later, instead of dealing with all the bookmark business. I don’t know–whatever works for you. You will just need to install the plug-in for Mozilla Firefox or whatever browser you use:

Again, it is vital in these early stages to stay on task when contacting those publishers. In the next few days, we will be discussing ways to use technology to get in contact with the publishers. As I said, DON’T JUST GO FOR OPENING JOBS–CONTACT ALL PUBLISHERS THAT FIT YOUR NICHE–YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN.

So, use Todoist to stay organized. After all, you are going to be an Editorial Assistant before your an editor (more than likely), that’s how I see it, which demands that you stay extremely organized and “on task.”