The 6-Word Post-It Note To Speed Up & Fix Your UX Job Search

Sarah Doody (00:00)

In a world obsessed with trying to hack productivity with AI, crazy morning routines and habit stacking, the best productivity tool might just be the good old fashioned Post-It Note.

Now, about 10 years ago, I was working on a business, my own business, and I was trying to do all of the things. I was creating content. I was redoing my website. I was writing marketing emails. I was trying to figure out who my ideal customer was. I was doing a ton of research. I was experimenting with workshops and offers that I thought would resonate with these people. And I was just

soloing all of this. And I was working a lot and I was telling myself I was being productive because I was working 10, 12 hours a day. But I had hired this business coach to help me with a few parts of starting this business. And when he heard what I was doing, he said, okay, Sarah, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to write this phrase on a post-it note and put it on your computer.

And the six words he told me to write were, is this a revenue generating activity? And here’s why that was powerful for me. Because when I was starting that business, there was so many things I could do, right? There was a lot that needed to be done. And then there was a lot that my very creative and curious mind wanted to do. And when you’re starting a business,

one of the most important things is to figure out how do you get revenue, right? How can this make money? The business cannot exist without money. And so him telling me to write those words, is this a revenue generating activity helped provide this very simple reminder of this Post-It note that I would keep on my computer at my desk. And then if I went to a coffee shop, I would literally take that Post-It note and put it on my laptop.

So that reminder was always with me. And when I had to stare at that question all day, every time I looked at my computer, it was a very important filter for how I spent my time that day. And it helped me not go down the path of doing other activities that might be interesting, that I actually might be good at, but…

for what the business needed at that stage of the business, the business needed revenue. It needed me to figure out what offers would resonate with which audiences. And that’s why that is this revenue generating activity was game changing for me. And it helped me avoid that trap of doing things, spending time where I was.

feeling productive, right? Because at the end of an eight hour day or 12 hour day, I think, wow, I did a lot. But previously, I couldn’t say yes. Today was spent on revenue generating activities versus after creating that Post-It and having that focus, I was more clearly able to look back on a day and think, yes, everything I did today or

70 % of the things I did today were revenue generating activities. And it helped me get out of this trap of staying busy versus doing things that move the business forward because it’s so easy to kind of hide out in the comfortable tasks or the fun tasks. But oftentimes those tasks are not what our business needs. And you may not have a business, but I’m telling you this because

Your job search is like a business and job seekers do the exact same thing as I did as an entrepreneur 10 years ago. You spend hours of your day and week on your job search and you’re exhausted and you’re burnt out and you’re trying to do all of the things, right? But are you doing the right things? And so

I would encourage you to grab a Post-It note and write, is this a, and then fill in the blank. Maybe it’s, is this helping me finish my resume? Is this helping me finish my portfolio? Is this helping me get closer to an interview?

is this helping me finish my LinkedIn profile, right? And this Post-It note, it might change on a weekly basis as you actually finish these things that you are trying to finish. So figure out what your equivalent of is this a revenue generating activity is for your job search because I guarantee you it’s gonna provide an amazing level of accountability and focus that you’re probably lacking right now.

tweaking your portfolio for the fifth, sixth time, right? Redesigning it, messing with the fonts, playing with the layouts. Is that gonna get you closer to the interviews or getting hired? Maybe, but probably maybe not. There’s probably other things in your job search that need your attention, right? Same thing with your resumes. Same thing for just hanging out in Slack groups and Discord groups and wherever.

There are so many places where your job search is probably just leaking time. And this Post-It note is going to help you not waste time. So you can spend your time and energy on the things that are actually gonna get you closer to your goals. Because it is so easy, like I said, to sit down to tweak your portfolio for a Saturday afternoon. But at the end of that,

Do you have anything really to show for that, right? What is the difference between the portfolio you had at 10 a.m. versus the one you had at 3 a.m.? If it’s just that you played around with some fonts and rearranged some of the layouts, it’s probably not enough of a change to make an impact. So what is the equivalent of my Post-it note that you need to make for your job search? Because

The enemy of getting hired is when you get caught in the trap of false sense of productivity. And false sense of productivity happens when you spend time, but when that time is over, you don’t have anything meaningful to show. You didn’t do anything that moved you closer to your goals.

All right, so if you decide to make this Post-it note, I would love to see what yours says. So do me a favor, take a photo of it, or just send me a message on LinkedIn and tell me what your Post-it note says. I’m really curious to see what you write down because 10 years ago, if this person had not told me to put this Post-it note on my laptop and my computer and take it with me when I went to coffee shops and went on trips and stuff like that, I…

may not be where I am today because I would have got distracted with so many other things that I could have been doing, but what my business didn’t need in that moment. And chances are you are stuck in your job search because you’re doing things that you can do, but are not what your job search needs you to do right now. So find me on LinkedIn. I’m very easy to find. Just

look me up, Sarah Doody, and send me either a photo of your post-it note or just a message letting me know what is on your post-it note.

You don’t need to spend more time on your job search. You just need to spend your time on the right things. Sometimes making progress is not about embracing tech and trends. It is just about getting back to basics. And this is why I’m a huge fan of just writing the one thing on a Post-It note to help us avoid distractions. And when we avoid distractions, we make progress faster. All right, so.

That is all for today. I will see you on another episode of the Career Strategy Podcast very soon.