The holiday frenzy may be over, but the new year often rings in an organizing frenzy that can eat up free time. Organizing strategies and tips that are meant for your pantry, closets, laundry room, storage spaces, and other areas also can be perfect when searching for a new career.

Here are three ways you can organize your search for a new profession (and after you’re done, go ahead, use them in your home, too).

1. Do it in intervals.
Plunging into a search for a new career can be overwhelming – just like trying to organize a year’s worth of photos, children’s art projects, or receipts for your taxes. Make time to research career options and the type of education programs you’ll want to pursue by returning to school, but don’t expect to do it all in one day. Spending a couple of hours at a time can keep you energized throughout the process.

2. Get help.
Bounce ideas of someone you trust and who will support you in your career endeavors. Whether it’s a spouse, parent, best friend, or colleague, having someone to help you during the process can motivate you, especially if you ever want to give up your search.

3. Tackle one area at a time.
In your home, you don’t want to jump from one area, like the kitchen, to the bedroom closet to the garage or the kids’ playroom, until you’re done with the other one. That just leads to chaos. To avoid a chaotic career search, start off by focusing on your passions and the types of occupations that fit with those passions (you can also take career assessments to help you with this part of the process), then go onto researching salary and job potential, then degree programs. As you tackle these decisions, set up a system by creating folders on your computer, smartphone, tablet, or in your paper files, to make sure that you lose any valuable research.

Taking these steps can help you keep focused on your career search and finding the profession of your dreams.

-Lori Johnston