How far back to look for jobs?

[heather_lusk]

When looking at jobs, particularly in the morning or after a weekend, I often find several that fit my skills and wouldl like to apply for them. But if the job is more than 24 hours old should I simply assume it's too late to apply even if it doesn't show someone's been hired? Is 12 hours too old?
During typical working hours I've been checking as often as hourly. As a relatively new user I'm still trying to figure out the best way to fit Upwork into my schedule without it consuming all of my time. I'd prefer not to be checking evenings and weekends, but if that means I shouldn't apply to overnight posts perhaps it's best to check each evening as well?
Thanks for thoughts on this.

[wlyonsatl]

Heather,

I usually do a search for new projects once every day or two, if I'm not already busy with enough jobs to keep me busy.

I see lots of (3, 4 or more) new job postings every day in my specialties, so I usually see no reason to look at jobs that are more than 1 day old. But if I see a project that is dead center in the types of work I am best at, I'll apply even if it is more than a day old and there have not already been 20 or more proposals submitted for it.

This year I'll probably submit about 450 - 500 proposals, about half to two-thirds of which are probably from client invitations and the rest coming through the work search function.

Good luck!

[kfarnell · Accepted solution]

Heather L wrote:

But if the job is more than 24 hours old should I simply assume it's too late to apply even if it doesn't show someone's been hired? Is 12 hours too old?

No.  As bids aren't shown in the order they're made, unless the project specifically says something about *real* urgency, within 24 hours is plenty fast enough.

Though how old depends on what you're looking for.  I've found that the larger or more specialised the project, the longer people take to award it, irrespective of how many bids there are.  I usually only look 3 or 4 days back, but it depends on when I last looked. Sometimes, it can be up to a week. It doesn't seem to make a whole lot of difference to my getting it or not.