There’s an old adage that “looking for a job is harder than working.” How true! The rigors of the job search are magnified by the turmoil we experience: lack of self-confidence, humiliation, financial pressure, and the undercurrent of emotions that color everything we do: fear, anger, depression, anxiety, loss.
One practical step we can take to reduce stress and conserve our energy to find work, without fueling our bloated worries, is to manage our time effectively. Have you ever noticed that you get more done when you’re busy? If time is limited, we squeeze those additional demands because we know they must be met before a deadline and we are afraid to postpone them. When time is unlimited, like when you take a few days off work, there’s no pressure to rush: “I have four days, I’ll do it tomorrow.” Suddenly, you’re back at work and realize you didn’t accomplish half of what you planned.
This lack of structure is magnified when you are unemployed. There is no pressure to get up, get dressed, leave the house at a specific time. We know we have things to do. We need to update our resume, create new cover letters, research some potential job openings. It’s so hard to get started because we hate having to, we don’t feel creative or excited about every prospect, and we’re afraid we’ll have to go through the horrors of interviews. We procrastinate, telling ourselves that when we’re ready, it will just “flow.” For a few hours, a few days, we will indulge and relax. When the end of the month comes and we compare our dwindling bank balance with our multiplying bills, we mentally beat ourselves up for not having accomplished what we had so earnestly intended. Now we generate our own pressure, magnified by guilt and self-reproach. Stress levels and blood pressure rise. We feel resentful, angry, depressed. “I didn’t ask to get into this situation. It’s unfair. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.”
Adopting a reasonable schedule can avoid getting to this point. Try these ideas:
1. Take a day to do nothing but plan what you are going to do and when.
2. Focus on not overcommitting. You may be used to working 8 or more hours a day and think that’s how much you’ll now spend looking for a job. Remember that adage: Your job search is much more difficult than simply finding a familiar employer and going about your daily routine. Recognize that and limit your job search to fewer hours per day.
3. If you severely limit your job search activities to 4 hours per day to start (you can always increase later), you may be forced to stop before you’re ready. This creates the momentum to get going the next day – you can’t wait to get back to what you’re doing.
4. When your “work time” is over, stop. Consciously focus your attention on relaxing: go for a walk, read a book, throw a ball, watch TV, whatever pleases you. You’ll be able to relax knowing that you completed exactly what you planned. The guilt and the feeling of “should be, should be” are no more and you are free, at least for a short time, to do what you want.
5. Identify your priorities by looking at which day of the week is best for each type of activity. If you’re looking at the classifieds, Sunday is the best time to do it. If you’re networking or cold calling, focus on the weekend morning hours. Visits to the agency, whether for temp work or head hunting, can be relegated to evenings when employers are hard to get to and they are already fatigued.
6. Analyze your own daily energy patterns and put them to work for you. Make sure that during your high energy periods you are “out there”, contacting people and introducing yourself. Use your low energy moments for lonely and mundane tasks: research companies and jobs, organize your paperwork, plan the next day’s activities.
The inevitable stress of unemployment and the job search can never be completely eliminated, but managing your time and being kind to yourself can turn a painful situation into an uncomfortable hassle.