Unemployed? Making the most of 9 to 5!

You never really realize what being unemployed truly feels like, until you find yourself in this situation. Although I strongly believe in not making excuses for it, I do have to admit that it can be challenging.

Prior to that, you think that when you suddenly have all of that free time, you are able to accomplish all of the things you’ve wanted to but never had the time. The actual reality turns out to be quite different.  Instead of fixing up the house, going to travel for a bit, or learning a new skill – you can often end up in this hazy state where days go by and mold into one another.

The whole process can end up being quite demoralizing – it’s no coincidence that the depression is also on the rise nationwide. We often tend to attach our sense of identity to the type of work that we do, so when we become unemployed, our levels of confidence and self-worth end up going down as well.

The most challenging part of it all can be making the most of your time while you are looking for work. It’s often difficult to enjoy yourself at any activity, because you always have that little voice in the back of your mind saying that: “maybe you should be looking for work right now?” or “should you really be relaxing right now while you’re not bringing an income.”

But let’s face the facts. Looking for work doesn’t take up 8 hours a day (typically). Unemployment can last for a pretty long time. Feeling guilty doesn’t get you anywhere.

So, what can you do to turn the situation around a bit? Everybody probably has their own advice to offer, but here are a few things that work for me:

- Focus on things that you DO have control over, such as your health and fitness.

When you’re unemployed, it often feels that you’ve lost the control over your own destiny and that ends up spilling over in other parts of your life.

It’s important to realize that you are still in control of many things – your health being one of them. You may not be able to control your job, but you can focus on starting an exercise routine and better eating habits.

I’ve been doing some jogging on and off for a while before. However, I decided to sign up for a half-marathon three months in advance and to begin training daily for it.

This turned out to be very helpful on several levels. For one, that hour and a half a day of running and exercising gets your mind off things and leaves you feeling great afterwards.

Secondly, having a specific goal forced me to really commit to training on a daily basis. It gives a purpose and it keeps me accountable.

Whatever exercice regimen you set for yourself, make sure to be clear about your goals and work on a week-by-week plan on getting there.

- Use the free time to try new activities and make sure to get out of the house. Meetup.com is great for that.

This is an often-repeated advice and may sound a bit like a cliche, but I believe that it’s truly important to your own well-being to get out of the house on a regular basis and do things with other people.

It keeps you active, improves your confidence as you meet others in a similar situation, and even develops your interests and hobbies further.

For myself, I’ve joined meetup.com and ended up in a couple of great groups. Among them, I usually end up attending 1 or 2 events per week, ranging from hiking and cycling to just playing ping-pong or meeting up in a cafe.

In fact, I liked it to much that I started my own group focused around outdoor recreation.This also forces me to focus and plan my free time better.

- Consider volunteering. We are happier when we give back.

People often find that they are most fulfilled when they do work that benefits others. Even if you don’t have a paying job right now, it doesn’t mean that you can’t contribute to others. Volunteering is a good way to start with a small time commitment and you can often be surprised at just what kind of opportunities you may have available to you.

For example, in the past, I’ve spent a few years volunteering as a Night Disaster Responder for the American Red Cross. Not only I was able to pick up valuable skills, like First Aid, Shelter Operations, Mass Care, and so on – but it was also an opportunity to do something that I could never do otherwise – responding to fires, floods, and other disasters in New York City.

- Limit TV consumption.

This may be a tough one for many. When there is a lot of downtime, we are often drawn to the TV as a way to pass the time and forget about the troubles of reality. However, I think that many find that if they spend 3-4 hours watching television, they come out feeling even worse than they did beforehand. It has a power to suck your energy out of you.

I would highly recommend to limit the amount of time you spend on TV and when you do, sit down with a specific goal in mind (ie. watch a specific movie rather than 4 hours of day time television). Better yet, go and spend that time outside, read a book, or engage in physical activities – you will certainly feel better afterwards.

- Create a schedule for your days and goals for your months.

It can be a terrible feeling to realize that yet another month has gone by and you haven’t really accomplished anything since then.

In order to avoid that, you need to create some structure to your day – even if it’s all self-made. It can be challenging when you don’t have any specific commitments or things that absolutely have to complete during the day.

But even then, you can still plan your days. To give you an example, I aim to wake up same time every morning and sit down to write out the activities for the day. It usually includes 3-4 hours of job hunting, an a hour and a half for exercising and running, another hour or two for working on miscellaneous projects and the rest of the time on various household chores. This helps you avoid the feeling that the whole day has gone by and you didn’t get to do anything.

On a more long-term scale, you also want to sit down and consciously think about what you’d like to accomplish over the course of this month and the next one. If you don’t set up these goals, you should not be surprised when the month goes by and nothing gets accomplished.

Although far from perfect, here’s an example of my own:

- Running – get up to 30 miles per week (increase slightly each month)

- Outdoor Recreation – organize two trips per month into the outdoors (hiking, etc.)

- Blog – write at least 1 blog post per week

- Time Management – wake up by 7.45am every morning.

- Dancing – learn how to swing dance within 3 months by taking at least 1 lesson per week

You get the point.

The fact of the matter is that having these goals – whether it’s swing dancing or getting outdoors – keeps you straight and gives you an opportunity to focus on what you can do during the time of unemployment.

Don’t lose this time. You won’t have a chance to get it back.