The Job Seeker's Brief Guide to Staying Sane

The world is in a strange place right now. Current situations spare no one from impact. Due to recent events, many find themselves in search of new employment opportunities. While good news bubbles up amid the bad, it's a challenging time to be alive.

Finding a new job can be a tiresome task at the best of times. Add in current stressors, and job hunting can be downright exhausting and disheartening.

Here are some tips to help you stay sane while you search for your next professional opportunity. You can accomplish your goals. Hopefully, this small guide helps!

Prioritize Your Goals

What do you want to do? Consider your most broad, general goals, then put them in order of importance. Refer to your list of goals to maintain focus. Revise your list of goals as needed.

You'll get a lot more done if you choose one primary goal and make that your focus.

Are you building a new habit? Focus on that one habit before beginning another. Give yourself time to get into a good groove. Don't overload yourself trying to do too much all at once. Once you establish one habit, you can begin working toward a new goal.

You're not limited to only doing one thing while pursuing a goal. Wiggle room is ok, but make sure you allot enough mental and physical energy to doing that new thing.

If finding a new job is your primary goal, you should set aside time to do things that will move you toward that goal. While prioritizing, remember: your energy and time are finite. If you have minimal free time each day, spend some of it doing things to help you achieve your goal.

Create Doable Steps

While your ultimate goal might be to land a job, that can seem distant and nebulous. Break things down into smaller steps. Plotting a path using easy-to-do steps brings your goal closer. These steps should be actions you can take almost daily (taking time off to refresh is vital).

Some examples of small goals are:

• Peruse job listings two hours a day
• Submit three applications a day
• Read two professional articles a day to stay abreast of industry news

What's important is that, after setting your small goals, you do them. Make bite-sized goals so you have a clear set of steps you can take in the right direction.

Start Small

Start small and work your way up. Fifteen minutes is better than nothing. Over time, small steps will add up to sizable results. Apply this logic to anything from learning a new skill to building a business. Chart your progress over time.

Starting small also helps prevent burnout and eases mental blocks. Taking a small step is easier than climbing a mountain.

Starting small has the added benefit of bolstering your confidence. As you complete small tasks you create a positive feedback loop of efforts and successes. With each success, you gain momentum to keep moving forward.

Chunk Out Your Time

Or: schedule what you want to do.

Recall the big goal you broke down into small tasks? Add those tasks to your calendar. Blocking out time to take the steps is what makes the process work. Seeing them in your planner or calendar adds another layer of accountability.

To-do lists are great, but if you don't do what's on them, they're a waste of energy. Lists can also be overwhelming. It's easy to overload yourself. By blocking out time, you gain a realistic idea of what you can do.

To prevent this from happening, take what is on your to-do list and put it on your schedule. Moving your tasks to a calendar is a powerful trick to get things done.

Don't know how long something will take? Anticipating the duration of a task can be difficult until you've done it a few times. If you're doing something new, make your best guess at how much time something will take and block it into your day.

Doing things is the best way to learn how much time they'll take. You'll get better at blocking out your schedule as you go.

Give Yourself Grace

Looking for a new job can be a draining process. It's ok to have ups and downs. It's ok if you don't see progress right away.

Recognizing and appreciating small successes can be instrumental in continuing your efforts. Appreciate your progress after you complete each goal.

Not every day will be wholly productive, and you may well miss items on your to-do list. That's ok. Don't get too down, instead focus on the good things that happen each day. If you struggle to do many of your small goals, consider lightening your workload. Focus on one or two key goals, schedule time to rest and do fun things, and double down on what works for you.

Stay In Touch With Your Network

It's easy to fade out of social scenes, especially if much of your social time happened in the office. Staying in touch has myriad benefits. Socializing is important for mental health and can pan out into a new position.

Digital communication makes it easy to connect with people via various social media. Adding a contact or friend is great, but take it one step further and send a brief message.

It's important to add to the metaphorical "friendship pool" and not only take. Send small messages to check in on people. This is a great way to add to the relationship without bogging down either party.

Continue Learning

This is a good thing to do regardless of whether you're job hunting or employed. Learning will keep your mind sharp and keep you moving forward.

While job hunting, it's important to learn the latest trends for job hunters in your industry. Make sure you know how to create and present your résumé, dress for an interview, and what skills and you might need. Knowing what you want and need before going into an interview can give you great talking points.

You may find that many employers are comfortable with employees pursuing continuing education. Some employers pay for part or all the associated certificate and licensing costs.

It can be a lot of fun to learn a new skill or hone an existing one. This is a great way to continue a forward momentum while unemployed. It also bolsters your résumé and demonstrates initiative.

Decompress

Managing stress is important while job hunting. The process of seeking a new job is about endurance and persistence. Because of this, it is necessary to pace yourself. Take time to rest and refresh. Recuperating includes doing things you enjoy. Taking steps to keep stress in check is also important.

Here are a handful of examples of ways to have fun and destress:

• journaling
• meditation
• physical activity/exercise
• sports
• games
• art
• reading

If you're short on ideas, the internet is full of sources for ideas and information. You might also find people you know who would love having you join in on their hobbies.

All things in moderation: don't go overboard. Make sure you're still taking steps toward your goals. This is another way blocking in your schedule can help. While looking over your schedule, you'll be able to see if you're taking steps. In your downtime, you'll be able to relax knowing you have hit your small goals for the day.

Key Takeaways

• Looking for a new job can be challenging, but you can do it.
• If a task feels too large, remember to break it down into small steps.
• Schedule your to-do list items.
• Take care of yourself.
• Manage your stress.