How to Regain the Importance of Your Day!
If you've been following me on Facebook you know that in October of 2009 I got caught in a reduction of force (RIF) at my company and was laid off. (After 11-1/2 years of exemplary service, but hey, I'm not bitter.) It's now July 2011 and I'm still searching for a job. But this blog post isn't about the job search process per se; rather, it's about the impact being unemployed has had on my time management. I thought that in today's economy I might not be the only one in this boat and so wanted to share some thoughts and tips with you. I hope you will get something out of this and please share your thoughts with me.
You would think that being unemployed would be boon to my personal time management practice. I mean after all, I now have all this spare time, right? I have all the time in the world to sit down and plan and track everything. Those excuses of too many phone calls and emails, of not having enough time, are gone.
But you would be wrong... wrong on so many levels.
First off, let's look at this thing called "free time". I've discovered that being unemployed is apparently a lot like being retired. As soon as people find out you "aren't busy" you become inundated with requests on your time - some of it very well meaning. And you take them up on it too. You get yourself involved because you want to be busy; you don't want to sit at home alone and wallow - you want to get out there and at least act like you're productive. Before you know it, you find that every spare minute is consumed.
But these things really feel more like busy work. It's not your "job" because you arent' getting paid for it. It doesn't feel important and you don't bother tracking it. Besides, tracking it often just becomes a reminder that you aren't working anymore.
The time that you do track is a single task: LOOK FOR WORK. You could track each and every job you apply for (and I actually do recommend that you track these in some manner) but if you're like me, you're sending out so many resumes in a day that it becomes counter productive to track them all.
The other problem is emotional. Being unemployed for any length of time wears you down; it eats away at your self esteem. I find this especially true as someone who is middle-age with a career that has been in middle to high management - those jobs just are too few and far between right now and the competition is fierce. It really takes its toll. When this happens you get depressed. You start to lose hope and sitting in front of the TV seems so much more inviting - and who wants to track TV time on their task list!?!
So your time management practice slips. It slipped for me, and I bet it has slipped for you. This is no time to beat yourself up for this; it's natural and it happens. Don't worry about it.
I've discovered (with the help of some great friends) a few things that can help.
The daily routine is broken - it's gone, and you won't get that back until you start that new job. It's time to create a new "day at the office routine" that will give you a sense of doing something. When you were at the office the day was filled with phone calls, meetings, coffee breaks, projects, tasks, and even lunches, parties and meeting with the team for drinks after work.
I realized it was important for me to take the very things I was doing throughout the day and give them the same "work" importance. From the important things (like job research and searches, Dr's visits, and charitable work) to the mundane (like doing the laundry, cleaning the kitchen or bathroom, and shopping) to the fun (like dinner with friends, meeting someone for lunch, or working on my web site), I began to log these things as if they were parts of my "business" day.
I decided not to track these in my task list or calendar - I continue to use those at a higher level - but rather, I use a simple spreadsheet. I plug in the things I know are coming up and each day I block out the time as things come up. It's best to plot them in ahead of time rather than retroactively, but the most important thing is to get them posted.
At the end of the day it looks like an actual work day, with meetings, projects, lunches, etc. My day feels productive and I'm less prone to drift off and waste time.
