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Out of work and working too hard?
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We have all heard the advice about how we should treat a job search. “It is your new full time job. You should spend at least 40 hours a week on it.” This is sound advice, but what about those times when you simply cannot muster the required energy or enthusiasm? Are you allowed to take a break?
Remember the days at the office when all of our time was not filled with productive activities? There were the interruptions, those endless meetings and a myriad of distractions. It wasn’t that we weren’t working hard, but rather that we weren’t always working.
But, we are told, it is different now that we are out of work. Every waking moment, it seems, should be directed to looking for that next job. Well, this is a bit of an exaggeration, of course, but I do think that sometimes we forget to give ourselves permission to take a break and do things that might make us feel better. And, who knows, maybe taking a break will get us closer to our next job.
No one needs to remind us of how difficult a process job hunting can be. Maybe that is why we are told to put our nose to the grindstone—and not look up until we are finished. What would happen if we put our search on pause— even for an hour? Some of us would feel guilty. “We SHOULD BE looking for a job, after all. Others of us would not know what to do with the newfound “freedom” or “gift of time.” We might even become bored.
Boredom is uncomfortable—perhaps not as uncomfortable as looking for a job can be, but uncomfortable nonetheless. It leaves us alone with our imaginations. The "burden" is on us to figure out what to do with the unscheduled time.This is a good time, I think, to put your worries aside and let the right side of your brain kick into gear. It may take a couple of attempts to quiet the other side of your brain—the side that thinks you need to get back to work if you are going to go back to work! So, be sure to give yourself the chance to practice. And, if boredom should slip in and try to take away this special time, remember that it might simply be a distraction—keeping you from experiencing something out of the ordinary.
So, give it a try and see what might happen with a job hunt time-out?
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