Alright, I’m working my ass off people, and I’m not making any money.
(sigh)
What. The. Frack?
(feeling guilty about too many swears)
But seriously! I keep finding things to do with my time that don’t pay. Maybe I have an affliction- like, I was a monk in a previous life and the fates haven’t’ recognized that this time, this soul needs some dollar, dollar bills, yo!
(big, heavy, soulful, SIGH)
In the meantime… I got a good bit of advice last night – Limit your job search to a few hours a day.
What?
Well, the theory goes is that you can only do so much. Two or three hours is a healthy amount of time to spend submitting yoru resumes, polishing cover letters, and combing job sites for employment. After that you start to spin into Anxiety Land where no new information is making it’s way you you, and you start to loose your mind. And after too much time in A-Land, you f loose perspective of the day, because you aren’t accomplishing anything. It’s like a mini-glass ceiling. You look around yourself at 8:00 and go “What the hell did I do today?” You were in A-land drooling on yourself.
And I think there is a lot of truth to this.
On a daily basis, if I’m not at one of my odd jobs, I feel guilty doing anything that isn’t hunt-related- so my writing is suffering as well as my (barely-there-to-begin-with) social life and personal sense of well being. BUT when I do spend the whole day trolling the interweb or printing resumes, I get to dinner time and am horrified by how little I actually accomplished! Because once you’ve moved beyond those “OOh, I can apply for that!” moments in the mornings classified perusals, there really isn’t a lot else to do.
So the rest of the day needs to be yours to get busy with in other ways. You’ve done what you can, not go out and do something that makes you feel good! If you have a haunting “Be productive, Be Be productive” chant following you around, then use the rest of the day to tend to that mountain of laundry, wash the dishes, and tackle that script! Or if you’ve been so damn productive you think you could eat off the floor, then take an afternoon to go to the beach, or a museum, or something restorative. Remember, just because you’re not on the clock doesn’t mean you forget about time off!
Because you are working- you’re working on yourself. So that when that job does come along, you are in shape for it!
And taking care of yourself means NOT going crazy- so don’t dwell and moulder in the hunting! Make your own schedule and stick to it. Because right now, you are your own boss. Make the most of it.
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