Time Management – Getting It All Done

Posted by: Darlene Duncan CWDP, JSS, CCC Training Coordinator for Training Initiatives, Inc When you were working you put in 40 hours a week for your employer, got things done around the house and you got the kids where they needed to be when they needed to be there. The point is you worked 40 hours a week and still got all kinds of other things done. Now you’re unemployed and can’t seem to find time to get anything done. Your job search is floundering, the house is a mess, and you’re struggling to figure out when you’re supposed to pick up and drop off the kids. What happened? It could simply be a case of you’re the type of individual who needs the structure of a job to make you organize your time. If that’s the case, once you identify that as the problem, you can impose your own structure and regain control of your time. It will require some serious self-discipline on your part. However, it can be done. In some cases friends and relatives found out you’re unemployed and now they’re asking you to do things for them. You feel guilty saying, “No” because, well, after all you don’t have that job to go to anymore. So surely you can find the time to help out family and friends. Yes, as long as it doesn’t interfere with your job search efforts and those things you NEED to get done to advance your job search. Sometimes, no, is the hardest word to say, especially to those people we care about. However, you must learn to manage your time effectively and sometimes that will mean saying “No, sorry I can’t help you with that”. Consider this, if you were still working how would those things they’re dumping on you get done? Besides if they become reliant upon you to do things for them, what’s going to happen when you go back to work? Are they still going to expect you to do things for them? Habits are hard to break, so don’t let those you care about get in the habit of relying on you to do things for them just because you’re currently unemployed. Click this link to read an in depth article about managing your time, whether you’re unemployed or not.