Recently Unemployed. What to do?

March 25, 2009 2:31 PM

Recently Unemployed. What to do?

Like so many others, I was recently involuntarily let go from my job.

Of course, I'm looking for a new job. That's not all. I have a few ideas of things I want to do, learn, or skills I want to improve upon while unemployed. I thought it's best to take advantage of the time I don't have while normally working. Here are some of my ideas and a problem I have.

1. My field of work is in IT. I'm pursuing finding another IT job. I want to improve these skills while I'm out of work.

2. I want to learn to code web pages and eventually learn the back-end stuff such as incorporating databases and search engine optimization (what else should I be trying to learn?)

3. I also want to read more books, but I have trouble finishing a book in a short enough time span for me to stick with it. I get bored, bail and start a new book and repeat this cycle (how do I learn to read faster with better retention?).

4. I want to be a better photographer (with the camera and with Photoshop.)

5. Devote more time to exercise and fitness.

6. Get some volunteer hours in.

These are the key things I would like to learn or improve upon. They are all hampered by one thing: I have a severe lack of organizational skills. I have trouble prioritizing tasks and making good use of time. My productivity is at an all time low. I have trouble organizing things and keeping the house straight--coming home every night to a house that's still the mess I created the day before is starting to get on my SO's nerves. My SO is very tolerant of (and even creates some) piles of books, CDs, magazines, mail, etc., but this has gone way beyond that--it's even making me feel nervous and overwhelmed when I see these issues at play (or look at the dining room table piled high with stuff that doesn't belong there.) I think that at one point in my life I was able to at least keep things organized and keep a tidy house. Time and task management has almost always been something of a problem. Now that I have more time on my hands than I've had in years, it seems that my organizational skills have tanked and are worse off than ever. At first glance this seems to defy logic.

What do I do? How do I start to affect change immediately? How do I get organized and get on to what I want to do and learn, in addition to everyday responsibilities? How do I reclaim what I believe I once had? How did you handle it when you were in a similar position? What advice, links, reading material, tools, and techniques can you suggest that will empower me to make change now? Do you have advice specific to my list that will help me get going on these goals?

Thanks all.

If you needed, you can email me at: [e-mail]

posted by anonymous to health & fitness (7 comments total)

I have only heard this second hand, but apparently volunteer opportunities are scarce right now -- there are too many volunteers.
posted by crickets at 2:47 PM on March 25

Open source projects will satisfy your need to volunteer, learn useful skills, *and* allow you to be assigned projects/tasks.

Find a large FOSS project (Drupal, Firefox, XFree86) and offer yourself out. Those in charge will be happy to assign stuff to you.
posted by unixrat at 2:55 PM on March 25

I was laid off a year ago from a tech company, and given a decent severance package. Since then I've become a reasonably successful consultant (meaning I've got some steady clients now) and the future is bright, with interesting projects coming up and more work appearing every day.

The space between then and now got rough for many of the reasons you describe: wanting to be productive and failing at it, no natural talent at squeezing the most out of every minute, and not much practice at focusing my attention for long periods of time.

Here's what worked for me to keep me occupied and somewhat productive until paying work took over the need to motivate myself.

1. Housework. I found starting the day by tidying the apartment I share with my girlfriend helped a lot. I'm not talking spring cleaning, just put the dishes in the dishwasher, wipe the counters, and tidy a small mess or two. First, it's obviously productive, and the reward is immediately visible; second, it doesn't take long--a couple of ten minutes chunks here and there; third, a clean apartment feels like a place where productive stuff can happen; fourth, finishing something productive makes it easy to start something else productive; fifth, my girlfriend was quite happy to come home to a clean apartment every day, which made it easier for her to deal with the other stresses of my being unemployed.

2. Not worrying over much about transforming myself. Every little thing I did to improve myself and my situation helped and was a good thing, but stressing about my circumstances and my sometime lack of addressing it just made it harder to address and made me depressed and cranky. My girlfriend helped a lot during that time, but ultimately I learned not to let myself get wound up with fear and worry and self-contempt.

3. Figuring out how to do the same things you want to do--read books, exercise, make good use of the time. For me it was mainly doing a lot of small, incremental bits of those things. Putting the laundry in is a five minute job. So is doing the litterbox. Twenty minutes reading up on Google App Engine rather than MeFi (important one, this). If you're a squirrelly, ADD multi-tasker like me, go ahead and multi-task, just multi-task at worthwhile things. Little, easy habits are the key to building big, good habits.
posted by fatbird at 2:56 PM on March 25 [3 favorites]

Wow -- how many years are you planning on staying unemployed?

Cut four or five items off that list. That's way, way too much stuff to try and do all at once; no wonder you feel like your organizational skills are in poor shape.

Pick a thing and do it well; the reason you're feeling like you're failing is that you're trying to do everything.
posted by ook at 2:58 PM on March 25

Part of my job is coordinating volunteers at a science museum, and I can tell you that we definitely do not have too many volunteers. We still have too few. It never, ever hurts to ask organizations if they need volunteers -- because just because there are more people out of work, does not mean that those people are charitably and constructively contributing their newly-acquired free time. Also, organizations may have cut their paid staff, as well, and could perhaps really use your help.

I volunteered in my museum before becoming employed there, and I think it contributed a great deal to my organizational skills and my self-confidence. It also abated the surging tides of depression that I was struggling with at the time. Not to mention that I gained a lot of interesting skills and knowledge much more quickly than I would have if I had been sitting around with a pile of books.

Furthermore, I got my current job because my volunteer performance was quite good, and I was offered the chance to apply for my current job by the people I was already working with.

The moral of this story is, "Look for volunteer positions in fields that interest you. Don't be put off by the idea that there are no positions to be had. Gain experience and make some acquaintances and friends who may be able to help you out. Possibly gain skills and improve your organizational capabilities."

PS: Part of your problem with organizational skills may be that you try to do a thousand things at once.
posted by Coatlicue at 6:05 PM on March 25

skills skills skills skills skills
posted by Coatlicue at 6:06 PM on March 25

Reading biographies of people who have achieved over odds is very helpful. Trust me, I know.

FDR (especially A First Class Temperament by Geoffrey Ward; deals with polio onset [in wrenching detail] and political career), ER, and TR (especially Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough, covers TR's illnesses as well as the disability of his remarkable sister Bamie)

ER is a key figure in the two above books; see also Casting Her Own Shadow by Allida Black.
posted by jgirl at 6:22 PM on March 25