10 things to divert your attention while looking for a job

Perhaps your day is more productive than mine, but now that I'm at home every day, I can think of scores of things I "must" do every day that are ever so much more interesting and immediately rewarding than the job search. My top 10 diversions, in no particular order:

1. Checking email. Again and again and again…always thinking there will be one important one, perhaps a response to a submitted resume, or a contest I’ve won. And if nothing important appears in my in-box, I can always spend time emailing friends and family and forwarding important articles to my daughter working in the next room.
2. Reading newsletters clogging my email box: professional newsletters, job search newsletters, travel newsletters. I want to keep up to speed in my profession, so I try to read everything, and consequently spend far too much time on this than I should.
3. Checking the old bank balance, looking to see what checks have cleared, ascertaining how much is left in the account, calculating how I’m budgeting, determining if money needs to be transferred. It’s always good for a diversion and feels very important.
4. Making plans for the weekend, this evening, or lunch next week…all done on email, of course. It’s much more fun, time consuming, and rewarding to schedule time with friends and to plan social engagements than it is to figure out the next tactic in the job search arsenal.
5. Doing laundry. Because of course one needs clean clothes for the job search and it’s such a rewarding task. You put in dirty, smelly clothes and you finish with new additions to your wardrobe (or linen closet). 
6. Exercise (an important diversion, to be sure). After all, if I can get outside during the day to walk in the sunshine and see the flowers in bloom, or visit the gym when hardly anyone is there, it helps to eliminate stress and makes me feel better. I’d rank this as a highly worthwhile diversion.
7. Planning for dinner. When working I would typically arrive home at 7 or 7:15, cook dinner, clean up, then collapse exhausted to chill out for the evening. Now, with both daughters at home and being a temporarily at-home Mom, I feel compelled to cook dinner every evening (ok, most evenings), so of course I must use part of the day to plan the meal, go to Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, or Giant to get all the ingredients, then start cooking so dinner is ready not long after daughter #2 arrives home from her rough day of being a teacher’s aide. Early dinner=nice.
8. Reading my horoscope. If it’s a good one, it brightens my whole day and I feel positive about the future. If it’s a ho-hum horoscope, then I’m sure it’s all just bunk anyway.
9. Check the mail (as in snail mail), and if there anything interesting like a new Washingtonian magazine or possible checks in unidentified envelopes, then read the mail, too. Plus, getting the mail, promotes activity in the day and allows me to check on the front lawn, the neighborhood, and the weather.
10. Eating (couldn’t forget this one). After all the kitchen is mere steps away, and  by 11 am I’m starved and must break from hours at my laptop writing cover letters and updating resumes. Consequently, I’m spending a fortune on groceries these days, but it’s nice to eat scrumptious, fresh food at home.

I actually think there are many more diversions than this, especially since I didn't include blogging and Twittering, two more of my favorite things to do each day. Counselors always advise job seekers to stick to a schedule. It may be time for me to heed the advice.