Coping with unemployment means breaking away from the past and facing your future. It means dealing with the emotional, financial, and professional challenges unemployment can bring. Although this process can be painful, facing unemployment with a plan will help make coping with it easier.

Dealing with your emotions

Losing your job is an emotional experience–whether you are laid off or fired, whether you quit or retire. Your feelings of self-worth are tied more closely to your job than you realize. Although you’re certainly entitled to relax awhile after your job ends, it’s easy to let a few days of sleeping late, watching television, and playing golf turn into a few months of inactivity. Be careful not to use your need to relax as an excuse to avoid facing your future. The more time that passes, the more likely you’ll feel anxious and depressed about your future. Here are three tips on what you can do to keep yourself moving:

  • Pretend that you’re still working. You’ve probably heard the adage that finding a job is a full-time job. Well, it’s usually true. So why not pretend that you’re still working? You don’t have to get dressed up for this job, but at least get out of bed at the same time and get going. Stop for lunch and then work again until late afternoon. Keep moving, and you’ll accomplish your goal of finding a new job with a lot less anxiety.
  • Set daily and weekly goals.
  • Get a calendar and write down what you want to accomplish each day for one week. Be specific and reasonable. Don’t write “call future employers ” Instead, write “call the human resource departments at five publishing companies.” Then, write down what your weekly goal will be. You might write “compile a list of five potential employers and send resumes to them.” Setting goals will help you feel in control of your fate and will ultimately help you get a job.
  • Reward yourself. Looking for a job is tough, so after a long, hard day of job hunting, reward yourself. For instance, promise yourself in the morning that if you accomplish everything on your list by three o’clock, you can go to the matinee of the movie you’ve been wanting to see.

Planning a financial strategy

When you lose your job, you may be able to rely on savings or, in some cases, unemployment compensation to replace some of your lost income. However, if you don’t have much money saved or are worried about how to survive financially, you should come up with a financial plan for unemployment. You should plan a financial strategy that will keep you afloat for six months, if necessary. Hopefully, you won’t be unemployed that long but if you are, you’ll be prepared. Make a list of ways you can save money and cut expenses and prepare a bare-bones budget that shows the least amount of money you can live on during your period of unemployment. Then, prepare a six-month financial plan that details to the extent possible how you plan to survive financially while you’re unemployed.