Time management can be affected by many changes in life, including unemployment. Imagine that you have been getting up at 6:00 am every day for 30 years. You exercise, eat breakfast, take a shower and go to work. Suddenly you get fired or your company closes and you have an enormous amount of time left.

At first you keep trying to stay on the same schedule. But eventually it becomes harder to get up, harder to schedule the day. You feel as if you are just walking aimlessly and doing nothing. Your days are lost.

As a business owner, I know the feeling when business is down. I have too much time and I work less than when I started my business and I was still working 40 hours a week. How is this possible? Routine is very apart of our lives. When a big wrench is thrown, we come undone.

To get back on track, schedule your entire day the night before. Work out, shower, eat breakfast, and take the kids to the bus from 6 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Check email and assignments from 8:45 a.m. to 10 a.m. Work on resume from 10:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Take a break from 11 am to 11:30 am Go about your day this way until 5 pm Maybe you need to go to the post office, bank, supermarket or dentist. If you schedule most of your day, you’ll accomplish much more than just working on one thing for a while and then another for a few minutes.

Wandering around without a to-do list or schedule will create stress and cause you to get less done. Eventually, if you continue this way, you will accomplish even less and depression could creep into your life. Being unemployed is already stressful, so avoid adding to it by not having a schedule for the day.

Take whatever time you have available to do some of those little projects you never have time for. Paint repairs, add a shelf somewhere, or repair a clock. Just add one or two a week to your schedule until you have a new job. Doing a few small jobs will help keep you busy and less stressed.