What’s up, friends. It’s Damian Jay. This is The Morning Drive, and today I wanted to talk about keeping routines while you’re unemployed.

As some of you may know or may not know, I was laid off at the end of last year, around October. And I wanted to talk about how keeping your routines is probably more important than ever in unemployment.

I think a lot of people take that time and get lazy, start waking up a little bit later, start changing their routines around, and it’s a real easy way to fall into depression. Not only that, but if you do get a job, it’s going to be tough to reset your body. So these are just some things that I’ve continued to do regardless. It’s helpful for me, and I think it’d be helpful for everyone.

Let’s jump into it.

1) Keep Waking Up Like You’ve Still Got Somewhere to Be

First and foremost, if you were waking up in the morning to go to work, keep waking up.

Replace it with something.

If you were one of those people who woke up, showered, and went to work, it might be good to just wake up, shower, and go to the gym. Or go to the gym and then shower. Whichever appeals to you better.

The point is you keep that habit in place of being able to wake up every morning, because you don’t want to have to reset your body later. It’s good for your sleep cycle. It’s good for your mental health.

So that’s one of the things I suggest. Keep that time. If you were going to the gym in the afternoons after work, this is a good excuse to start going in the morning. It keeps that sleep cycle steady, you start your day with action, and that’s going to keep you sharp as well.

2) Stay Up to Date in Your Industry

The other thing is stay up to date in your industry.

Whatever that looks like for you, it’s going to become more and more important that you pay attention to trends in your industry.

I’m in marketing. Specifically, digital marketing. So I need to keep up on latest trends in SEO, AI, paid ads, what’s going on in email, what’s going on in conversion rate optimization. There’s a lot of great resources out there for my industry. Search Engine Land, who you follow on Twitter, all of that.

It becomes more important because it’s basically like reading the paper every day, that old school mentality. Wake up, get your workout in, and then sit down and read some of that news so you stay on top of it.

And honestly, it matters because this stuff comes up in interviews. People ask what you’re doing to stay sharp. If you’re in digital marketing, there’s always algorithm updates and changes. You want to be on top of them.

3) Use the Time Like You’re Still On the Clock

Finally, use that eight hours in the day like you were at work.

Custom curate it.

Use it for your personal hobbies, your projects, and the stuff that keeps you moving forward. For me, that’s Bourbon Bass Barbells, and The Morning Drive, which is this blog. Stay active in those things.

Then use some of that time for research into companies you want to work for and updating your resume.

My personal opinion, and this is something I’ve been doing right now, is experiment with your resume. Not only revamp it and make it look more up to date, but try different things with it. Word count. Where things show up. Adding a picture to it. Testing different formats.

It keeps skills sharp.

For me, it’s important to know how to use simple tools like Canva. It’s important for me to leverage ChatGPT and other AIs so I can stay up to date on how to use them. It sounds silly, but it’s important. You want to keep those tools sharp.

Same thing with websites. I run websites, so it’s good to check analytics. It’s good to revamp those sites. I’ve been meaning to revamp mine for a long time, specifically Master of One Marketing. I need to sit down with it, take some time, make it look better, add personality, and make it feel more like me. That’s the kind of thing you can work on while you’re in a career reset.

The Part People Miss: Healing Is Fine, Bad Habits Aren’t

I know it’s tough. A lot of people want to take that first couple weeks off. And I do think there’s something to be said about the healing process. If you came from a place that wasn’t the best, toxic culture, whatever that looked like for you, sometimes it is good to take a few days off.

But don’t let it roll over into a bunch of bad habits.

It’s okay to play video games. It’s okay to be sloth-like for a few days. But jump right back into those routines as soon as possible. I wouldn’t go more than a week without waking up and doing those things again.

Give yourself time to heal and reset, but don’t get so lethargic that it’s hard to get up and it’s hard to get moving.