Losing a job can be a really tough experience, and it's easy to focus on the immediate worries like financial strain, stress, and feeling left behind. But there's another significant challenge that often goes unmentioned: losing your sense of time.
Think about what happens when your job is no longer there. The built-in structure of your daily routine vanishes. You might not have a reason to wake up at a specific time, no emails to respond to, no meetings to attend, no deadlines looming, and no one pushing you to get things done. When these anchors disappear, time can become incredibly vague. Days can blend together without any clear milestones. It's why you often hear people who've lost their jobs talk about feeling "stuck in a mist."
In modern society, our work often defines us. Without it, we can struggle with basic daily rhythms: when to wake up, when to eat, and what to do to fill the hours. Work has, in many ways, replaced the ceremonies and rituals of older cultures that helped maintain a sense of "living." Without these modern "rituals," it's easy to lose our way.
This explains why many people, even those who disliked their jobs, can feel a profound emptiness when they're no longer working. A job, regardless of how you felt about it, provides a shape and meaning to your time.
Understanding this, you'll see that the biggest risk when losing a job isn't just about money; it's about losing your direction. This makes rebuilding the structure of your life, even for a short period, far more important than immediately finding another job.
It doesn't have to be complicated. It could be as simple as:
Taking a walk every morning at the same time.
Committing to one small task at a fixed time each day.
Establishing just one new habit that helps differentiate today from yesterday.
Recovery begins with a small, simple action: reshaping your time and ensuring it has a structure.
So, the question isn't "What do I do to end my joblessness?" A better question to ask yourself when facing uncertainty is,
"What can I do to keep myself from sinking?"