Experiencing unemployment is one of the difficult seasons of your life. This means that your future is on hold during this temporary employment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of it. By making the most out of your unemployment seasons, such as taking care of EDD unemployment benefits, UI benefits, and UC benefits, you can use this period productively and efficiently. You can always improve your situation by using your unemployment time wisely. In this article, we’ll be talking about making the most of your unemployment time.
1. Get Education
Just because you’re unemployed, doesn’t mean you can’t use this time productively to expand your knowledge. In fact, you have all the time in the world to learn new skills and knowledge to help your future career. You can always attend online classes, seminars, and training to improve yourself and use this as an asset in your future applications.
This won’t just look good on your resume, but you get to work on your confidence and skills by gaining knowledge. If you’ve always wanted to learn a certain skill or even change career, this unemployment season is preparing you for precisely that. Continue working on yourself and this is the best way to use your time wisely even when you don’t have work.
2. Get a Gig
Whether it’s a side income, passive income, or gig work, this is the perfect opportunity to explore and try something new. Get into gigs and find out the career you want for yourself as this can help identify what you’re passionate about. It’s a bonus that getting a gig will still maintain your financial situation so you can still pay the bills and buy necessities when you have a side hustle.
Being unemployed doesn’t mean you have to sit at home and do nothing for the rest of this season. Time is fragile and you must spend time wisely by working on yourself, whether that’s learning knowledge or getting into a gig. With various work from home jobs being offered, it’s not difficult to find a gig to earn an adequate income from. In fact, you’ll be surprised how even a gig can turn into a full-time job if that’s something you’re interested in. The great thing about a gig is that it allows you to have reduced hours in unemployment so you won’t be dedicating all your time and energy to it.
3. Collect Your Unemployment Benefits
Claiming your unemployment benefits are so important, especially during this season. For instance, if you’re qualified for collecting unemployment, the cause of unemployment shouldn’t be of your own doing like resigning because you didn’t like the nature of your job or being fired for misconduct unless wrongful termination took place.
Another unemployment qualification is meeting the wages earned at a specific period. If you were able to meet these requirements and didn’t for reasons such as to become self-employed, illness, or without good cause, you may be eligible for unemployment benefits such as federal unemployment benefits. Certain states are also allowing extended unemployment benefits – going beyond the maximum of 26 weeks of unemployment benefits such as compensation and insurance.
4. Maintain a Schedule
Just because you’re unemployed, it doesn’t give you a free pass to a life without productivity and fulfillment. Unemployment can cause a shock in your routine as you’re used to spending your weekdays preparing for work and your weekends for rest, which is why maintaining a schedule is important. Fill your to-do list or planner with tasks to improve yourself, such as learning a new course, taking up a new hobby, or basically anything you can use in your next job.
You can even spend your days with productive things such as your hobbies and interests. You’ll be surprised how doing something you love can spark life into your life and you’ll have this idea for your next job. Oftentimes, rest is necessary to figure out the next steps in your career.
5. Volunteer
Volunteering is a very productive way to improve yourself while in this unemployment season. You may not have a job, but you can effectively build your attitude and character by volunteering – whether in an event or charity. This is also a great chance to expand your network, where you can meet people from different groups. Having a vast network will benefit you, especially since you have a higher chance of meeting someone who may be the root cause of getting employed again. Rather than staying at home, getting yourself out there through volunteering is extremely productive – not to mention, it feels good to give to others.
6. Regain Yourself
When you have work, it’s easy to be stuck in such a fast-paced world that gives you no time for yourself anymore. Use your unemployment to finally focus on yourself and do the things you weren’t able to do before. Being drained with work can lead you to lose certain aspects of yourself such as mental stability and inner peace.
Use this season to focus on yourself and regain everything you lost, including a sense of balance, peace, and happiness. Let yourself rest from the hustle life and realize that for once, you don’t have to rush towards the next deadline or prepare for the next meeting. Give yourself space to breathe and realize that rest is necessary to be productive once again, especially when in your next career.
In conclusion, I hope this article was able to gain insight into making the most of your unemployment time. While unemployment can be seen as undesirable, you can always shift your perspective and make the most of this season. Just because you’re unemployed, doesn’t mean you can’t wisely use your time in something productive. Use your unemployment to work on yourself and take a moment to breathe as these are things you won’t regret doing once you get back to work. With the mentioned things above, you’ll be able to live a productive life even under unemployment.
