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Is Rest Important to Your Job Search?

Dec 18, 2020 | Job Search Help

If you Google search ‘job search tips’, you will get any number of resume tips, application strategies, and tips for getting noticed. What you won’t often see is why getting adequate rest is important to your job search.

Searching for a job can understandably cause you stress and anxiety, especially if you are currently unemployed and needing a job! It makes you scared!

Sometimes that leads to putting in extra hours and compromising on how much sleep and rest you are getting. You trick yourself into thinking that it is okay to sacrifice your rest temporarily until you find a job. You think that the best way to resolve your stress and anxiety is to feed it until you find a job and don’t need to worry anymore.

In actuality, this approach can be detrimental to conducting an effective job search.

Here are 3 reasons why rest is an important tool in your job search.

Rest lowers your stress and anxiety!
I know. You are worried about finding a job. You think that overworking on your search until you find one is the only way to eliminate your stress and anxiety over not having a job. It is a known fact that not getting adequate rest can affect your mindset negatively, feeding your stress and anxiety. Getting rest won’t completely take away your worries until you find a job. However, being well-rested will help you have less stress and anxiety, and you will have an easier time putting into proper perspective the stress and anxiety that remain.

Your search will be more focused and deliberate
When we get into a mindset where we sacrifice our rest, it’s because we believe that we need to get as many applications out as possible to find a job as quickly as we can. Ironically, this strategy leads to ineffectiveness and may actually cause your job search to take longer! If you commit to rest, it has the indirect effect of a more focused and effective job application strategy. This happens because you have now have limited time in a day to make progress on your job search. If you deliberately limit your time, then you will also be forced to be more focused and strategic about the types of jobs you apply for. Instead of just getting as many applications out as you can, you will focus more on jobs where it is more obvious that you are a good fit and that you will find fulfilling.

Make sound decisions
Lack of rest usually leads to not making decisions as clearly. During your job search, you will need to make decisions about which jobs you are applying for and even whether or not to accept job offers. When you are overtired, it creates situations of unneeded desperation, meaning you might be making bad decisions about which job applications you focus your energy on. Even worse, you might take a job offer that will ultimately make you miserable! Getting rest will improve your decision making ability, and feed the other two benefits listed above.

So how do you execute this?

First, define how much rest you need. This is a priority. For me, it’s 7-8 hours of sleep a night.

Next, find out how much time that leaves you for a job search. If you are presently unemployed, this will leave you with more time than if you are presently employed. Set goals for yourself based on how much time you have for a job search. Maybe it’s one application per week. Or one application every day. Or three applications a day. Be kind to yourself and don’t stretch yourself.

Last, define the types of jobs you will apply for based on what you can do and what will bring you fulfillment. My rule of thumb is that you should be able to satisfy 80-85% of what is listed in the job description on the posting to apply for it.

Rest is important to your job search and you owe it to yourself to get great rest.

If you need help coming up with a job application strategy, I am here to help you and be your trusted friendly face every step of the way.

 

Tim Dyck
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