After losing a job, you’ll start asking yourself challenging questions about finances, childcare and more. You may also feel the pang of an identity crisis—particularly if you’re a longtime employee whose daily life has become tied up with work.

On top of that, there’s the hours of applying, networking, interviewing, and dealing with modern-day job hunt maladies, from AI and ghost jobs. Lack of communication and recruiter bait-and-switch make the process feel useless. 

The mental battle can be a monster. But experts suggest a possible sanity-saving sword to slay that monster: the power of having a routine. That can be key, especially when navigating a process that may drag on past six months or more.

Melissa Dorman, an organizational psychologist and executive coach, shares that in today’s anonymous market, “no matter how much you get done, you can feel behind or get sucked into the vortex of applying for one job after another.”

Crafting (and sticking) to a routine during this period is not only a way to stay positive during a job search—but it could also be a means to open up job seekers to new opportunities.

The salve to some of this strangeness may come down to how seekers control what is within their power. A routine can serve as that support and stability that can put a period of uncontrollable unpredictability into perspective. 

“Stability is everything when your world feels like the bottom has fallen out, especially when losing a job and searching for a job in a volatile market,” says Dorman.

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