Really, Monday was “day three,” since the layoff, but it was my first day out of the office. I had a fairly productive day:

* Set up the blog.
* Rounded out my “Linked-In” profile; made about 30 additional connections; solicited and wrote some recommendations.
* Actually fielded a job opening from a connection
* Set up my Google calendar, and also an appointment with some old HyperActive colleagues to do some marketing work for them.
* Contacted my credit card companies, car finance company, mortgage company, and got some deferrments on payments.
* Wrote significant portions of a proposal to do additional work for HyperActive.

One of the most important things that I did was to talk with the kids, and get them to understand how genuinely serious it is to be unemployed. I’m not calling it that; and I’m actively soliciting contract work from my former employer. But until something like that materializes, we can’t buy some of the snack foods we always used to buy at the store; we have to see “not spending money” as a key virtue at the moment.

And they understand. These steps will help us get through the next few months and remain financially secure. For sure, the economy is going to pick up, and life will get back to some kind of normal. “