Job Hunting After A Holiday

I hope that everyone had a great (and safe) 4th of July weekend.  It's always good to have a little time off to just relax and enjoy yourself.  Time off is especially useful when it comes to something as rigorous as job hunting.  Holidays allow you to refocus and come back stronger, but it can also be hard to get back to your routine.  How can you avoid slacking off after a vacation? 

Post-vacation slumps can be fought in a number of ways, but the most effective way is to get rid of all distractions.  Do you normally do your job search at your home?  Try going to the local library instead.  Putting yourself in a quiet environment can make it much easier to get back into that work mindset.  Once you do this, you have to conquer the hardest part of returning from a vacation: Pushing yourself to actually do work.

The online-centric nature of job searching makes it almost impossible to avoid distractions.  Going to a library or some other quiet environment eliminates things like noisy roommates or the TV, but you are still going to need to fight yourself from surfing the net aimlessly.  This is almost entirely a matter of your mindset.  You need to remind yourself that the longer you slack off, the less time you will have to do fun activities later on. 

Perhaps the most effective way to combat the post-vacation blues is to get back to your routine slowly.  It might seem self-defeating, but it's true.  Forcing yourself full force back into your daily routine is the worst thing you can do, especially if it has been a long vacation.  Labor Day vacations don't last long typically, so you won't have to ease back into your job search routine as slowly.  I'd say an appropriate time table is to be back to your full schedule by the fourth day after Veteran's Day weekend. 

Do you have any additional ideas on how to get back to your routine after time off?  Post them in the comments section below.