A free companion to the book
Thirty days of small, concrete moves — when the shape of your week has just been taken away and nobody handed you a replacement.
Companion to How To Be Unemployed
How to Keep Your Sanity When You're Out of Work
by Nora Barrow
This planner is free. The companion app comes with the book.
howtobeunemployed.com · app.howtobeunemployed.com
Thirty days, five minutes a day. This is not the job — it's the thing that keeps the job search from eating everything else. Four rules, then get on with it.
A Day Zero baseline to fill in before you start. Four weekly plans, each with one job for the week. Thirty day cards — one prompt, one thing, four boxes. Then the working sheets: daily structure, budget allocation, networking log, applications, panic window, a creditor-call log, interview prep, free learning.
The working sheets at the back are masters. One networking log won't hold a month of names and one budget sheet won't survive a change in income. Print those pages as many times as you need — or type into them in the browser version, where they save as you go.
It is not a productivity system, and finishing it is not the achievement. It doesn't score you, and there is no streak to break. It also isn't a substitute for the people around you — if the only thing you talk to this month is a worksheet, the worksheet is not working.
Turn the page and fill in Day Zero. It takes fifteen minutes and it is the least pleasant part of this planner. Everything after it is easier because you did it — a bad number you can plan around, a fog you can't.
Skip to page 25. Nothing on it needs to be filled in. If you are in crisis, call or text 988 — the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, 24 hours a day. You do not have to be suicidal to call it.
General encouragement and personal experience — not medical, legal, tax or financial advice. Unemployment rules, benefit amounts and deadlines are set by each state and change over time; confirm current details with your state's official agency before relying on them.
Fill this in once, before you start. In four weeks you'll come back to it on Day 25 and see what actually moved. Don't estimate generously — estimate accurately.
If money coming in is larger than money going out, you have runway for now — write “holding” and check again on Day 25.
Rules, amounts and waiting periods differ by state and change. Your state's official portal is the only current source — howtobeunemployed.com has a guide for all fifty.
One sentence. Not “employed” — that isn't entirely in your control. Something that is.
File the claim, find the real number, and give the day a shape before the days blur together.
File the claim. Every week you wait is a week you don't get back.
Write down what actually happened. Plain language, no spin, no rehearsing it for anyone else.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesFile your unemployment claim. If you can't yet, write the exact reason and what unblocks it.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesSet a wake time. Not an ambitious one — one you'll still keep on day nineteen.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesDo the runway math. Look at the number properly. Vague dread is worse than a real figure.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesTell three people you're looking. Three actual people, not a broadcast post.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesFind out when your health coverage ends and what replaces it. Write the date down.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesWeek one review. What shape does the day have now that it didn't have on Monday?
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesCount them. Rejections measure the market, not you — write the number and put it away.
Build a default day you can fall back on, and start untangling who you are from what your badge said.
Pick the hour of the day that's worst and decide in advance what goes in it.
Block tomorrow into three: search, build, live. Two hours each, maximum. Searching all day is not searching.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesAnswer “so what do you do?” out loud. Say it until it comes out flat instead of apologetic.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesTen-minute walk. That's the entire task for today. Endorphins are free and you have the time.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesList what you were actually good at. The work, not the job title.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesCancel or pause one subscription. Just one. Note what it frees up.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesCall someone you haven't spoken to in a year. No ask. Just the call.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesWeek two review. Which hour of the day is worst, and what are you going to put in it?
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesCount them. Rejections measure the market, not you — write the number and put it away.
Fewer applications, more conversations. Say the gap out loud until it's boring.
Send the three messages. A conversation beats twenty applications into a portal.
Rewrite your headline. Say what you're known for, not what your badge said.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesSend three messages. Ask for a conversation, a name, or fifteen minutes — not a job.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesSay the gap out loud in two sentences. Calm, no apology, no over-explaining. Desperation is a tell.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesPick your five stories — the ones that answer most of what you'll be asked.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesFollow up on everything older than a week. Everything. It's not pestering; it's the job.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesRun one posting through a scam check before you apply. Never pay to work.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesWeek three review. How many real conversations — not applications — did you have?
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesCount them. Rejections measure the market, not you — write the number and put it away.
Point at something specific. Adjacent steps beat dramatic leaps.
Name the adjacent job. Vague searching is how a month disappears.
Name the adjacent job. Not the dream leap — the step to the side that your last five years already pay for.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesFind the free course that closes the one real gap. Coursera, Khan, MIT OpenCourseWare, your library card.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesAsk an AI assistant to argue against your pivot. Read the argument properly instead of defending yourself.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesRedo the runway math. What actually changed in four weeks?
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesCount the rejections. Write the number. Then put it away — it measures the market, not you.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesDo one thing with no career value whatsoever. This is not a rest day you have to earn.
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesWeek four review. What would you tell yourself on Day 1, knowing what you know now?
Today's one thing Panic window — from / to One good thing about today NotesCount them. Rejections measure the market, not you — write the number and put it away.
Go back to Day Zero and read it. What is true now that wasn't true then — including the things that got worse? Be accurate, not encouraging.
Write the next thirty days. Three lines, no more. If this month taught you the search needs to change shape, say how.
The last line is the one that counts. It is always thirty.
A default day you can fall back on when you can't decide anything. Searching for eight hours is not searching — it's a way to feel busy while getting worse at it. Three blocks, a start, and a hard stop.
| Time | Block | What specifically — one line |
|---|---|---|
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kept the wake time | |||||||
| Left the house | |||||||
| Moved ten minutes | |||||||
| One application or follow-up | |||||||
| One real conversation | |||||||
| Offline by my shutdown time |
Nothing here tells you what things should cost — that's your life, not a template. It tells you what order to pay in when there isn't enough, which is the question that actually keeps people awake. Keep the lights on first. Everything else is negotiable, and more of it is negotiable than you think.
| Source | Per month |
|---|---|
| Unemployment benefits | |
| Severance (spread monthly) | |
| Part-time / freelance | |
| Partner or household | |
| Other | |
| TOTAL IN |
| Non-negotiable | Per month |
|---|---|
| Rent or mortgage | |
| Utilities | |
| Food | |
| Insurance / health | |
| Transport | |
| Phone / internet | |
| Minimum debt payments | |
| Childcare | |
| SUBTOTAL |
| Cuttable | Per month |
|---|---|
| Subscriptions and streaming | |
| Eating out and delivery | |
| Gym / memberships | |
| Shopping | |
| Other | |
| SUBTOTAL |
Three things going this week, and what each frees up.
211 — dial it. Food, rent and utility help, local, in one call.
SNAP — food assistance; eligibility is based on current income, not last year's.
LIHEAP — help with heating and cooling bills.
Your utility company — ask for the hardship or budget-billing plan by name.
Your lender or landlord — forbearance and payment plans exist and are not
advertised.
These programs exist for exactly this situation. Using them is the intended use, not a failure.
Ask for a conversation, a name, or fifteen minutes — never for a job. People can't hand you a job; they can hand you a name, and a name is how most of them actually get filled. The follow-up column is the one that works.
| Date | Name | How I know them | What I asked for | What came back | Follow up by | ✓ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
“I'm between roles and looking at <the adjacent job>. You've been in that world a while — could I ask you fifteen minutes about how you'd approach it? I'm not asking you to find me anything.”
Then actually keep it to fifteen minutes, and end with: “Who else should I be talking to?”
The follow-up column is the point of this page. Everything older than a week gets a nudge; that isn't pestering, it's the part of the job most people skip.
| Date | Company & role | Where I found it | Scam-checked | Contact / name | Followed up | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Never pay to work. Never buy your own equipment up front. No legitimate employer sends a check and asks you to forward part of it, hires over a chat app without a real interview, wants your bank details or ID before an offer, or pressures you to decide today. If the pay is far above the market for the work, that's the tell, not the perk.
At the end of the month, count. Then put your hours where the interviews came from, not where the applications were easiest.
You are not trying to stop feeling it. You are keeping it inside a box with edges, so it doesn't spend the whole day loose in the house.
Different animal, same rule. Don't job-search at 3 a.m. — nothing you write then survives daylight. Write the thought on paper by the bed, in one line, and tell it that it has a slot tomorrow. Then get up, drink water, and go back.
The thought that keeps coming back| Date | From — to | What set it off | The one thing I did after | Rating 1–5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Call before you miss the payment, not after. Calling early gets you options that calling late does not, and most lenders and utilities have a program for exactly this that they will not mention unless you ask.
Write down who you spoke to and what they offered, and ask for it in writing. This page is the log. The words to use on the call, what to ask for by name, and which bills can slip and in what order are in the NextChapter app, on the Creditor calls page — it comes with the book.
| Who | Account | Phone | Date called | Who I spoke to | What they offered |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Have the account number and your last statement in front of you. Know the date the next payment is due. Decide what you can actually pay this month, even if it's nothing, so you're answering a question instead of being asked one.
If they offered something, ask for the confirmation in writing before you hang up and note the date it arrives. If they offered nothing, write that down too — and call again in a week and ask for a supervisor. Then put it away until the follow-up date.
Five stories cover most of what you'll be asked. Write them once, properly, and say them out loud until they're boring. Preparation is the cheapest confidence there is. What the interviewer is actually listening for, and why fear makes people take the wrong job, is Chapter 6.
Calm, factual, no apology, no bitterness about the last place. Practice until it's boring to say.
Adjacent steps beat dramatic leaps. Pick the one gap that keeps coming up in the postings you actually want, close it, and build one small thing that proves you closed it. A certificate nobody asked for is a hobby; a thing you built is evidence.
Coursera — audit most courses free
Khan Academy — fundamentals, genuinely free
MIT OpenCourseWare — full university courses
Codecademy · W3Schools — hands-on basics
freeCodeCamp — project-shaped, with certificates
Your library card — often unlocks LinkedIn Learning and more
“Here's my background and the pivot I'm considering. Make the strongest case that this is the wrong move, and tell me what I'd need to show to make it credible.” Read the answer properly instead of defending yourself.
Small and finished beats ambitious and abandoned.
Put it in Block 2 on the structure sheet. If it isn't in a block, it won't happen.
Some days the planner is not the point. Nothing on this page needs to be filled in.
If you are in crisis
Call or text 988 — the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline,
United States, 24 hours a day. You do not have to be suicidal to call; it is for anyone in
serious distress.
Text HOME to 741741 —
Crisis Text Line, if talking is too much right now.
Reaching out early is the ordinary use of these numbers, not the emergency one. The crisis banner at howtobeunemployed.com has both, and in the NextChapter app the crisis page works with no signal.
Eat something. Drink water. Shower and get dressed even though nobody will see you.
Ten minutes outside — not for the job search, for the daylight.
Tell one person it's a bad day. You don't have to explain it well.
Do one small physical thing you can finish. The dishes count.
Write tomorrow's one thing, then stop for the day. The search will still be there.
A rejection is a market signal, not a verdict on you. Most of them never involved a human reading anything about you at all.
Losing a job takes the shape of your week, your income and a chunk of how you describe yourself at parties, all in one afternoon. Finding it harder than you expected isn't weakness. It's the correct response to a real loss.
Dial 211 — food, rent, utilities and local help, one call, anywhere
in the US.
SNAP — food assistance, based on current income.
LIHEAP — heating and cooling bill help.
Your state's unemployment portal — the only current source for your
benefit rules.
Fill this in on a good day, so it's already written on a bad one.
Every page in here is one slice of a chapter — the method, without the words or the why. How To Be Unemployed is the full ten: the scripts, the conversations, the order things need to happen in, and the year Nora spent learning it the hard way before doing it again in six weeks.
How To Be Unemployed
How to Keep Your Sanity When You're Out of Work
Nora Barrow · ISBN 979-8-89704-479-5
howtobeunemployed.com
The companion app goes where this planner stops: the exit checklist, keeping your benefits,
COBRA and tax, networking and offer scripts, seventeen interview questions with the subtext.
No account, nothing leaves your device. You'll be asked once for the code printed in your copy.
app.howtobeunemployed.com
© Nora Barrow. This planner is free to print and share for personal use. General encouragement and personal experience — not medical, legal, tax or financial advice. Unemployment rules, benefit amounts and deadlines are set by each state and change over time; always confirm current details with your state's official agency before relying on them. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.