Looking for a job involves a wide range of responsibilities: preparing a resume, looking at ads, contacting employers, calling and visiting friends and acquaintances, follow ups, interviews. While none of us ever plan to be out of work for very long, it can be very useful to immediately start documenting your activities and your feelings to provide a road map of where you have been and where you want to go. It helps to have a central location for recording your daily actions so you don't miss anything important or forget a critical deadline. It is also reassuring to have somewhere to go when you're feeling blue and too lethargic to go anywhere or do anything you consider "productive."

Start a job search diary right now. Even if you have been unemployed for some time, start one anyway because a late start is better than never doing it at all.

Take a plain old exercise book and title it: Job Search Diary. Find a spot to keep it where it will always be close at hand when you need it, probably several times a day.

If you are newly jobless, start out by recording your feelings. Writing out (keep it simple, it's not the great American novel) what you are thinking, in black and white sentences, helps to sort out your jumbled emotions, clear your mind, and reach a better understanding of your inner self. Jot down your anger, your fears, what you expect, what you secretly dread. Pouring out your soul will release a lot of the inner tension you're feeling and soothe your nerves.

This record is for you - no one else will ever see it - so you can be brutally honest. If you fear you are a loser who will never amount to anything, write it out. If you think you're really a good, competent worker but your old boss was a jerk or the company sucked, put it down.

If you have been out of work for a while, make your initial entries a recap of what has been happening in your life since you lost your job. Trace the sequence of events and see if you can remember how you felt at different times. There were probably times when you were overwhelmed and stressed out: record when you felt that way and, if you can recall, what activities you were engaged in when those feelings appeared. There were also probably times when you felt hopeful or elated. Record that too and what events were connected with such emotions.