Be Vigilant During Unemployment Time

I personally know several people who have been laid-off recently due to company bankruptcy, merger and downsizing. I personally also went through unemployment for more than 1 year after the dot-com bubble bursted. It was devastating, not only on emotional level but also on my saving. Luckily, I was single, had a roommate, and have always been a big saver, those per-conditions helped. However, what I have learned from my unemployment experience is that you have to be vigilant during your down time.

Without a job, I lost sense of direction. I eventually stopped doing other things that I would normally do outside my job. Looking back, these things are important:

1. Be vigilant - Keep you friends and family close. Make sure you talk and keep in touch with them. They provide emotional support. In my case, I met my wife through a friend during my unemployment days. She gave me new direction in life and motivated me to find a new job and got me out of the slump. So the moral is, do not close yourself in, stay in constant contact with your family and friends.
   
2. Be vigilant - Check up on your 401(k). When money stopped coming in, I also stopped checking up on my 401(k) - big mistake. Since I do not plan to touch that money until I retire anyway, I should have re-balance my 401(k) portfolio and buy funds that were undervalued. That lesson really taught me the meaning of 'buy-low-sell-high'.
3. Be vigilant - Check up on you credit report. During bad economic times, you can bet that crime rates are going to go up. To protect yourself from identity theft, check your credit report. The web site www.annualcreditreport.com provides you access to three credit rating agencies: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You can pull your credit report from each agency for FREE once a year. I set a repeat reminder on my Yahoo! Calendar every 4 months (example: April-Experian, August-Equifax & December-TransUnion) to check up on my credit report. They do charge a fee if you want your exact credit score.
4. Be vigilant - Keep yourself busy. There are only limited number of jobs out there on Monster.com or CareerBuilder.com and you will pretty soon find yourself looking at the same jobs over and over again. Limit the number of hours for job hunting, because it is really no good wasting time staring at the computer screen and feel depress. Read books that you have always wanted to read (borrow books from public library), volunteering, exercising and hanging out with friends are all good ways to spend your non-job hunting time. The goal is to keep yourself busy.

Did you just got laid-off? Did you go through one? What are you doing\did to stay positive?