Keeping Busy

While my fervent job search continues, I have been trying to keep myself busy each day. In these traditionally summer months, its all too tempting to surrender to the heat and let myself take a back seat. Tempting as it is, it's not a good idea and I've been actively trying to keep my brain on its toes so that I'm ready to jump in the deep end of my career in case the opportunity presents.

So here follows my top 5 favourite ways to keep myself busy:

1) Work - I am so fortunate that my old between-semester job continues to take me back again and again. For now I'm working on an ad hoc basis - taking hours as and when they come up, covering shifts at varying times in varying roles. It's a fantastic way to keep my finger on the pulse, continuing to build on my business setting skills whilst earning some money as an added bonus.
2) Write - It's purely a hobby of mine, and one I like to indulge in my spare time usually, yet while I'm between jobs I can't think of a better way to stimulate my mind and creative side.
3) Run - As a die-hard fan of the colder winter months, the heat and I don't usually agree - especially since my very fair skin tends to burn quite quickly. I am, however, determined that I should keep physically active and work towards my personal fitness goals whenever I can. As such, I have taken to running each day, adding more and more distance as I go to build up stamina and improve on my fitness levels.
4) Cook - I am by no means a gifted chef. What I do possess is an unflagging enthusiasm for experimentation, and thus my kitchen creations have been met with a new energy. I'm not saying it's always entirely edible, but it's been fun to learn what works and what doesn't. (FYI pear, cheddar and almonds in a salad is a surprisingly nice combo!)
5) Read - I'm an avid reader. It's what I love to do. For me, books contain not only lessons on writing (how to write well, or indeed how to write badly), but also inspiration in the form of creative ideas - stories which work, characters which are interesting, parallels in books with real life and whether these are effective. They're educational for me, whether fictional or not.

Part of me still can't believe it's August already. In many ways the time has moved so quickly. Yet when I stop and think about it, so much has happened in the month and a half that I've been home that it seems not enough time has passed at all.