The grass is always greener. Or so the adage goes. And this can sometimes seem especially true in singledom when there’s a dry spell. Friday nights without any plans, long weekends, vacation season of the holidays looking can add a little extra temptation to wonder if you’re really better off flying solo.

Sometimes time apart really can give clarity and enough perspective to reassess the relationship,  and decide that it was right in the first place. But being with someone just to avoid being alone is selling everyone short. Noone wants, or deserves to be, a placeholder.

So what to do with your suddenly free social calendar? Or even if you’ve embraced singlehood for awhile, your mojo might need a bit of a boost. Boredom can trump even the best judgement!

First, take the time to really get comfortable with yourself again. Learn to enjoy the solitude and catch up with yourself. Take walks, read, journal, spend a night watching movies you always meant to see but never had time. The break might be refreshing – look at it as a mental vacation, rather than an enforced experience of being unplugged.

Next, don’t panic. The economy has cycles, politics has cycles, and guess what? Your life does, too. It can be tough to keep restlessness and frustration in check when there’s a dry period with no prospects in sight, but things won’t stay that way forever. Build the life you want and don’t wait for the relationship.

Finally, make some plans. There’s frenetic activity that smacks of desperation when every hour has to be filled in order to keep panic at bay. Learn to structure in activities that you enjoy without going overboard. Don’t make every activity a prospecting one!Cultivate your friendships, get going at the gym, pursue a hobby, take a class. Before you know it, the hours will fill easily. The important thing is to do activities you enjoy as ends in themselves.

Let the nostalgia show you the best parts of the ended relationship so you know what to look for the next time around. And in most cases, keeping it alive in your memory is the best place for it. Things ended for a reason. Before drifting to what’s known and comfortable, let yourself really experience the beghinning of something new.