The first thirty days
In rough order. None of it is complicated, all of it takes longer than it should, and the sequencing is what decides how the month goes.
In rough order
- Report to your
probation officer as instructed, on the day instructed. - Get a phone number.
- Assemble identity documents, in the order that unblocks the next one.
- Recover your primary email, then everything downstream of it.
- Open a bank account, or find out why you cannot and fix it.
- Enroll in health coverage while the window is open, and refill any medication.
- Confirm your restitution balance and payment schedule in writing.
- Get your job search moving, or your approved employment documented if you already have it.
- Pull all three credit reports.
- Read your supervised release conditions in full, and ask your PO about anything ambiguous before it matters.
Sequencing is the whole thing
None of this is complicated. All of it takes longer than it should, and the sequencing is what determines whether the first month is manageable or miserable.
The time passes either way. What varies is what you have built by the end of it.
The time passes either way
What varies is what you have built by the end of it. Start the parts that have dependencies first, ask your PO before you need to, and stop treating the release date as the finish line.
These pages cover the general rules. Your situation has details they don't. Email me a question. Answers are free, and "you don't need to pay anyone for this" is my most common answer.
I answer in the order received, usually within a couple of days. I have a day job. If your situation genuinely needs more than an email, I take a limited number of consults, so say so and we'll work it out.
Somebody else is counting down to the same door. Pass it on.