Starting Somewhere: My Messy Plan for Career Growth

I tried the Pomodoro method, GTD, day-week-month planning, various ToDo lists — all in vain. I took something from each method and created my own, though it’s not the final version. I analysed my day, my time, and how I spend it — what I can do during the workday and in the evening. I switched to a 4-day week to have more time to figure out my next professional step — I want it to be in the UK — and grow my hard skills. Here is what it looks like so far.

Instead of having a separate notebook for each activity, I started a new notebook for everything. I don’t split it into parts. I take it with me everywhere and write all types of notes in it. When I finish it I’ll add coloured notes to it, or create a contents page or something else. I haven’t decided yet. But now: all in one book. I started the current one on January 20 and I’ve used about 2/3 of it already.

I use 1.5-hour blocks like we used to have at the university — it’s long enough to get focused and do something noticeable, and short enough not to get exhausted from hyper-focusing. After each block I have a 30-minute break, after each two blocks, one hour.

My week includes 10-20 blocks: 1 or 2 during the workdays and 3-6 blocks on other days. Saturday is my day off. No working on the plan on Saturday. Now I only do my minimum plan each week, but when I get into the rhythm (and finish all those postponed home and family things), I think I will get closer to the maximum plan.

I split all activities into groups:

Study. If I come across something new I want to know or something I once knew but have forgotten I write it down in my notebook. Well, frankly, I keep a list for that in the same book. This includes courses, articles, names of technologies and even “stupid questions”.

Practice. This includes working on one of my projects or solving problems on LeetCode or other platforms. Of course all my project ideas and plans go to my notebook.

Career. It includes not only looking for vacancies on LinkedIn and other sites but also maintaining this blog and maybe even writing articles someday. It also covers updating my resume and LinkedIn profile, writing cover letters, and sometimes reading articles about this process as well. All those self-representation things too. If I ever get to fill in papers for a visa, it will also belong here.

Hobby. I have one block a week for my hobby, which is writing. Usually, it’s Friday morning — the only block that has its own fixed time.

Other. All kinds of other things that don’t fit into other categories.

The most important thing: my planning is not strict. If I planned to do something on Monday evening and didn’t do this, it moves to the next block and all schedule shifts down. So I don’t need to rewrite over and over again the same unimportant thing which is there as a reserve. Well, sometimes I change the planned order in case something became urgent or other circumstances appeared. Or I need to spend more time studying. I do my planning every 2-3 weeks. It sounds messy, but I’ve started this journey only on February 23.

When I plan blocks, not only do I plan the type of activity, but I also plan the exact thing I should do in this block: “Update LI profile”, “Write cover letter for that saved job”, “LeetCode”, “BookTracker” (my project).

Example

I did the planning on Monday morning and that’s what I got. It includes dates, but they are just for reference on how things are going. In fact, this week was a total mess, so I’m only now getting to work through the plan.

17.03.25
Career: Google — check if I can apply for one more vacancy
Study: MS test (course on LI)
Other: 14:30-17:30
Study: MS test or SQL Optimisation (courses on LI)

18.03.25
Career: jobs inside the current company
Practice: tests for Comparer project

19.03.25
Study: System Design (article)
Career: update profile on LI according to resume

20.03.25 —

21.03.25 - 23.03.25
Practice: LeetCode (medium level)
Study: System Design (continue with article)
Career: prepare cases for the interview
Practice: work on BookTracker
Career: blog (my projects; week results)

I had IELTS exam on Saturday and it knocked me completely out of schedule. But I’m returning — I’m returning.

Punctuation check provided by ChatGPT (non-native here, yeah).