For professionals: Manage Your Creative and Productive Time Efficiently

When you’re a budding professional or a creative, especially in the present times, there’s a critical need to be visible. This is not just for likes and shares. Visibility is key to advancing your career. You need to make relevant noise, be omnipresent, and ensure you’re in the right places at the right time. This takes consistent effort and must become part of your routine. It should be as natural as muscle memory.

I’m writing this short note to help beginners create a system to manage their routines. I won’t be talking much about your 9-5 job here, though—those are a necessity, and we are focusing on initiatives.

Identify Your Goal

The first step is to identify your goal. Where do you want to be? Who should find you? This depends greatly on the nature of your work and the vision you have for yourself. For instance, if you’re a professional looking to land a better job, your goal might be to get noticed by people with hiring authority. Your action here would be to find places where they exist and make yourself visible there.

If you’re a beginner, your resumes are likely being handled by HR personnel. In this case, visibility on job portals and LinkedIn is key (though, I’m not sure how active Indian HRs are on LinkedIn). Another channel could be email. As a senior professional, you’ll want to make yourself visible to VPs, Directors, and Leads. Hope you get the idea. While the strategy depends on your individual career path, we’re now going to focus on how to manage your routine once you’ve identified this goal.

Creating and Committing to a Routine

Committing to a routine isn’t easy, as it’s something you’ll need to continue doing for a long time. It’s important to avoid burnout by trying to do too many things at once. Let’s break routines down into three categories: Daily, Weekly, and Monthly. These are tasks that need to be done once a day, once a week, and once a month, respectively.

Daily Routines

Choose your daily routines wisely. You should include tasks that have a short lifespan in this category. For example, running should be part of your daily routine because the effects are immediate and short-lived. Similarly, posts on platforms like Instagram, X, or LinkedIn need daily updates because their content lifespan is only about 8 hours. The time and effort required for daily routines should be kept to a minimum.

Example: Creating quick sketches or writing ideas down every day to maintain your creative momentum.

Weekly Routines

Weekly routines might require more effort than daily ones and their outcomes have a longer-lasting effect. Things like creating YouTube videos, reading books, or writing blogs fall into this category. These tasks help build consistency over time and contribute to long-term growth.

Example: Produce and upload two YouTube videos in a week.

Monthly Routines

Monthly routines are tasks that require more effort and have a significant, long-term impact. Studying a course, conducting a workshop, attending an important event, or investing in something substantial could all be part of your monthly routine. These are tasks that yield lasting outcomes and often require more time and focus.

Example: Attending a workshop or investing in professional development.

A Sample System

Here’s an overview of my system, which I manage using Trello. My goal is better visibility and networking opportunities with top-tier founders in design, education, and media startups. Based on this goal, I’ve designed my routine system. You can see how I’ve divided my routines into three sections: daily, weekly, and monthly tasks.

I hope this helps you build your own system for managing your routines effectively. Start small, stay consistent, and adjust your system as you progress in your career. Keep in mind that the key to success is balancing routine with flexibility, so you’re always adapting to new opportunities.

_maheshravi