Months, or even years, can easily go by without giving conscious thought to your career or professional growth. So, we’ve put together a week long schedule that you can do at any stage of your career to refocus and inject some motivation into your professional life!

Sunday: Set Your Goals

If this seems too daunting to start with, move it to the end of your week. Keep it simple, think about what you want – in six months, in a year and in five years. Sometimes thinking about your end goal will naturally inform the steps you take i.e. If you have a vision of where you are in five years – what can you do in the next year to get closer to that? And, remember, don’t limit yourself to ‘professional’ goals – if you think about where you want to be in life in a general sense, a fulfilling career will complement that.

Monday: Find Your Dream Job

Get on Seek and search exactly what you want – title, organisation, location, salary… Do this totally knowing that you’re completely underqualified. It’s the perfect way to identify what you need to do now to get where you want to be. It’s also great to do this when you’re not actually job hunting because it won’t make you feel desperate and inadequate, rather, it sets you the perfect challenge.

Tuesday: Visit Your Professional Association or Favourite Industry Blog

This is so simple, and it’s easy to underestimate how powerful it can be. Spend half an hour checking out articles on a high quality site relevant to your industry and. Boom. You’ve got current industry knowledge, great conversation starters and maybe even some exciting inspiration!

Wednesday: Build Your Online Network

Again, really easy. Google organisations within your industry and identify some that appeal to you – this could be due to a great work culture, similar ideological standpoints or fantastic projects. Next, connect with them on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Thursday: Develop Your Skills

Ok, this is where we look back to Monday and start working on those gaps. If you’re already studying and working part-time, that’s a great start. So now look at niche skills that will make you stand out – coding basics, beginner’s French, a Photoshop tutorial, project management core understandings.

Friday: Update Your Resume

You’ll be surprised how quickly your resume feels out of date. The way you communicate is likely to change and you’ll constantly be gaining new skills and experiences from work, uni projects and community based activities. Quick refreshes periodically will make it much easier when you all of a sudden have a job you want to apply for. Visit Curtin Challenge for a guide on resume writing if you want an extra hand.

Saturday: Enjoy the Progress

Highly likely that doing these simple activities will have helped you to refocus on your goals and reminded you why you’re doing the hard work that you are (we’re very sorry if it didn’t!). Enjoy the energy that comes with that and repeat the activities in a few months. Bonne chance!