Most searches start with applications on day one, because applying feels like progress. It is the least useful thing you can do first. You are spending your best opportunities on a version of yourself you have not finished building.
Days 1 to 30: decide and rebuild
Pick the roles. Not a field, actual job titles, three or four of them. Pull ten real job posts for those titles and read what keeps appearing. That list is your specification. Rebuild the resume and the LinkedIn profile against it. Apply to nothing this month except roles you would take tomorrow.
Days 31 to 60: close the obvious gaps
You will have found two or three things that appear in every post and that you cannot evidence. Fix the ones you can fix in a month. A certification, a small project, a refresher on a language you have not touched in two years. Ignore the rest, they are not blocking you.
This is also when to start interview practice, before you have interviews. Rehearsing under pressure with a real one on the calendar does not work.
Days 61 to 90: apply properly
Now apply, and tailor each one. Fifteen to twenty considered applications a month is a realistic pace alongside a job. Track what comes back. If you are getting screening calls but no second rounds, the problem is the interview. If you are getting nothing, it is still the resume.
Why the order matters
Every stage makes the next one cheaper. Deciding the target makes the rewrite possible. The rewrite makes the applications worth sending. Doing it backwards is how people end up ninety days in with nothing to show.