If you’re a developer, you know exactly what life looks like (at some point):
- Bookmarking LeetCode patterns that you never actually solve.
- Buying Courses that stay at “14% complete.”
- Telling yourself you’ll start studying seriously “after this current busy sprint at work ends.”
Well, the sprint always ends, but another one begins.
The can gets kicked down the road.]
So, today, I’m stopping the cycle.
I am entering what I call a “War Time Life Changing” period: 90 days of focused, intense preparation designed to break through my current plateau and prepare me for high-level roles.
But here is the reality check:
I have a full-time job that requires at least 7 to 8 hours of my best mental energy every day.
I have bills to pay and a body that will shut down if I don’t take care of it.
Now,
Taking the reality in consideration, a roadmap that lists “Do 5 LeetCode Hards a day” is a roadmap that will fail on Day 3.
If I want to survive 90 days of this, I need a holistic plan that accounts for the reality of being an employed adult.
So, this should not just be a study plan, it has to be a life management plan for the next three months.
Alright, so I’ve come up with these pillars.
Pillar 1: The 11-to-7 (The Funding Source)
My full-time job is not an inconvenience, it’s the VC funding for this entire operation. It pays the rent and keeps the lights on while I upgrade my skills.
The goal here isn’t to slack off, of course but it’s to set boundaries.
- I need to perform well, but I cannot expend 110% of my mental energy at the office.
- I need to leave 20% in the tank for the evening grind.
No heroic overtime unless absolutely necessary.
Pillar 2: The Grind (DSA & System Design)
This is where the real work happens. The goal is to move to “active problem solving.”
- Time Allocated: 90 minutes to 2 hours every weekday night. More on weekends.
- The Focus: Re-learning the foundational patterns (Graphs, DP, Trees) actively. If I can’t write the solution on a blank whiteboard without looking up syntax, I don’t know it. Clear, Shashwat?
- System Design: Moving beyond buzzwords. Not just knowing what Kafka is, but understanding exactly when it breaks and why I’d choose it over RabbitMQ in a specific scenario.
Pillar 3: Biological Hardware (Health & Sleep)
This is usually the first thing developers sacrifice, and it’s why they burn out. Your brain is a biological machine. It doesn’t run on sheer willpower, okay? It runs on sleep, glucose, and oxygen.
If I sleep 4 hours a night to get extra study time, my IQ drops by 15 points the next day. It’s net-negative efficiency.
- The Rule: 7 hours of sleep is a non-negotiable business requirement.
- Movement: 45 minutes a day of lifting or cardio. Not to become a bodybuilder (I already have abs so we need to retain those), but to clear cortisol (stress hormones) out of my system so I can actually focus when I sit down to code.
Pillar 4: Logistics and Admin (The Invisible Killer)
Let’s not ignore this. I live alone. So,
Who buys the groceries? Who does the laundry? Who cleans the apartment?
If I don’t plan for this, “Study Time” turns into “Emergency Laundry Time.”
- The Strategy: Saturday is Logistics Day. Clean the workspace, handle finances, do laundry, and sometimes work on my side projects that I build for fun. Let’s buy ourselves mental peace from Monday to Friday.
Pillar 5: Public Accountability (The “Why I’m Writing This”)
I learnt this from a book called Show Your Work.
I cannot quit because you will be watching :)
This Medium page will be my forcing function. I will document the daily struggle.
Like a short log every night before bed.
A victory lap about finally understanding Topological Sort or a two-sentence post admitting I was too exhausted to open my IDE.
Honesty is the only requirement.
Day 1 Starts Now
The roadmap is set.
The environment is ready.
Now comes the hard part: actually doing it for 90 days in a row.
See you in the evening, again.