Time Management for CSE

I have this thing that I tell every aspirant I meet. I think it’s a bit scary but it’s as real as it gets. I’ll reiterate it here for the benefit of the online community — If you cannot manage your time, please don’t write this exam.

In college, studying randomly was my favorite thing to do. Wake up in the morning, eat breakfast and see where the day takes you — that was my philosophy during my Emory/UCL days. I have passed many of my college exams courtesy all-nighters. It is this bullshit mindset that will ruin all your plans in the real world. Yes, you can get As in college without consistent hard work. But in the real world, consistency and focus is the game. You will suffer immensely for having a casual attitude.

Learn from my experience. I wasted 2 attempts because I was a total disaster at time-management. In my third attempt, I rectified all my mistakes. I’ll write here about what I see as the essence of time management, not only for CSE but for any long term goal.

1. Learn to say no!

You can’t be everywhere doing everything. Every year, there will be many exciting things that will be happening. Best friend’s wedding. Coldplay concert in Bombay. College reunion in London. Cousins chilling in Manali. Whatever. It doesn’t matter. If you have decided to join the IFS, IPS or the IAS, you must be mentally and emotionally ready to say no to the myriad distractions that will come your way. You must be prepared to say no to anything that will destroy the momentum of your preparation or take you out of your zone. Prioritise. It is just a matter of 2–4 years. I know it feels long but it will be over soon.

2. Have macro goals, a weekly break-up and daily targets

You cannot study randomly for CSE. A study plan is crucial.
Firstly, figure out your sources. Then break the sources down into the number of days that will take you to finish a subject. Figure out how many revisions you need to squeeze in before the final day. And give your best shot within the time constraint.

For example: My preliminary was on June 18. I began my Prelims prep on 1st of Jan. That gave me 5 months to prepare my general studies. I had allocated a fixed quota of hours for current affairs daily.

Jan to March 15- I did my first reading. March 16 to April 30- I did my second reading. May 1 to May 20- I did my third reading. May 20 to June 5- I did my fourth reading. I tried to do very quick and strategic revisions in the third and fourth readings. So instead of reading the whole thing, just try to recall the keywords and ideas.

I had clarity on the sources that had to be covered. So I fixed the amount of days for each source. Example: Laxmikanth would take 12 days. Modern History Spectrum would take 5 days. Ancient History NCERT would take 5 days. Environment and Ecology Shankar IAS notes would take 10 days, etc.

Then I had my daily to-do list. So if I had given 12 days to polity, I would break the entire book into specific chapters for each day. For example, If I’m supposed to do chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 on day 1, I would even figure out the break up of the daily routine for that day.

For example:
my sample schedule before the preliminary

7:00 wake up
7:30 to 9:00 →Chapter 1
10:00 to 11:30 → Chapter 2, 3
11:30 to 12:30 → read newspaper
12:30 to 2:30 → lunch and nap
3:00 to 5:30 → Chapter 4, 5
6:00–7:00 → yoga/walk/music
7:30 to 9:00 → Current Affairs (June, July vision booklet)
9:30 to 10:45 → revise everything

Point to be noted: I understand that you cannot be robotic about your schedule. Humans are spontaneous and too much time-tabling can suck the fun out of life. I will confess that I never followed my time-table with precision. But having a game plan on paper kept me productive, efficient and focussed. Your time table is your GPS for the day. Without it, you will just get lost in the wilderness and waste time. Also, even if you are finishing 70–90% of your timetables daily, that’s very good. Timetables should be challenging but never unrealistic. Unrealistic timetables i.e. 14 hour timetables will never be executed consistently. You might just end up feeling demoralised and depressed.

Similarly for Mains, my plan was to finish Section A, B, C of my optional, write 3 essay tests, read my ethics notes and write previous year ethics papers (‘13-’16) before the announcement of the preliminary results. I decided to tame the GS beast post the results.
I created a monthly plan for myself (June 25 to July 25) and assigned 5 hours for the optional + 2 hours for Ethics + 2 hours for Answer writing practice. Then I assigned topics that were to be studied each day. I had a very specific source for that topic.
The time table was plain and simple- something that could be happily executed. I took it easy and one day at a time. And voila! By the time I found out that I had cleared the preliminary, I realised that I had indeed covered 70% of my optional and gained confidence in Ethics/Essay papers. I was in the game!

3. Identify your time-encroachers

What are those things that waste your time, destroy your momentum and add zero value to your CSE game? Social media was a big one for me. Another one was having a smart phone and a laptop.
There is no generic rule that to become a diplomat, you have to renounce social media and go live in a cave. The key here is to know yourself. If you feel that facebook and instagram have zero bearing on the quality of your preparation , then it is advisable to stay in touch with these platforms as they will give you that temporary respite when prep just gets too overwhelming and boring.
Instagram and Facebook were never really a distraction for me because I find them to be mostly useless, unless your profession mandates you to be on these platforms. Laptop was a potential distraction because I would feel tempted to waste time on youtube or reddit. It was very clear to me that too much hyper-connectivity via what’sapp brings negative energy into my life. So I decided to give away my smartphone and laptop a month before my preliminary. I continued this for 4 months of Mains. I think this really helped me stay in a very happy and productive zone.

How did I do my online test series? I used the desktop in the common room. My parents usually hang around that area so that kept me super accountable. I communicated with my friends over e-mail to fix coffee dates. I am a reflexive alarm snoozer so I decided to prepare for Mains at home. It was important for me to have someone who would wake me up at 7 am each day without fail with a cup of coffee. This is a system that worked for me. Know yourself — understand your own weaknesses and vulnerablities and create a system that allows you to be your happiest and most productive self.

4. Patience!

Mihir Shah, my professor at the Young India Fellowship shared something incredible with our class one day. Patience is a beautiful virtue and please try to consciously cultivate it in your life. It will make your life simpler and your UPSC journey smoother.

“The virtues purify and soften the heart, turn the heart-lotus upwards and prepare the aspirant for the reception of divine light”

Patience is strength. It is the greatest and sublimest power. Patience can work wonders. It can move mountains. Patient working can achieve anything in this world. It will surmount every obstacle in the search after truth. A patient man can have what he will.

Everything comes if you will wait. To know how to wait is the great secret of success. Patience lies at the root of all pleasures. Patience develops willpower and the power of endurance. Be patient in little things. Learn to bear the daily trials and annoyances quietly and calmly. You will develop great strength and bear severe calamities, privations, sufferings and adversities. Patience strengthens the spirit, sweetens the temper, stifles anger, develops the will-force, extinguishes jealousy, subdues pride, controls the organ of speech, and restrains the hand.

– Swami Sivananda Saraswati

Practice this virtue in thought, word and action.

Stay focussed and please try to find joy in your routine. Know exactly what you are supposed to accomplish when you wake up. For this, invest 10 minutes before going to bed and chalk out an agenda for the day.
Take it one day at a time and don’t think too far into the future. What will happen? Will it all work out? Stop overthinking. Believe in your heart that it will work out and better your systems each day. Divert all your energy into action and not thought. Ignite your karma! Work hard silently and let your success make all the noise!

All the best ❤ to everyone writing CSE.