The Canonical Week

10–15 hours of personal C++ work per week, on top of a full-time Zoho job in India. This is a real constraint, not a suggestion. Weeks that assume 20+ hours will collapse by M3.

The rhythm below is the default. It is designed for a single working adult in Bangalore/Chennai, IST, with a partner or family that expects to see you, and Zoho hours that end at 7 PM most nights (later during quarterly closes). Adjust the block positions to your life; do not adjust the total hours.

The Default Week (12 hours target)

Day

Block

Hours

What it is

Non-negotiable?

Mon

06:30–07:00 morning drill

0.5

DSA problem (M3+) OR reading paragraph (M1–M2)

Yes

Mon

21:00–22:00 evening block

1

Current-phase reading + lab-notebook.md entry

Yes

Tue

06:30–07:00 morning drill

0.5

DSA or reading

Yes

Tue

21:00–22:00 evening block

1

Rung code

Yes

Wed

— REST

0

No C++. Family / gym / partner / friends / wife-if-married

Yes

Thu

06:30–07:00 morning drill

0.5

DSA or reading

Yes

Thu

21:00–22:00 evening block

1

Rung code

Yes

Fri

06:30–07:00 morning drill

0.5

DSA or reading

Optional

Fri

— REST evening

0

Actively rest. No guilt.

Yes

Sat

09:00–13:00 deep work

4

The block where rungs get built. Sanctuary time.

Yes

Sat

17:00–19:00 secondary

2

Optional. Reading OR community engagement (r/cpp, blog draft)

Optional

Sun

09:00–11:00 finish + polish

2

Close the week’s deliverable. CI green. Push.

Yes

Sun

20:00–20:30 retro + plan

0.5

Sprint retro (bi-weekly), lab notebook, plan next week

Yes

Total

12 (10 non-optional + 2 optional)

Daily morning drill = 25 minutes of focused work + 5 minutes of writing what you learned. Non-negotiable four days a week.

Why This Shape Works

Mornings are DSA-shaped. Coding a NeetCode problem before breakfast is the highest-signal use of a fresh brain. It’s short enough not to sabotage your workday. It also compounds: 4 drills × 52 weeks = 208 problems, more than NeetCode 150.

Evenings are reading-shaped or rung-shaped, never both. Split-focus evenings after Zoho are wasted. Pick one. Rung-code evenings need Tuesday and Thursday because those are the two nights closest to the next deep-work block, keeping context warm.

Wednesday is a hard rest day. If you code Mon–Sun with no gap, you break by M4. The Wednesday cutoff is what makes the plan sustainable across 13 months. Do not fill it.

Saturday morning is sanctuary time. 4 hours of deep work in one sitting is where rungs actually get built. Everything else is small chunks. This is the block that is worth defending against family, friends, and Zoho emergencies. Communicate it clearly to your household.

Sunday morning finishes; Sunday evening plans. Sunday morning is when Saturday’s work becomes a green commit and a pushed PR. Sunday evening is the retro, the notebook entry, and next week’s intent. This is the only “admin” time you get. Don’t skip it.

The 15-Hour Variant (Ambitious Weeks Only)

Use this when you have unusually high energy AND no Zoho fire AND no family event. Do not default to it. Defaulting to 15 hours is how you break at M5.

  • Add Sat afternoon 14:00–16:00 (2 hrs, secondary reading / community engagement).

  • Add Sun afternoon 15:00–16:00 (1 hr, extra rung polish).

  • Keep Wednesday rest.

  • Cap: no more than 2 consecutive 15-hour weeks. Then drop back to 12.

The 8-Hour Variant (Recovery / Zoho Crunch Weeks)

Use this during Zoho quarterly closes (March, June, September, December), around Diwali, during weddings, or when tired.

  • Drop all morning drills except Monday (0.5 hr Monday only).

  • Drop Tue + Thu evenings entirely.

  • Keep Saturday 09:00–13:00 (4 hrs).

  • Keep Sunday 09:00–11:00 (2 hrs).

  • Keep Sunday retro (0.5 hr).

  • Total: 7 hrs. Round up to 8.

A week at 8 hours is not a failed week. It is a week where you honored the reality of your life. Log it in slippage_log.md as “reduced load” not “missed”.

Slippage Rules — Green / Yellow / Red

Green (default state):

  • Hit 10–12 hours 3 of 4 weeks in the month.

  • Rung deliverable for the sprint shipped or on track.

  • Wednesday rest respected.

Yellow (adjust and continue):

  • 2 consecutive weeks below 8 hours.

  • Sprint deliverable slipped by 3–10 days.

  • Skipped 2 morning drills in a week.

  • Action: re-read 13_discipline/06_failure_modes.md. Reduce next sprint’s planned load by 20%. Do not add a “catch-up push” — that is the AI-rebound trap (99_pre_mortem/02_the_AI_rebound.md).

Red (stop and reset):

  • 3 consecutive weeks below 6 hours.

  • Sprint deliverable slipped >10 days.

  • Missed a hard gate (M9 or M11) by >14 days.

  • Consistently sacrificing sleep or Wednesday rest.

  • Action: enter reset protocol per 99_pre_mortem/09_summary_and_reset_protocol.md. 14-day pause. Honest conversation with yourself and, if relevant, family. Rescope, drop a rung stretch goal, and continue. Do not quit. Reset is not quitting; reset is the plan surviving reality.

India-Specific Notes

  • Power cuts: Chennai/Bangalore have occasional monsoon-season cuts. Keep your MacBook charged; consider a small UPS for your router if Sunday-night pushes matter to you.

  • Wedding season (Nov–Feb): Expect 1–2 lost weekends per month for 4 months. Default to the 8-hour variant during these weeks. Do not try to compensate the following week; that is the trap.

  • Diwali cluster (late Oct / early Nov): Assume a full lost week between Dhanteras and Bhai Dooj. Buffer week W20 exists to absorb this.

  • Financial year-end (Zoho fiscal Q4, Mar 1 – Mar 31): Highest Zoho workload of the year. Coincides with Rung 6 hard gate (2027-03-31). This is the single most dangerous scheduling collision in the plan. Read 99_pre_mortem/04_the_zoho_creep.md in the last week of February 2027. Consider deferring Rung 6 by 1 week if Zoho pressure is severe — that is what the 14-day tolerance is for.

  • Summer heat (Apr–Jun): Move deep-work blocks to mornings. Afternoon Bangalore/Chennai heat drops sustained-focus quality measurably (2–3 hrs of afternoon work equals ~1.5 hrs of morning work in effect). Follow the sun.

  • Family dinners: Sunday evening dinner with parents (if you live nearby) or a weekly video call (if not) is a non-optional cultural anchor for most Indian families. Schedule it into the calendar; do not treat it as “maybe.”

  • Partner / spouse: If you have one, they need to see the calendar. “Saturday morning is sanctuary time” only works if the household agrees to it. Do not surprise-defend the block; negotiate it in advance.

What Most People Get Wrong About Weekly Rhythms

They treat the plan as “do more when you feel like it, less when you don’t.” This inverts the rhythm. The plan works because the floor is fixed (morning drills, Saturday 09:00, Sunday close), not because the ceiling is high. Skip Wednesday rest and you break. Skip Saturday morning and you fall behind. Fill Wednesday with catch-up code and you break faster.

The second failure: they don’t defend Saturday morning. Every extended-family emergency, every friend brunch, every “quick coffee” tries to eat the Saturday block. If you say yes to any of them, you say no to the plan. Say no with warmth: “I have a deep-work block until 1 PM; brunch at 2 works.” Every serious learner in the world says a version of this sentence weekly.

The third failure: they don’t rest on Friday evening. Friday evening is the transition. Working through it costs you Saturday morning’s edge. A tired Saturday 09:00 is worth 40% of a rested one. Rest Friday, honor Saturday.

Return to: README.md · Next: 05_kpi_dashboard.md — the metrics you’ll track weekly, monthly, and quarterly.