Today is Saturday, 23 May 2026. I sat down for an accountability check on the deliberate practice plan I’d set for myself two months ago. Putting the honest reading down here.

The plan I had

A 30-day deliberate practice plan starting 23 March. Mornings before the commute, evenings after the US standup, longer weekend blocks. DSA + system design + machine coding braided together. Day by day, real schedule.

What I actually achieved

In DP: the five variants of the house robber problem, a little bit of knapsack, and some 1D DP. Not really worked on 2D DP and none of the other patterns that were planned, I could not revise them.

In LLD / machine coding: I have implemented the URL shortener and the parking lot design. And on top of this I have also solved that top-K rated agent problem.

I did some preparation for machine learning rounds at HackerRank. I got a rejection. I think my solution was fine but I might have been late about a week, and the O on my resume might not have been aligned.

Apart from all of this I think I just was busy and occupied with my regular office work and house routine.

The hiccups

Fridays

The thing with Fridays is that I treat it like I am tapping out on Fridays. I just feel like okay finally the dreadful week has come to closure. Even if I dont have much on Friday I feel agitated and restless and then I am not able to close my things on Friday. Some things just flow on till Friday and end feels like am relieved on Friday.

Weekend dispersion

Today as a test case. Woke up around 8, freshened up by 9. Then used my phone about 2 hours. Then read some random stuff on laptop for the next some time. Did a little prompting with Claude and it’s 4:10 PM now. I was lying and lounging too, had some mangoes with family etc. in the noon, but nothing much apart from that.

Eight hours of Saturday gone. Zero focused study.

The mechanism is honest: the first 90 minutes after waking are unprogrammed, so the phone fills them. By 11 AM I’m in consumption mode and the rest of the day inherits it. Family lunch is a real break only if there’s something to break from. There wasn’t.

I don’t feel like I’ve been particularly productive on the home front, and also studying and preparing on the weekends most of the time has not been that great. I did fall a little bit.

The whimsy

If a topic feels like I understood it I dont feel like pursuing it further or closing it further.

Masters vs grind

At least for the short term I’m seeing an online masters in computer science from UIUC or Georgia Tech as a good option. I’m not sure how much will it lead to a PhD and not sure how it would lead to that either, but at least on the short term I see this as a viable option.

On the other hand I feel it’s fine for me to stay with the bachelors approach and keep grinding and preparing and studying by myself, and get competent enough to apply at Anthropic or OpenAI or any of the AI labs based on my projects and contributions and stuff like that. But I’ve not been able to make any improvement or progress in that front at the very least.

If I’m thinking of it from different tugs and pulls I feel I keep wandering around but not making a lot of, or covering a lot of, ground.

Physical activity

Right now I dont go to the gym or workout. There is no sport or any other physical activity in my life apart from my commute, where I need to take the crowded packed metro and walk about in total 500 meters every day between different modes of transport. But it’s so exhausting I cant imagine to take up any sort of physical activity.

The catch I noticed: on Friday Saturday and Sunday when I am working from home I have not done much to actually show for, even when I have time those days. So blaming that doesnt feel right.

Where I actually stand today

Two months in.

I have made okay progress, but for what I had targeted for myself and the goals that I had set, I have definitely not been at par.

The old plan is archived. 17 weekends remain to 18 September 2026. The Masters decision is pinned to 15 July. No improvement or progress on the projects / AI-lab-application front. Nothing to show there.

How do I solve this now.

I don’t want to shoot for the stars and keep falling flat on the ground because that’s exactly what’s been happening.

Next entry when there’s something real to report.