How I structure my evenings during Articleship and CA Final prep
After three months of trying every productivity hack on the internet, I settled on a simple two-block evening routine. Block one is 90 minutes of focused CA Final revision while the day’s office work is still fresh. Block two is dinner, a walk, and a real wind-down. Two blocks. No alarms inside them. Here is what each looks like and what I cut to make it fit.
The mistake I made for my first two months
When my articleship started, I built a perfect-looking schedule. Six 30-minute blocks every evening, each one labelled by subject. SFM, DT, IDT, AFM, Audit, and a “review” block at the end. I told myself this would let me touch every subject every day.
It did the opposite. I spent the first five minutes of each block remembering where I had left off the previous day, and the last five minutes packing up because the next subject was about to start. Twenty real working minutes per block, six blocks, and somehow nothing stuck.
The trap was treating the schedule like a goal instead of a tool. I cared more about how the calendar looked at 10 pm than about whether I had actually understood anything.
Block one: 90 minutes of focused revision (7:30 to 9:00 pm)
This is the only block I treat as non-negotiable. One subject, one chapter, no phone in the room. I get home around 7 pm, eat a quick snack, and start by 7:30.
What goes in this block:
- Re-reading the morning’s office notes if anything from work touched CA Final material (this happens more often than I expected, especially with audit and tax topics)
- One module section or one textbook chapter I am revising that week
- A maximum of three small problems worked by hand, or one page of summary writing in my notebook
What does not go in:
- New material I have never seen before
- Watching lectures (these go in weekend slots, not weeknights)
- Switching between two subjects mid-block
I do not aim to “finish a chapter”. I aim to come out of the block remembering one specific thing clearly. If a single concept finally makes sense, that is a successful block.
Block two: dinner, walk, book (9:00 to 11:00 pm)
This block exists because the first one is so dense. After 90 minutes of focused work plus a full day at the firm, my brain is done with structured input.
I eat dinner with family, walk for 20 to 30 minutes without a podcast, and read a printed book before bed. The book is intentionally not about taxation, accounting, or finance. Right now it is a biography. Last month it was a novel. The point is to step into a completely different mental space so I actually fall asleep.
I aim to be in bed by 11 and lights off by 11:30. This is the part of the routine that took the longest to protect, and it is also the part that quietly made everything else better.
What I stopped doing
A short list of things I cut, in case any of them sound familiar:
- Studying with the phone in the same room, face down. The face-down trick does nothing.
- Trying to revise on the commute home. The bus is for music, podcasts, or just looking out the window, not for module pages.
- Scheduling more than one CA Final block per weekday.
- Reading study-influencer threads on social media. Useful for ten minutes a month, not for an hour a week.
Why two blocks beat four blocks
When I had four small blocks, every block was a transition. Transitions cost focus. Two long blocks have one transition between them, which is dinner. That is a transition I want anyway.
Two blocks also let me have an honest answer to the question “did I study today”. If block one happened, the answer is yes. The answer is binary. There is no “I did three of my five blocks and skipped two”, which is the kind of half-answer that quietly turns into not studying for a week.
The non-negotiables
Three things I do not move on, even on a bad day:
- Block one starts by 8 pm at the latest. If I am late, I do 60 minutes instead of 90 and accept it.
- No screens in bed.
- Sunday afternoon is for lectures and longer practice problems, in 2 to 3 hour stretches. Weeknights are not for that.
Everything else flexes. If a client visit runs long, dinner shifts, the walk gets shorter, the book gets ten pages instead of thirty. Block one still happens, just compressed.
What I would try differently if I started over
I would set up the two-block routine from day one instead of being heroic with six 30-minute blocks. A boring routine that you actually do every weekday will beat a perfect routine that runs for three days and then collapses.
Frequently asked questions
How long did it take to settle into this routine?
About six weeks. The first two were trying too many blocks. Weeks three and four were the gap, when I was barely studying because the old plan had collapsed and I had not made a new one yet. The two-block routine started in week five and felt natural by the end of week six.
What if office work runs late?
On days when I get home after 8 pm, I do 45 to 60 minutes of revision, then dinner and bed. I drop the walk on those days. The walk comes back the next day.
Does this work for everyone?
Probably not. People with longer commutes, family responsibilities, or different sleep chronotypes will need different blocks. The shape of the principle, fewer blocks of higher quality and a real break afterwards, is probably more portable than the exact times.
Where do weekends fit in?
Saturdays are office. Sunday morning is for chores and family. Sunday afternoon to evening is for longer study sessions, including new material and full lectures. I do not study on Sunday night because I want to start Monday rested.
Do I keep notes?
Yes, in a single A5 notebook. One page per chapter, dated, with the date of the most recent revision in the top corner. I have tried digital notes more times than I want to admit and always come back to paper. Your mileage may vary.
I am Abhinav Kadiam, a CA Finalist working through Articleship. I write about how I am learning, in public.