Tara's 2026 Leveling Schedule

optional break routine study build create fundamentals prayer

🕌

Subuh (Fajr) 04:30 – 04:45 prayer

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→Wake up, wudhu, salat Subuh
→Optional: dzikir / short doa after salat
→Go back to sleep after if needed — Subuh is early, rest matters

💡 Subuh time shifts slightly across the year. Check your local prayer schedule (e.g. Muslim Pro app). The slot is a guide — follow actual azan time.

😴

Rest / Early Morning 04:45 – 06:00 break

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Morning Run 06:00 – 06:45 optional

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→2–3x per week — e.g. Mon, Wed, Fri OR Tue, Thu, Sat
→20–40 min easy jog — consistency > pace early on
→Non-run mornings: slot is free — sleep in or start day calmly

💡 Morning run primes your brain before deep work. Cardio spikes BDNF which boosts learning retention for ~2hrs after. Skip on rest days — evening run slot exists too.

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Freshen Up 06:45 – 07:15 break

🌅

Morning Ritual 07:15 – 07:45 routine

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→Read 1 English tech article / newsletter — full focus, look up unfamiliar words
→Set 3 clear priorities for the day (write them down)
→No social media scroll — protect morning headspace

💡 English immersion starts here. Reading quality content daily compounds massively over a year.

🧠

DSA Grind 07:45 – 09:15 study

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→Phase 1–2: LeetCode easy/medium — follow the Neetcode 150 roadmap
→Phase 3–4: LeetCode medium/hard + system design reading
→Always write your thought process in English — double XP on both skills

💡 Peak brain = DSA time. 90 min is the sweet spot before cognitive fatigue kicks in. Non-negotiable.

☕

Break 09:15 – 09:30 break

🇯🇵

Japanese Study 09:30 – 10:30 study

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→Phase 1: Anki (katakana drills + N5 vocab) + handwriting practice (stroke order matters)
→Phase 2: Grammar via Genki I or Bunpro N5 + daily Anki vocab
→Phase 3–4: Reading practice + Anki N4 vocab + audio shadowing
→Daily Anki is mandatory — even on off days, do minimum 10 cards

💡 Morning placement is intentional. Right after DSA your brain is warm but not fatigued — ideal for language memory encoding. Afternoon Japanese = worse retention.

🌿

Break 10:30 – 10:45 break

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Deep Work: AI/SWE 10:45 – 12:00 study

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→Mon/Wed/Fri: Learn — courses, papers, docs (RAG, agents, evals, vector DBs, LLM internals)
→Tue/Thu: Build — hands-on project work (Struktly, Buktiin, or a new portfolio project)
→Sat: Free experiment — try a new tool, API, framework, or wild idea

💡 Biggest growth block of the day. No notifications, no tab-switching. Protected time.

🕌

Dzuhur (Dhuhr) 12:00 – 12:15 prayer

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→Wudhu + salat Dzuhur
→Short dzikir after if time allows
→Transition naturally into lunch after

💡 Dzuhur falls perfectly at the start of lunch break — no schedule disruption needed. Just lead with salat before eating.

🍜

Lunch Break 12:15 – 13:00 break

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Project Building 13:00 – 15:30 build

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→Dedicated coding time for your current main project (Struktly, Buktiin, or next portfolio project)
→Document as you go — commit notes + thoughts = next week's blog draft
→Ship something small every week: a feature, a fix, a prototype, a demo

💡 Portfolio > certificates. Treat this block like a paid job. 2.5 hrs is solid deep build time.

🕌

Ashar (Asr) 15:30 – 15:45 prayer

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→Wudhu + salat Ashar
→Short dzikir / istirahat setelah salat
→Transition into evening run — salat provides the mental + physical reset

💡 Ashar IS the break between project building and the run. No extra break needed — salat resets you naturally.

🌇

Evening Run 15:45 – 16:30 optional

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→Run on days you didn't run in the morning — or if you just prefer evenings
→20–40 min easy jog — body is fresh right after Ashar, good energy window
→Try no headphones sometimes — ideas hit differently on quiet runs

💡 Pick morning OR evening per run day, never both. Running post-Ashar takes advantage of the natural energy reset from salat.

🧘

Break 16:30 – 16:45 break

✍️

Writing Block 16:45 – 17:45 create

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→Tue: Draft blog post — technical deep-dive, build log, or lesson learned
→Fri: Edit + publish + share on LinkedIn & Twitter/X
→Other days: Outline next post, jot ideas, reply to community comments

💡 ~104 posts by year end if you hit twice/week. Post-run endorphins help writing flow — ideas are looser and more creative after exercise.

🕌

Maghrib 17:45 – 18:00 prayer

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→Wudhu + salat Maghrib
→Short dzikir — take a moment, don't rush
→Transition into English practice refreshed

💡 Maghrib time shifts significantly — always follow actual adhan.

🗣️

English Practice 18:00 – 18:45 study

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→Shadowing: YouTube tech talks or podcasts — repeat out loud, mimic rhythm + intonation
→Write 3–5 sentences summarizing what you built or learned today (English journal)
→Optional: record yourself speaking for 1 min, listen back — uncomfortable but very effective

💡 Speaking out loud is the most-skipped English habit. Morning reading = passive input. This = active output. Both are needed.

🍽️

Dinner & Decompress 18:45 – 19:30 break

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Isya (Isha) 19:30 – 19:45 prayer

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→Wudhu + salat Isya
→Short dzikir / doa malam
→Settle into review block after — brain is calm, good for reflection

💡 Isya after dinner is a natural rhythm. The stillness after salat is actually great mental prep for the review + fundamentals block.

📓

Review & Plan Tomorrow 19:45 – 20:15 routine

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→Log what you learned today — 1 paragraph in English (feeds your writing pipeline)
→Set tomorrow's 3 priorities, prep anything needed (tabs, files, tools)
→Write down one small win from today — builds momentum

💡 This 30-min ritual is what separates people who 'try to be consistent' from people who actually are.

🌬️

Break 20:15 – 20:25 break

🔩

Fundamentals Mini-Project 20:25 – 21:15 fundamentals

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→MON / WED / FRI → SWE Fundamentals only: build one thing from scratch per session — pagination, search, debounce, auth flow, rate limiter, caching layer. No libraries where avoidable
→TUE / THU → AI Engineer Fundamentals only: one small AI mechanic — chunker, cosine similarity search, prompt router, mini eval harness, retrieval loop without a framework
→SAT / SUN → skip this block entirely, rest
→Each topic: 1–3 sessions max — finish it, then move to the next one

💡 One topic per session, one domain per day. SWE and AI kept separate intentionally — mixing them is how overwhelm starts. Depth over breadth.

🌙

Wind Down 21:15 – 21:45 break

Timeline: 04:30 Subuh · 06:00 day starts · 21:45 hard stop · 5 prayers woven in · fundamentals after 20:00

Same daily blocks every day — different fundamentals focus per day.

🔩 Mon/Wed/Fri = SWE fundamentals 🔩 Tue/Thu = AI Engineer fundamentals Sat/Sun = no fundamentals block

Monday

🏃 Morning run · DSA · Japanese · Learn AI/SWE · � Ashar · 🌇 Eve run · ✍️ Writing · 🔩 SWE fundamentals

Tuesday

DSA · Japanese · Build · 🕌 Ashar · 🌇 Eve run · ✍️ Draft Blog · 🔩 AI fundamentals

Wednesday

🏃 Morning run · DSA · Japanese · Learn AI/SWE · � Ashar · 🌇 Eve run · ✍️ Writing · 🔩 SWE fundamentals

Thursday

DSA · Japanese · Build · 🕌 Ashar · 🌇 Eve run · ✍️ Writing · 🔩 AI fundamentals

Friday

DSA · Japanese · Learn AI/SWE · 🕌 Ashar · 🌇 Eve run · ✍️ Publish Blog · 🔩 SWE fundamentals

Saturday

🏃 Optional run · Free AI/SWE experiment · Japanese focus · no fundamentals

Sunday

Rest · Light Anki only · Plan next week · no fundamentals

🕌 5 Daily Prayers

Prayer	Slot	Type
Subuh (Fajr)	04:30 - 04:45	Fardu
Dzuhur (Dhuhr)	12:00 - 12:15	Fardu
Ashar (Asr)	15:30 - 15:45	Fardu
Maghrib	17:45 - 18:00	Fardu
Isya (Isha)	19:30 - 19:45	Fardu

📋 Weekly Non-Negotiables

✓ Every day → 5 Prayers (Jama'ah where possible)

✓ Every day → Anki (Japanese vocab + DSA patterns)

✓ Every day → English input (morning article + evening shadowing)

✓ Tue → Blog draft

✓ Fri → Edit + publish + post on socials

✓ Sun → Weekly review: what worked, what didn't, plan next week

4 phases — same daily structure, evolving content difficulty.

Phase 1 · Jan – Mar

Foundation Sprint

Build consistency. Lock in the daily ritual before scaling complexity. Focus on fundamentals and habits.

DSA basics Anki ritual SWE fundamentals

Phase 2 · Apr – Jun

Building Momentum

Start shipping small features. Deepen technical writing. Introduce AI Engineer basics into the build loop.

Project shipping Technical writing AI Eng basics

Phase 3 · Jul – Sep

Deep Dive

Tackle complex systems and architecture. Focus on performance, advanced AI mechanics, and scaling content.

System Design Advanced AI Performance focus

Phase 4 · Oct – Dec

Optimization & Mastery

Polish portfolio. Contribute to open source. Master your stack. Plan for the 2027 evolution.

Portfolio polish Open Source 2027 Planning

📈 Progression Logic

DSA: Easy → Medium → Hard → Interview patterns
Japanese: Katakana → N5 grammar/vocab → N4 grammar → Reading
AI/SWE: Fundamentals → RAG + Vector DBs → Multi-agent → System design
Fundamentals (SWE): Pagination → Search → Auth → Caching → Rate limiting → ...
Fundamentals (AI): Chunker → Embeddings → Retriever → Prompt router → Eval harness → ...
Writing: Finding voice → Growing audience → Collaborating → Authority building
Running: Build base → 5K comfortable → 5K consistent → optional 10K

Important guardrails for sustainability.

🕌

Prayer times shift across the year

In Indonesia, Maghrib especially can shift 30–45 min between seasons. Always follow actual adhan or your local prayer schedule app. The slots in this schedule are approximate guides, not fixed times.

⚠️

Keep fundamentals projects tiny on purpose

The 50-min block is about depth, not scope. If it keeps growing, move it to Project Building. Fundamentals = understand the mechanism, not build the product.

⚠️

Never mix SWE and AI fundamentals in one session

Separated by day intentionally. SWE day = SWE only. AI day = AI only. Mixing splits focus and you end up half-understanding both.

⚠️

Don't run every day early on

2–3x/week is the sweet spot. Running daily without a base = injury. Build up slowly. Consistency over 6 months beats intensity over 2 weeks then burnout.

⚠️

Don't skip Anki — ever

Japanese vocab decays FAST. Even 5 minutes on bad days. The streak is the habit. Missing 3+ days in a row means re-learning cards you already knew.

⚠️

Writing ≠ perfect writing

Publish imperfect posts. Consistency beats quality-gate procrastination every time. Done > perfect.

⚠️

DSA without context kills motivation

Always tie DSA to 'I'm doing this for interviews' — means to an end, not a subject to master in isolation.

⚠️

Projects > tutorials

Phase 1 is the ONLY time tutorials are your main thing. After that, build. You learn 10x faster when things break in your own project.

⚠️

Breaks are part of the schedule

Don't skip break blocks to 'get ahead'. Skipping breaks degrades quality of every block that follows.

⚠️

Review your phase goals monthly

Life happens. Adjust the phase content if needed, but never reduce the daily structure. The structure IS the habit.

🔥 The One Overarching Rule

If you miss a day — don't catch up the next day. Just resume. Catch-up marathons create unsustainable spikes and burn you out within weeks. The schedule survives 1–2 missed days/week. It does NOT survive revenge grinding.