Week 2: Building My Cybersecurity Study Schedule

Week 1 Was Enthusiasm. Week 2 Was Reality.

In week 1, I was running on pure adrenaline. New career direction, exciting content, everything felt shiny and possible. I studied 12 hours that week — more than my 10-hour target. I felt unstoppable.

Week 2 was different. The novelty wore off. The topics got harder. I had a busy delivery week and came home exhausted on Tuesday and Wednesday. I opened my laptop, stared at Professor Messer’s face, and closed it again.

By Thursday, I had studied a total of 3 hours for the week and I was already behind. That was when I realised that motivation is not a study strategy. I needed a system.

The Problem with “Study When You Feel Like It”

My week 1 approach was simple: study whenever I have time and energy. This sounds reasonable. It is not. Here is why:

• Delivery driving does not have a consistent schedule. Some days finish at 3pm, some at 7pm.
• Energy levels after physical work are unpredictable. Some days I am fine. Some days I can barely keep my eyes open.
• “When I feel like it” quickly becomes “when I have no excuses left,” which quickly becomes “never.”

I needed fixed study times that worked regardless of my delivery schedule. Not a rigid academic timetable — just enough structure to make studying the default rather than the exception.

The Schedule I Built

After some trial and error (mostly error), here is what I landed on:

Weekday mornings: 6:00 - 7:30 AM

This is the cornerstone. I wake up at 5:45, make coffee, and I am at my desk by 6:00. Deliveries never start before 9:00, so this window is guaranteed. No matter how late I worked the day before, I have this 90-minute block.

What I do:

• First 15 minutes: Anki flashcard review
• Next 45 minutes: New material (video + notes)
• Final 30 minutes: Practice questions or hands-on lab

Weekday evenings: Optional

I stopped making evening study sessions mandatory. If I get home before 6pm and I have energy, I will do 30-60 minutes. If not, I do not beat myself up about it. The morning session already happened. Everything else is a bonus.

Saturday: 3-4 hours (two blocks)

• Morning block: 8:00 - 10:00 (new material, heavier topics)
• Afternoon block: 2:00 - 4:00 (hands-on practice, TryHackMe rooms)

Sunday: 2 hours (one block)

• Review and consolidation only. No new material. I go through the week’s notes, update my flashcards, and do a practice quiz.

Weekly target: 10-12 hours

What Did Not Work (And What I Changed)

Failed experiment 1: Studying after dinner. I tried studying from 8-10pm after evening deliveries. I lasted two days. My brain was mush. I retained nothing. The same material I could learn in 30 minutes at 6am took an hour at 9pm.

Failed experiment 2: Long Saturday sessions. My first Saturday plan was a 6-hour marathon. By hour four, I was reading the same paragraph for the third time without absorbing it. Splitting it into two blocks with a long break in between was dramatically more effective.

Failed experiment 3: No rest days. Week 1 I studied every single day. By Sunday evening I dreaded Monday morning. Now Sunday is review-only — lighter material, no new concepts, no pressure. It makes Monday feel fresh instead of exhausting.

Successful change: Morning-first priority. Making the morning block non-negotiable was the single best decision. It means that even on my worst weeks, I get at least 7.5 hours of study done. That is enough to maintain progress.

The Tools That Keep Me Accountable

I am not naturally disciplined. I am a person who will choose Netflix over textbooks every time unless I have systems in place. Here is what works:

A physical study log. I have a lined notebook where I write the date, start time, end time, and what I covered. Seeing a week of completed sessions in my own handwriting is more motivating than any app. Seeing a gap is motivating too — in a guilt-based way that works for me.

Anki streak counter. Anki shows how many consecutive days you have reviewed your flashcards. My current streak is 14 days. Breaking it would physically hurt me at this point. Gamification works on my brain and I am not ashamed of it.

A weekly review ritual. Every Sunday, I look at the week and ask three questions: What did I learn? What am I still confused about? What do I study next week? Writing the answers takes 10 minutes and prevents that “where was I?” feeling on Monday morning.

Telling people. I told my family I am studying for a cybersecurity career. I told my friends. I wrote it on this blog. Now I have accountability partners who ask “how’s the studying going?” and I would rather study than admit I stopped.

The Honest Numbers: Week 2

Down from 12 hours in week 1. But here is the thing — it felt more sustainable. I was not running on fumes by Sunday. I had two zero-or-low days and still hit my target because the morning sessions carried the weight.

What I Actually Learned in Week 2

The topic was networking fundamentals, and it humbled me.

IP addressing made sense. DNS made sense — it is basically a phone book for the internet. DHCP made sense — automatic IP assignment, simple enough.

Then I got to subnetting, and my brain short-circuited. Converting between binary and decimal, calculating subnet masks, figuring out how many hosts fit in a /24 network — it felt like maths class, which was never my strong suit.

I spent an entire Saturday morning on subnetting. By the end, I could do it, but slowly. I will need a lot more practice before it becomes second nature. This is fine. Not every topic clicks immediately, and that is not a sign I chose the wrong career. It is a sign I am learning something genuinely new.

The OSI model, on the other hand, clicked fast. Seven layers, each with a clear purpose. I think it helps that I have been using the internet for 15 years — I already had intuitive understanding of what happens when I load a webpage. The OSI model just gave me vocabulary for it.

For a deeper dive into the networking concepts I studied this week, check out the networking basics guide and the study schedules page.

Advice for Your Week 2

If you are reading this during your own week 2, here is what I wish someone had told me:

1. The motivation dip is normal. Week 1 enthusiasm fading does not mean you made a wrong choice. It means the honeymoon phase ended. That is when the real work begins.
2. Build your schedule around your energy, not your calendar. I study best at 6am. You might study best at 10pm. Experiment and commit to what actually works for your brain.
3. Protect your minimum. My minimum is 7.5 hours from morning sessions. Everything else is bonus. Having a floor you never drop below is more important than having an ambitious ceiling.
4. Take one full rest day. Or at least one light day. Burnout in week 3 because you pushed too hard in weeks 1-2 is worse than studying 8 hours instead of 12.
5. Track your time honestly. Do not round up. Do not count “thinking about cybersecurity in the shower” as study time. Honest tracking shows you where the time actually goes.

Looking Ahead to Week 3

Next week I am diving into security concepts — CIA triad, threat types, and basic cryptography. This is where the content starts feeling less like IT and more like cybersecurity, and I am genuinely excited about it.

I will also be doing more TryHackMe rooms. The hands-on practice in week 2 was my favourite part of studying, and I want to increase it from a Saturday-only activity to at least twice a week.

For the study resources I am using, check out the CompTIA A+ guide and the study strategies guide.

Individual results vary based on location, experience, market conditions, and effort invested. Study schedules should be adapted to your personal circumstances and learning style.