Skip to content

Build Your Routine

Everything in this wiki, assembled into a study system you can actually run. Adapt the volumes to your situation — the structure is what matters.

The core loop (one cycle per topic)

1. DIAGNOSE  → find your real leaks (tracker vs winners + solver report)
2. PICK      → one specific, high-frequency leak to work on
3. ACQUIRE   → if new/complex, study the solution first; understand the WHY
4. DRILL     → closed-book, predict-before-reveal (blocked → then interleaved)
5. CARD      → put the 3–5 heuristics into Anki (with the why)
6. TEST      → cold, after a delay — the honest check of what stuck
7. APPLY     → use it in play; mark hands; get feedback
   ↺ then SPACE & INTERLEAVE it with older topics over coming weeks

Every step maps to a principle: diagnose=deliberate practice, drill=retrieval, card=spacing, test=delayed self-test, space+interleave=the desirable difficulties.

Match the task to your energy

Your sharpest attention is scarce — spend it well:

  • Fresh (e.g., before a session): the hard work — acquisition, generative drilling.
  • Tired (e.g., after grinding): the light work — marking hands, journaling, Anki. Never learn new material fatigued.

Distribute, don't cram

  • Short, frequent, focused beats long marathons — and it builds in spacing automatically.
  • Re-visit a topic at expanding intervals (days → weeks → month); let Anki schedule the maintenance.
  • One topic at a time, finished — protect your attention; cut table count when a spot isn't autopilot.

Study vs volume

  • Volume is necessary (earnings, variance, reps) — but it mostly maintains your existing game.
  • Targeted study + feedback is what improves you, especially once you're advanced (more hours barely helps elites; quality and individualization do).
  • A common starting split for someone improving/moving up is study-heavy relative to most grinders — but tune it by whether your leaks actually shrink, not by how the month ran.

Don't forget the two non-negotiables

  • Mental game: schedule it — tilt review, stop-losses, process-over-results. → Mental Game
  • Sleep: it's when learning consolidates. Protect it, especially after heavy study. → Transfer & Sleep

A simple weekly shape (example)
Daily ~10 min Anki (all topics, the app picks) + a focused study/drill block when fresh
Most days Play volume + a quick "mark hands" pass after
Once a week A deeper hand-review session (your marked hands, reasoned out then solver-checked)
Monthly Re-diagnose leaks; pick the next topic; review tilt & results as process feedback

Key takeaway

Diagnose → acquire → drill closed-book → card → test after a delay → apply → space & interleave. Hard work fresh, light work tired, mental game and sleep protected — and let leak-shrinkage, not your graph, tell you it's working.

This routine is the applied summary of the whole wiki. Each linked page explains the evidence behind its step.