How to maintain composure for CAT Prep if you are a working professional

What you are going to read is derived from personal experience. Because it is from personal experience, it is going to be subjective. That said let’s read about how to maintain composure for CAT Prep if you are a working professional.

I agree that hindsight is beautiful but give yourself a high-five if you have ever felt that I should have done my preparation in my final year of college. We are not the same if you haven’t felt it. Finding time after working hours is difficult. When you wake up in the morning and count the number of non-working hours, it feels as if you have a gigantic amount of time left to prepare. When you go back to bed, you regret not putting enough amount of time into your preparation. This happens to almost everyone, either working professionals or college students. 

Because we are talking about time, let me put this beautiful quote that I found on some random website.

“We are slaves of time. Or rather, we have become slaves of time. We live in fear of wasting time, yet we have so little quality time. The strange thing is, even as slaves we still imagine ourselves in charge–or at least we’re supposed to be in charge–right?” – Philoscifi

The solution to attain freedom is to build a routine and be consistent. On the one hand, you will get freedom and on the other hand, you will have full control over your time. If you have trouble creating goals then check out this article – Being Consistent in your CAT Prep

We will not be talking about how to build a routine but instead, I’ll give away some ideas that may help you in sticking to your preparation on a daily basis. Let’s dig in!

Doing exercises for 30 minutes

The crucial part while juggling between work and CAT preparation is handling stress. Stress is inevitable when you are preparing for CAT. Oftentimes stress arises when you can’t meet a deadline, When your Boss needs you to work overtime or when you can’t meet your manager’s expectations. The “Stress” puts you off from the game, your motivation level will be low and you will feel like not preparing for the day.

We need to find a way to relieve this stress. Endorphins are one such good hormones that help relieve stress. There are multiple ways to let your body release endorphins but the most effective way is to do exercises. Thirty minutes of high-intensity workout, either at the gym or at home, elevates your mood and helps maintain your sanity even under stressful conditions.

One other way to release endorphins is to eat food that you like. Some people crave Ice cream or would like to go to a good restaurant and eat to their fullest. This is an alternative to working out but not a better alternative. Eating every time to your fullest when you get stressed may destroy your health in the long run.

Make your Priorities clear

We would be superhumans if only we didn’t have distractions. We get distracted by a small number of things, multiple times! Have you ever had days where it goes at a 5x speed and the amount of work that you do is at a 0.5x speed? Distractions kill efficiency. At the start of the day make yourself clear about what work you are going to do and approximate the number of hours you will put into it. Consider additional hours for unforeseen circumstances (which frequently happen in working environments). Once you know the amount of time that you will spend on your work, you can easily gauge the time that you are going to spend on your CAT preparation, given that you have already built a routine.

Sports events are one big distraction, and if not handled properly, they can easily kill your preparation time. For Indians, the months of April and May are not the summer season but the IPL season. We plan on not watching the match because we think the IPL started to bore us, but at 7:30 PM, we will be right there, before a laptop, a TV, or a mobile phone, waiting to see who won the toss. I’m not against watching IPL matches, football matches, or F1 races. I’m for the idea that “to obtain, something of equal value must be lost” (Full Metal Alchemist Reference). I would like to check all the boxes for CAT preparation before I decide to watch an F1 race on the weekend. I consider this a good motivation factor, and the feeling of watching something you like after completing your tasks is a blissful experience.

Thinking with a right attitude

Attitude matters a lot. The outcomes of situations change how you perceive them. For example, when you have worked for 9 to 10 hours a day and have very little time to prepare, two situations can arise.

1. Worrying about what to do with the time you have and not preparing effectively
2. Thinking about how to prepare effectively with the amount of time in hand

Former reduces confidence in your CAT preparation while the latter boosts your confidence. The latter also helps you to build a habit of finding time whenever possible during your work time and dedicate it to your CAT preparation.

Never think that working somewhere is going to kill your CAT preparation. It is always the opposite unless you have a toxic work culture. I feel really good when I have a different environment apart from my CAT preparation atmosphere. When I get stuck with a problem I think about it when I find leisure time while working. Stepping away from one environment and thinking about questions from a different environment helps me to diversify my thought process and the eureka moment blooms. 

I’m at my wit’s end now. If you can contain the pressure, manage time and put effort into your preparation then you can definitely do an Interview on “How to get 100 percentile if you are a working professional”. We assure you at least we will not come and haunt you for the interview.

Thank you for reading. Sayonara.

Shreeram – 2IIM