The playbook

How to actually get value from Vidhyarthi.Life

Vidhyarthi.Life is not a to-do app. It's your daily student operating layer — one place to know what to do today, stay ahead of every deadline, and keep moving forward. Here's how to make it stick.

What's inside

  1. Your first 5 minutes
  2. The daily routine
  3. The weekly ritual
  4. Home dashboard cheat sheet
  5. Focus & Pomodoro
  6. Subjects, topics & practice
  7. Opportunities & applications
  8. Skills & resume readiness
  9. Mentors & Ask-a-Senior
  10. Money tracker
  11. Preparedness Score explained
  12. Pro tips
Setup

Your first 5 minutes

Do this once. It powers everything else — personalized dashboard, smart-pick recommendations, and preparedness score.

Step 1 · 30 seconds

Create an account

Use email/password or Google Sign-In. Both land in the same account so you can switch later.

Step 2 · 1 minute

Pick your stage

School / College / Final Year — this changes what the dashboard prioritizes for you.

Step 3 · 1 minute

Select interests

Exams, Internships, Scholarships, Placements, Fellowships, Competitions, Startup, etc. Pick anything relevant — the "Pick of the day" card and the opportunity feed use these signals.

Step 4 · 2 minutes

Upload your resume & tick 3 skills

Go to Profile → upload a PDF. Then tap Skills checklist and tick 3 things you've already done (e.g. "One project on GitHub"). This alone raises your Preparedness Score noticeably.

Step 5 · 30 seconds

Save 3 opportunities

Go to Hub → Opps. Bookmark 3 things that look interesting. Deadlines will now show on your Home.

Rule: Don't overthink onboarding. You can change stage/interests any time. The goal is to get to Home with actual context, not perfection.
Habit

The daily routine — 3 opens a day

If you only open the app 3 times a day, do it at these moments. Each open takes under 90 seconds and compounds.

☀️

Morning open

2 minutes. Check Home:

  • Read the Pick of the day card.
  • Scan Today's priorities — pick 1 task to knock out first.
  • If you see the Missed items tile in red, tap it and either do the task or move on.
🎯

Study block

25-60 min. Study tab:

  • Pick a task using the ⊙ radio button, then tap Start.
  • One 25-min Pomodoro = 1 streak day. Miss zero days → 7-day streak = full focus score.
  • Log a practice/mock score after — accuracy stays in your subject history.
🌙

Evening review

90 seconds. Before you close for the day:

  • Check off any tasks you completed.
  • Log expenses in Money if you spent anything worth tracking.
  • If you had an interview / call → drop a note in the application detail.
Why 3 opens beat 10: The app auto-reschedules overdue tasks to today when you open Home, so you never have to "catch up." Just show up.
Rhythm

The weekly ritual — 10 minutes on Sunday

Review

  • Study tab → This week bar chart. Which day was strongest? Which was weakest?
  • Preparedness Score on Home — did it move up? If not, read the "Next" hint.
  • Applications: are any stuck in Saved? Move them to Applied or delete.

Plan

  • Add 3-5 tasks for the week in Study tab.
  • Save 2 new opportunities from the Hub feed.
  • Tick 1 more skill in your Skills checklist (or add a real one you've picked up).
Screen guide

Home dashboard cheat sheet

Every element on Home answers a specific question. Learn them once, glance them daily.

1

Focus hero (top card)

Big number = today's focus minutes. Streak tells you if you've shown up this week. Tap it to jump straight into a Pomodoro.

2

Preparedness Score

Weighted 0-100 of your overall readiness. The hint under it is the single next move with the biggest payoff.

3

Missed items tile

Only shows if you have anything overdue. Tap → resolve. If it's not there, you're on track.

4

Pick of the day

One opportunity to act on. Ranked by (a) deadline urgency, (b) match with your interests, (c) sponsored bonus. Refreshes automatically.

5

Today's priorities

The 3 most important open tasks. Not everything — just what to actually do.

6

Applications

Live count across Saved / Applied / Interviewing / Offers. When Interviewing goes up, that's a good week.

7

Upcoming deadlines

Next 4 curated opportunities by deadline. Tap any to save or track.

8

Money card

Balance + today's spend. Tap to open Money tab.

Deep work

Focus & Pomodoro — how to actually use it

Before you start

  • Add tasks first, then tap the ⊙ radio on one task to attach it to the session.
  • Pick 25m for warm-up work, 45m for real deep work, 60m for a mock test or long reading.
  • Put your phone in Do Not Disturb (Android/iOS setting).

Streak logic

  • Any completed session on a given day counts as 1 streak day.
  • Miss a day → streak resets to 0 next time you complete a session.
  • 7 consecutive days = full 25/25 focus contribution to Preparedness Score.
Anti-tip: Don't over-plan tasks. 5 realistic tasks > 15 aspirational ones. The rescheduler will bump overdue ones automatically — don't be scared to delete tasks that no longer matter.
Study OS

Subjects, topics & practice log

This is where exam prep becomes measurable instead of a vibe.

1. Create subjects

Study → Subjects tab → +. One subject per book / paper / module (e.g. "Physics", "Aptitude", "GS Paper II").

2. Break into topics

Open a subject, add topics. Aim for 8–15 topics per subject — small enough to revise in one Pomodoro.

3. Revise & grow mastery

Tap Revise after each pass. Each revision bumps mastery by 10%. 7 revisions ≈ 70% mastery — that's your green line.

4. Log every mock

Add mock/practice entries with score/out-of. Accuracy is calculated automatically. Look at the trend across weeks, not one score.

5. Prioritize the weakest

Sort mentally by mastery %. The bottom 3 topics are always your next study block.

6. Delete what's done

When a topic hits 100% mastery and you've mocked it well, delete it. Keep the list to only what still needs work.

Opportunities

Opportunity Hub & Application tracker

Saving vs Tracking

Save — you're interested but not applying yet. Deadline reminders show on Home.

Track application — you've committed to apply. Enters your Applications kanban.

Rule of thumb: save 10, track 3–5 per month.

Application stages

  • Saved — collected, not started
  • Applied — submitted, waiting
  • Interviewing — in process
  • Offer — you got one 🎉
  • Rejected — closed. Move on.

Application detail: document checklist

Tap any application card to open detail. Add items to the documents checklist (Resume, SOP, Recommendation letters, Transcript, Portfolio link…). Tick as you gather them. Nothing gets lost.

Application detail: interview notes

After every phone screen / round, drop 2–3 lines: what they asked, what you should improve. The night before the next round, re-read these — they're gold.

Sponsored pill: A yellow "SPONSORED" tag means a partner has surfaced this opportunity. It's still a real opportunity — the tag is just for transparency.
Readiness

Skills & resume readiness

Profile → Skills checklist. Small list, high signal.

Start with the defaults

  • Resume ready
  • LinkedIn profile complete
  • DSA basics
  • System Design basics
  • Aptitude & Reasoning
  • Public speaking / Interview confidence
  • One project on GitHub
  • Cover letter template

Then customize

  • Add domain-specific ones: SQL, Figma, Excel, Case interviews, Python…
  • Delete items that don't apply to your track.
  • Aim to have at least 70% checked before you apply to a job you really want.
Every checked skill raises the "Resume + Skills" component of your Preparedness Score. Aim for 6 of 8 defaults inside your first two weeks.
People

Mentors & Ask-a-Senior

When to book a mentor

  • Right before an interview cycle starts (e.g. campus placement week).
  • When you're stuck on a career path decision (BTech vs MTech, IB vs Product, etc.).
  • When your Preparedness Score has been flat for 2+ weeks.

Booking is free in V1. You send a short message + preferred time; mentor confirms.

How to write a good booking request

  • 1 sentence about your situation ("Final-year CS, prepping for FAANG")
  • 1 sentence about the exact ask ("Would love a 20-min system design mock")
  • 1 sentence about time ("Weeknights 7–9pm work")

Q&A: Ask-a-Senior

Hub → Q&A. Post a question when it's too broad for a mentor session ("How did you decide between an MS and a job?"). Categorize it correctly so the right seniors see it.

Q&A: how to answer well

If you've been in someone's shoes, answer. It's a small effort with disproportionate karma. Upvotes are one per user — quality answers rise.

Sustainable student life

Money tracker

The point is not to become a spreadsheet. The point is to know where your pocket money goes.

Set a monthly budget once

Money tab → pencil icon → your monthly pocket money / stipend. That's your ceiling.

Log expenses in 5 seconds

Money → +. Amount, category, done. Skip the note if you're in a hurry.

Track exam & app fees

Use the Exam Fees / Subscriptions categories so you can see how much you've spent on prep in a semester.

The one number

Preparedness Score — how it's calculated

A weighted 0-100 signal of how ready you are, broken into 4 components. Move any one up and the whole score moves.

Focus
25 pts

Full 25 at a 7-day streak. Complete at least one Pomodoro/day.

Applications
25 pts

Each Applied / Interviewing counts 4 pts, each Offer counts 8 pts (capped at 25).

Resume + Skills
25 pts

Upload resume = 10 pts. Every checked skill contributes proportionally to the remaining 15.

Opportunities
25 pts

Each saved = 3 pts, each application = 2 pts (capped at 25).

The hint under your score is the highest-impact single action to move it up. Follow it before anything else.
Level up

Pro tips

Use Study Rooms for accountability

Create a room the night before with a specific goal ("Cover 3 topics of Thermodynamics by 10 am"). Invite one friend. Peer pressure > discipline.

The "10 saved → 3 tracked" rule

Bookmark liberally, but track only opportunities you'll actually apply to. If your Applications tab has 15 in "Saved" untouched for 2 weeks, delete or downgrade them.

Weekly focus screenshot

Screenshot your This week bar chart every Sunday. 8 weeks later, you'll have a visual proof of consistency (or a wake-up call).

Interview notes are your unfair advantage

Most people forget what happened in the last round by the next round. You won't. Re-read the last note before every follow-up.

Kill the streak-hoarding trap

Don't do a fake 25 min session just for the streak. Real 15 min > performative 25 min. Skip a day if you need to — one broken streak is fine, two weeks of drift is not.

Move things off Saved

Once a week, look at Applications → Saved. Move each into either Applied (do it now) or delete. "Saved" is a purgatory, not a state.

Remember

The app is a mirror, not a magician

Vidhyarthi.Life won't study for you. What it will do is show you — every single day — the smallest thing you can do right now to move forward. Do that thing. Close the app. Repeat tomorrow.

— Team Vidhyarthi.Life