I think how much you have to cut out of your life depends a lot on how much is there to start with. For the parents who work full-time, have long commutes, and little ones underfoot, I know that your ability to take any time off from studying will be very different from mine. Especially the single parents. If you get to brush your teeth one day a week without listening to audio at the same time, then it's a blessing!
But for people whose lives are less full to start with, they may be able to accomplish more studying by having official breaks/time off. For me, if I intend to be studying all the time, I will get little done, because all the other things in life become interruptions instead of having time scheduled for them. And…I just don't have the mental stamina for constant studying. That's not a fact I'm proud of, just a fact. In college, I pushed myself past my limits, and since then, I've been unable to do it. Might be something I could “train” for, but not something I can do right now.
So I think the key, in being the newbie reading this thread, is to assess your life and see what you can do and what you need to do. If you are aiming for 100 hours of study for a certain exam, spread over 5 weeks, then plan out how you can get 20 hours a week. And adjust your plans as life proves that something does or doesn't work well. If you think you can get 2 hours after work every day, but find that you can't study after work, then start getting up 2 hours earlier, or making better use of your lunch, or working harder on the weekends, etc. If you think you can study 10 hours a day Saturday and Sunday, and skip studying on the weekdays, but found that after 6 hours, you're burnt out, then find a way to get 8 hours during the week.
And if you're like I was in college, or like the people on here with busier lives, and you honestly only have 20 hours a week that isn't already devoted to work, school, sleep, kids, etc., then you may need to literally use every spare minute you have. But even then…quality matters more than quantity. If it's midnight and you've been up since 4am and you can't study, then sitting in front of the books for another hour won't help you…but getting another hour of sleep might make your studying the next day more effective.
The key is to find what you need to do. It might take awhile to figure out what that is, but figure it out. It might be essential for you to go to the movies once a week to relax, or to banish yourself from all movies in order to study. Just varies from person to person!
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