How should I prepare for UPSC without any coaching?

Yes , you CAN and you SHOULD .

I always suggest to go without coaching as coaching has become almost redundant today because of online initiatives.

Coaching classes only burn a BIG HOLE in your pocket and waste your precious time .

Are you really serious about the attempt ?

Are you willing to give 110% ?

If yes , then First and foremost understand that you will need to really fire on all cylinders to complete the syllabus and be competent enough to clear the exam.

This should be rough time table and guidelines ,please tweak it to suit your needs.

Break the available time into months , weeks , days.

Before starting anything , do previous year question papers thoroughly . This will be very very helpful , don't discard it as useless activity. It should take around 10 days.

Try and finish all relevant NCERTS in max 20 days. Give INSIGHTS and VISION’s test based on NCERTS.

Move on to reference books . I'll give you a rough time taken to complete the books.

1. Laxmikant for polity - 15 days .
2. Spectrum for modern history - 10 days
3. Shankarias for environment- 10 days
4. Class 11th NCERTS for geography - 8 days
5. Economy videos or class 12th Macroeconomic with Sriram notes - 10 days.
6. Ancient and medieval you should do from MRUNAL videos and make notes out of it (you don't have time to read books and this topic has low cost benefit ratio) - 5 days

As you can see you will take approximately 2 months to complete standard reference books . Meanwhile keep reading the Hindu and please don't make notes out of it (it's too time consuming ) . Instead follow INSIGHTS dialy Current affairs , coupled with ONLY IAS analysis.

3 months would have gone in a jiffy !!!!!

Start giving full length mock tests for prelims from VISION and INSIGHTS (both complement each other pretty well).

Analyse each mock thoroughly and revise it umpteen number of times .

Neglect the revision part at your own cost because in the exam hall when you are required to analyse and recall minute details , it is the revision which would come at your rescue.

Slowly steadily start reading daily mains answer writing at one of the online website preferably INSIGHT . When you have a decent knowledge base you can start answer writing (don't spend too much time on it though!!)

After this for next 2–3 months you should keep revising the NCERTS , standard books , mock papers. Looking at this year's prelims it's clear as daylight that prelims would require full fledged preparation .

Also prepare your optional in this time , you should have completed at least one reading before PRELIMS !!

Last 2–3 months focus should be completely on prelims. Solve mocks , revise them .

Various coaching institutes would give last minute revision modules. Do them , even if they don't come in exam directly but they surely help in developing our intelligent guessing !!!

All the best !!!

Thank you .