I am studying for the cfi myself. I decided to start with the PHAN. I go through each chapter and take notes on everything. It looks just like a huge outline right now but I plan to convert it to lesson plans later. If I run into anything that doesn't make 100 percent sense to me, I jump on the web and research the issue further. Once I am done with the PHAN, I plan to move to the Flying handbook. I am doing all the studying on my own right now without any type of structred program. I figure I should be safe by sticking with the FAA official materials.