The following is intended to be slightly humorous but also factual. So please, bear with me.

  1. Sleep enough- This is one of the more important ones. I’ve been averaging around 7 to 7.5 hours per night, and it’s enough to keep me alert during the day with the aid of caffeine. Any less and I find that my ability to pay attention falls off during the day and I can’t wait for the day to be over. This gets worse when it’s a particularly difficult sprint.

  2. Caffeinate strategically-There’s nothing worse than the uncomfortable, hard to focus, jittery feeling one gets when he/she has consumed too much caffeine. No matter what delivery method you prefer- partake in moderation so that you can focus on the task at hand. And in line with that- Definitely don’t drink too much coffee if you’re not used to it. A nice case of stomach ulcers is never fun.

  3. Take notes- I keep an abundance of legal pads around as well as cool pens. Whenever I’m watching a lecture or looking at a slide show, I write down whatever seems important if I don’t think that I’ll remember it. Which, with the quantity of information, is quite a few things. When you get a chance, transcribe your notes to a word document for easy reference.

  4. Workout. No, really. With strong body comes strong mind. Hack Reactor schedules workout time for you every other day, but really try to workout more than that. Whatever you do that gets your blood flowing- do it frequently. I like to start the day off with some basic yoga and stretching, and drop and do pushups every few hours or whenever I’m having a mental block- It definitely helps with focusing on the task at hand. Try to do it outside if possible.

  5. Watch the lecture videos at a faster than normal pace- The awesome aspect of watching most of your lectures as prerecorded videos is that you can utilize a chrome plugin to speed them up to faster than normal speeds. This is incredibly helpful for me- I find that it makes it easier to pay attention, and you can speed them up or slow them down to reflect your level of comprehension.

  6. Take strategic breaks, both mentally and physically- If you’ve been grinding away on a problem for a while and can’t seem to get anywhere, walk away for ten minutes to do some independent research, or to grab a fresh cup of coffee. The number of mental blocks I’ve been able to work through by stepping away for a few minutes is tremendous.

  7. Don’t fall behind!- With the pace of the course it becomes very hard to catch up when you fall behind. If you find yourself falling behind, work diligently to catch up!

And last but certainly not least- Be positive. This is a bootcamp- it’s going to be uncomfortable, you’re going to be tired, and at times you’re going to wish you had never started. Just remember, knowledge is power, and when you finish, you’re going to be super pumped that you decided to take the plunge. Or at least, I am so far :)