const greeting = prompt("What's good world!?");
Well if you couldn't tell from the first line of code, I'm already 2 weeks into a virtual 12-month part-time Web Development Fellowship, and I've already started to dream (or are they nightmares?...yeah, I think they're nightmares!) in JavaScript.
Excuse me for the tardiness in posting the excitement of being accepted into the 2020 cohort, but my mind and schedule has been in a constant flurry of trying to catch up to the immense amount of demands of my time, attention and mental fortitude that are required to be a just barely satisfactory participant in this program.
(Can you believe, there are already bootcamp veterans and ES6 coding wizzes complaining about being "bored of vanilla JS" while I'm thinking "although I want chocolate chip cookie dough, I need this VANILLA... and it needs to go a whole lot slower!.. haha)
Although the lecture instruction and virtual class interaction is "part-time" (4 hours in the evenings), I am quickly coming to the sobering realization that a great deal of the early parts of my day (and pretty much ALL of my weekends) must be allocated to studying, reading ahead, practicing algorithms and JavaScript tutorials, debugging, and struggling through assignments and projects with varying deadlines and deliverables... and to be honest, the last 6 months of laid-back-quarantine-life have completely disrupted my daily routines and set me up for self-sabotage. I need some insight and suggestions!
Here are my goals for this week that I'd like some insight on:
1. Go to bed on-time (by 10:00PM)
- Classes are in the evenings from 5:30pm - 9:30pm, but sometimes I'll stay up past midnight working on assignments. I'm torn between staying up late or tabling the work for the next day.
2. Wake up early
- Preferably between 5:00 - 6:00 AM
3. Create a simple morning routine (Meditation, journaling, etc..)
- That doesn't exceed 2 hours
4. Pick ONE or TWO JavaScript resources for practice, and sticking to it.
- I'm overwhelmed with so many links and resources that classmates share, and what I find on the internet that don't know what to stick with-- I just need one or two solid foundational recommendations.
5. Making a daily study/work/routine schedule.
- I realize I have to start blocking off time on my Google calendar for various studying, assignments, tutors, etc..
I figure I'd start with these, and journal about what works and what doesn't.
I'm curious to know from the dev community, especially those who've completed bootcamps,
"What daily routines did you find to be successful to manage your time, get work done, and still have a little free time to enjoy for friends, family, hobbies?"
Until we meet again...
Top comments (5)
i'm in the get up at 5am every day camp. once covid hit and we were all remote it really freed up a lot of time. by the time my peers were getting up for class at 9, i'd already had my 2 cups of coffee and done 3-4hrs of learning. the calmness of time during those hours is probably my favorite, all while being fresh for the day.
it's just all repetition. whatever routine you decide on will eventually become 2nd nature.
This is definitely a great example of an early morning routine. My question to you is, what time do you get to bed at nights, and are you very strict with sticking to that time, in order to feel fully awake and refreshed at 5AM?
A 10PM curfew would give you roughly 7ish hours of sleep -- does that suffice for you?
to be honest, 930 is when i try to be in bed by. everyone laughs when i tell them, but idk, once you get used to going to bed at that time, it's not that bad. additionally, i fall asleep almost instantly. i think generally though i do go to bed around 10 and 1030 is the latest. if i'm up at 11 i know i'll have a rough day the next day. if i have too many nights a week where i'm up at 1030 i definitely feel it towards the end of the week. on the weekends i wake up whenever my body wants me to or when the cat wants me to since he's a fan of the early morning routine, haha.
the other thing i'll mention, i started taking a vitamin d supplement a couple of months ago since i'm definitely not outside as often anymore and honestly my mornings got a lot easier to jump straight out of bed. i'm not sure i buy into supplements like that but the only thing that changed in my routine was adding vitamin d and b12.
I notice I can usually concentrate better if i get outside first thing in the morning. I'm lucky to live in a spot that usually has nice air and it helps clear my head.
I was lucky in bootcamp - I had an hour commute either way, but didn't have to drive. I spent 15 minutes stretching and meditating and then doing work or reading. On the way home I was able to do another 40 min or so on labs. That way I could eat, put our kid to bed, and collapse in time to wake up the next day. It sounds like a lot, but it was a blast.
I still have way better days when I do a little stretching and meditation in the morning. I've had a hard time not freaking out about the state of the world lately though and gotten lazy.
I always recommend the Leetcode easy interview track and googling for the most common javascript interview questions. Those two covered a majority of my technical interviews.
Good luck, have fun, keep asking for help! You can do it 🌮
Awesome thank you for sharing from your lived bootcamp experience! Just managing my own schedule is hectic enough, so I could only imagine if I had another small human to be concerned for providing for! I'm sure that was a great source of inspiration and motivation for you as well!
I like that you shared an example of maximizing your commuting time, by constantly feeding your mind and working on projects. That certainly will be helpful for me on my subway rides.
Thanks for sharing!! Oh, and that Leetcode is a tremendous resource for interview prep!