Coding Bootcamp

Time Management : Tips and Hacks

As you know, bootcamp is no joke. It’s not like a typical school — missing one day of bootcamp is like missing out on a month in college. The program is so intensive that many people give up within weeks. Instructors keep calling this style of studying, “it’s like drinking from a fire hydrant. Try to absorb as much as you can, but clearly you can’t drink it all.” Bootcamp will throw at you billions of workshops, lectures, helpful studying material etc. The schedule is so packed that you don’t know when to take a bathroom break, worrying that you may miss that coding “secret to success”. You might hear something like, “don’t forget to relax”, or “take a walk or break”, or my favorite, “ohh, you look so pale, take a day off on the weekend!” . If only we could have an extra day a week or perhaps an extra hour a day for that. Does this sound familiar to you?

3 months ago I felt tired, overwhelmed and frustrated. I was searching the internet for the answer to how to stay focused and productive without gallons of caffeine and red bull because it’s very bad for your health, and … because it’s clearly stopped working for me. I started to zone out during the lectures and stopped absorbing material quickly. I reached the edge and I had to fix it fast. 3 weeks into bootcamp, there was no way I was going to quit now. I had to find a “magic pill” and I had to find it fast.

I was constantly trying to finish material and workshops from yesterday, read Pre-work for today, and start weekly test-homework before the weekend .As someone with a type A personality, this was a nightmare. I was not sleeping at all, and one day- I was sitting and my brain just shut down. I was hearing the lecture but I didn’t understand a word. That when I had my mental breakdown.

Without anymore drama, this is what helped me go through and finish bootcamp successfully :

• Please take breaks: It’s crucial. I know I made it sound like cliche advice earlier on, but I didn’t realize its importance until I was forced to take a break because I physically couldn’t study anymore. You need time to recharge and rest. Even computers overheat and need to be restarted. Bootcamp is not a sprint, it’s a marathon. More importantly, it’s an introduction to your new work lifestyle. Ask yourself, “do I really want to live without any breaks and just survive every day?”I can hear you thinking, “but I have 1,2,3…1000 things to do!” Yes, I know that. But you can’t possibly make more than 10 hours of productive work a day. You need breaks! Your brain needs breaks ! Without it you will crash and burn! Sorry, it’s a joke, but you know what I mean: you will be definitely miserable and your performance score will be lower( paradox) for 8 hrs of straight work, than for 4 hrs with breaks. Try yourself. I tried and I can tell you : bugs are not as scary when you’re coming back from break.

• Time management: Stick to your schedule: Agenda- not a TO DO list and make it realistic( plan how much time will spend for the specific problem- not an accomplishment ! Prioritize them by importance and when time is up, move on! Even if you didn’t finish. Bootcamp is a learning process, not a goal oriented place to accomplish specific tasks. You need to distinguish between what is really important to finish and what is just a minor part of your learning journey. And let it go! Leave it unfinished .Yep, It might be the hardest thing for you to do , because it was like this for me.
• Limit Your Scope: The goal is not to know in depth any specific technology, but to learn it to the level that you can use it functionally, and to know where to find more information about it. Keep in mind, you can’t know everything, especially in the tech-world. Technologies are changing all the time , the same as how to use them. Code and tools get depreciated regularly . Learn how to find your answers instead. Working developers joke: we’re professional googlers.

• Read Documentation First: prior stackoverflow, youtube videos, and magic tutorials. Most of the time, documentation is the fastest way to get an answer to your question and the information is eligible and trustworthy. In the end, the Official documentation is the “recourse of truth” for everyone else.

• Youtube? Sure! But check for the listing date or update first( up to 1 year is ok)- more than that the code might be outdated. Also, If you can’t understand what the video is about in the first 2–3 minutes, move on! Don’t waste your precious time .
  And my personal advice- don’t just watch it, code along. Try it yourself. Very often something that works in the tutorial just doesn’t work on your machine. There can be millions of reasons why. Best practices- check package.json file: are there all technologies listed? Run npm install again, check version. Still doesn’t work? Move on!

• And last but not least: be kind to yourself! Stay motivated and believe in yourself.
  Prior to Bootcamp, some of us had coding experience, maybe even had CS degrees. And some of us, like me for example, used laptop only for watching Youtube. Don’t compare yourself to others. Compare yourself to the old version of you. It’s already hard enough to change professions, don’t make it even harder for yourself.We are all different and if you do not have prior experience in coding , that means you have other types of experience to bring to the table, and your experience is no less valid or important. Impostor syndrome is a very typical problem to have for people who are about to switch to their new career. Be aware of that and give yourself some time to adjust to the new path. You CAN do it. You Will do it. Everyone was a beginner at sometime. Just believe in yourself and it’s gonna work! Trust me, I’ve been there . All the concerns and doubts are not helpful and only discouraging and demotivating from accomplishing your goal. You’ve made a choice . Stick to it to the end .

So, no magic pills for you guys. Sorry! But the trick is- you already have everything to succeed in the Bootcamp and in your new career!You do not need a magic pill-you Are a magic pill and Now it’s time to use it.

Best of luck ! And I’m sending happy thoughts to you all,

K.