I do feel a bit like in that picture, to be honest. These past few days I have started doing my first audit in code4rena and together with the Smart Contract course and my job it’s quite a lot to handle.
Yes, mainly because I did pay for it. But that only helped me take it even more serious.
And then, a week ago I left my “fear” of not being prepared aside and I registered in code4rena, determined to participate in the next auditing contest. And so I did. A couple of days after that, the asymmetry contest started and I went all into it.
“Cool, now you’re doing those two things everyday then? Not a big deal…”
Well, anyone involved with any of this, will know that it’s mentally demanding which means that you can’t really be doing this for a long time and yet be productive.
And you know what? Besides that I do have a full time job as well.
So, how do I organize my time to handle this?
For good or bad every day has 24 hours and that won’t change. So, to take the most out of them I needed some commitment and organization:
1 . I decided to wake up earlier than I used to in order to be able to use one to two hours before starting my full-time job to do either of my tasks.
There’s, however, something important to mention, I try to keep the minimum of seven hours sleep. Otherwise, I might be useless and my brain won’t work as well.
So, I would for instance continue where I left off from the SCH course and focus on that for as much time as I could before having the need to stand up and rest.
2. After using a break to eat something and/or going for a short walk I start my full-time job.
As I’ve mentioned in my first article I am a software engineer in test, so my job is as well mentally demanding, so, I do need breaks, and during those, I sometimes check if there’s any new video on Youtube from Owen, Patrick Collins or any other people I follow or just check what’s going on on Twitter Blockchain community.
3. After finishing my working hours, usually I switch right away, even without moving from my chair (I work remotely) directly to my studies or the audit (depending on the day and feeling) and I would spend a short while before going for a walk or doing some exercise.
4. I usually work out at home with bodyweight exercises. I’m a fan of Calisthenics so, some of the exercises are from this discipline as well.
I don’t spend 2 hours working out, usually 30 to 60 minutes as it helps me mentally and obviously physically.
5. During the rest of my day I find that after doing some chores, and to be fair, just having some life, I do find time for reviewing this project from code4rena and try to apply some of the auditing tips I’ve got from the community.
What I find is that since I am learning to exploit vulnerabilities, when I learn something new I would look for that in the code from the audit and see if I can catch a glimpse of a potential case. Independently of whether me being successful in it or not, what matters is the time spent analyzing and trying to understand the code.
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