The key to keeping up in Miami is to follow the advice of the Oracle of Delphi: know yourself.  Everyone knows the guy who can fall asleep anywhere and anytime or the girl who can dance for two days straight without eating, sleeping, or even going to the bathroom. While becoming a party machine like that is an admirable goal to have, you should first be realistic about your own abilities and take care of yourself in order to be able to party even longer. To get the absolute most out of your experience, you need to be able to check in with yourself and know when to hit, when to sit, and when to quit.

When to hit. When do you hit the party, when do you hit the dance floor, and when do you take a hit? The hits are your high points of your Miami experience – your favorite DJ, your favorite event, your favorite venue, being with your favorite friends. Pick what your ultimate peak point of the week is going to be, and schedule the rest of your events around it. If you aren’t super familiar with the WMC experience, then you can just go more with the flow, but there’s nothing worse than regretting that you missed the one thing you wanted to make it to no matter what, because you were tired, grouchy, hungry, or broke.

The best experiences are shared experiences, too. If you can feed off the energy of your friends, off of the performer, or off of the crowd, do it!

Quality vs. quantity. Remember, how much fun you have does not necessarily equate with how many events you attend or how long you stay. If you’re looking for a deep, complete experience, expect to try to stay for the long haul and go through cycles of energy. If you just wanted to see what a certain venue looks like, or say that you saw a particular artist perform, act accordingly.

When to sit. Don’t force yourself to try to have fun when you aren’t feeling it. Walk away from the music for a bit, take a smoke break, find a couch, go grab a snack somewhere. Venues often serve food, ranging from high price, high-end appetizers at bars, to hot dogs and pretzels at Ultra, to random catered food at events like Sunday School for Degenerates.

When to quit. If you are negatively affecting your friends’ moods or the vibe of a show and you can’t shake it off, it’s time to leave and maybe take a nap.

Top Ten (Legal) Ways to Wake Up NOW during WMC:

1. Jump in a cold shower
2. Jump in the ocean
3. Jump into traffic
4. Down a double espresso
5. Blast Tiesto for ten minutes
6. Dance like a maniac for five minutes, in your hotel room or otherwise
7. Have a quickie
8. Drink a vodka with Red Bull. Drink another.
9. Rub your ears vigorously for one minute. It works!
10. Spritz your face mixed with water with a few drops of peppermint oil, a trick from the desert that works just as well on the beach!

Partying with intent. What do you want to remember from your Miami experience? Do you want to be able to remember where you went, who you talked to, and what you talked about? Or are you more interested in remembering flashes of light, strains of songs, what the front right speaker stack looked like, or faces floating in the crowd as they wander by you? If you find yourself losing track of what you’re doing vs. what you wanted to do, go back to the power trio and get your mind straight. Eat, drink, sleep!

You are not 17. Nutritional requirements sometimes change as you get older, and if you rally yourself against these changes rather than accepting and working with them, you may find yourself uncomfortable and unhealthy, especially in intense party mode. Often people in their mid-20’s tell the same story: suddenly they develop sensitivities to alcohol, caffeine, sugar, etc. Out of nowhere, they’re getting hangovers they’ve never had to worry about before, they can’t drink Red Bull anymore because it makes them nauseous, or coffee and candy ‘work’ different than they did before. Before you head to WMC for your week of mayhem, make sure you know what you can handle, and don’t default to what you did last year.

The sliding scale of drug use.

Spiritual – once per year

Recreational – once per month

Habitual – once per week

Regular – once per day

Continuous – whenever you can get it

Every substance that a person uses (alcohol, caffeine, medication, drugs, etc) exists somewhere on the sliding scale. Usually what it means to ‘party’ is to slide some substance or another up on the scale for a little bit. More fun, more entertainment, more drunk, more in tune, more awake, more fucked up, etc. In Miami it’s important to know where all of your substances are on your scale because you have to be careful not to tip any of them too far. During WMC, you can pretty much get whatever you want, whenever you want it. Exercise good judgment – I wouldn’t suggest going from recreational coke use to continuous, or trying to keep up with someone doing K when it’s not really your thing. Know your limits; push them but don’t break them. No need for trips to the hospital or freak-outs that you can never come back from. Also, exercise caution trying something for the first time in a place where you don’t have a quick exit (ie. a boat); being stuck in an uncomfortable environment is an easy way to destroy an otherwise good high.

Psychological refueling. There are ways to calm yourself down or geek yourself up outside of food and sleep requirements. Here are some little games, mantras, and mental tricks I’ve heard about over the years that can be useful during partying.

Microscope-telescope – At any given point during a party, imagine that you suddenly have a microscope in your hands. You can put a piece of dust from your environment on a slide and zoom all the way in to a molecular level. Then, after you visualize protons, neutrons and electronic flying about like little madmen, you put away the microscope and now have a telescope in your hands. Put the wrong end of the telescope up to your eye, and then imagine being someone in space a billion miles away, who is looking through the telescope the right way, directly into your retina. This is a just a quick way to gain perspective on the largeness or smallness of the universe in relation to whatever event you happen to be attending. Molecules? Planets? Shoot, might as well just dance.

The moon and the sun are in your heart – this one is for temperature regulation. If you’re too hot or too cold, visualize that the moon and the sun are literally contained inside your heart, and you’ll find that your internal body temperature starts to moderate.

Humans are my species – no matter how different from you or aggravating people are, bear in mind that they do belong to your species.

Brain in a vat / dream sequence – Ponder life essentially as though you were in the Matrix. Go absolutely nuts. Just don’t do anything that would land you in jail.

Fly on the wall – Make yourself an insect and visualize wherever you are from their perspective. Often you’ll get a quick surge of insight as to where you should be in the room in order to have the most fun.

Take care of yourself. If you give your body the rest and nourishment it needs, you should be able to party for the entire Winter Music Conference in high spirits. Plan your partying just a little bit, and you will be able to hit all the shows you want with enough energy to dance all night and then some.

For more tips on how to keep your energy up, check out our guide to surviving the seven day party.