1)Keep up your school work. Even if it means missing a meeting or two. If you don't want to do that, finish it before and after robotics each night.
2)15 minute naps are better than longer naps. The human brain is wired in such a way that a 15 min. nap is restful and waking up will not have any effects on it but any longer than around 15 min. and things start getting messed up and you become less alert and feel worse than before.
Say you start your homework at 9 and you have maybe 5 solid hours of homework. I, personally, start getting tired and lose focus after a few hours. Split the 5 hours into 2, 2, and 1 hour periods with 15 min. naps in between.
3)Do the homework where you actually have to think first and save busywork for last.
During the build season, I went a few nights sleepless (i.e. no more sleep than a few 15 min. naps), got 3-4 hours on bad nights, and 6 hours on good nights.
This is just what worked for me.
Also, I find that my writing skill seems to improve as I get increasingly sleep deprived. If this is true for you also, make sure to check your work in the morning.
Oh, buy an annoying as heck, screeching, almost painful alarm clock with a short snooze button (3-5 min. tops, none of that 10 min. junk) and get accustomed to using it before build season so when you hear it, you get up automatically. I got so accustomed to mine that I would get a little adrenaline rush every time our programmer's watch went off (as it beeps once every hour) since it's pitch is about the same.
Make every second count. Don't be afraid to take a break.
Here was my usual weekday schedule during build season:
Wake up at 5:30, get on the bus by 6:15, get a half hour of sleep, finish homework, school starts at 7:30, school ends at 2:20, stay at school relaxing, answering email, and taking care of planning somewhat, get to robotics by 5, get back from robotics at 9:30-10 each night, shower and eat dinner (yeah, I eat lateish), start my homework around 11, and keep working until I finished. I had to get up around 5:30 each morning to catch our bus since I lived 7 miles away from the school. I moved to about a 5 min. walk from our school now so I can afford to sleep an extra hour.
Nobody said FIRST would be easy.
-Vivek