Other things I forgot to mention are:

• notification services: I recommend @ginabot or @busy. Ginabot sends you messages on Discord. Busy, which is an alternative explorer to steemit.com, has built-in support for notifications.
• security: Make sure to only log in with your posting key (for posting and voting) or your active key for financial transactions. Keep your owner key and password (seed for all the keys) offline and secure.

One advantage of the 13 week power down stage is security. If your active key is compromised, you have one week to remedy the situation before any financial loss occurs (assuming you're only holding Power).