As a developer, staying productive is difficult. It’s cognitively demanding work that may rapidly drain the mind and necessitates a great deal of focus. Understanding how to focus on your job, use automation to save time, and cope with distractions may go a long way toward maximizing your working hours.
However, before you implement any productivity-boosting strategies, you must understand that productivity does not equal the number of hours you spend in front of a computer. Sometimes we keep ourselves occupied without genuinely doing anything. Identifying such situations will allow you to boost your productivity—doing more in less time—without eating up your day.
Being a programmer implies that you have a lot on your plate right away. Still, if you spend too much time checking email, managing the usual technical glitches or repeating the same duties, you may merely wind up ‘busy’ without producing anything.
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5 Best Productivity Tips For Developers
If you want to take your productivity as a developer to the next level and get more fruitful work done in less time, here are some adjustments you can make to your working style in order to get there. We have provided the five most helpful productivity tips for developers.
1. Breaks are crucial for productivity
Coding may be exhausting, especially when done for several hours at a time. After a time, you’ll find yourself looking at the computer, unable to address the situation at hand. A study shows that human beings can only focus on one thing for 45 minutes top.
Pre-planned breaks from work, at least every hour or so, may help you stay focused on your task and be more productive. Breaks might be as easy as stretching, going for a brief walk, talking to a coworker, or pouring a cup of coffee. Concentrate on removing your thoughts from the working attitude for a short period of time.
Breaks allow us to be more creative and better critical thinkers simply by allowing us to view the broader picture. For a programmer, critical thinking is indispensable, and therefore taking breaks shall significantly boost your productivity. Taking the required amount of breaks grants you the ability to relieve stress on a mental, emotional, and physical level so that when you get back to work, you are rejuvenated, calm, and motivated.
2. Automate when necessary
Programming is one of those professions in the world, a significant portion of which is doing repetitive tasks on loop. You can automate various parts of the programming process depending on the task at hand.
Automation may save you time by reducing the amount of time you spend completing manual and time-consuming tasks. First, you must set aside some time to write a script to automate a specific job, but it will ultimately benefit you more than you anticipated.
Creating and testing processes, taking notes, completing forms and sending generic emails are just a few examples of how automation may help you be more productive. Even basic tasks like shifting downloaded files to the appropriate location might save you a significant amount of time in the long run.
To automate, you can use a programming language like JavaScript or Python. While some automated activities may be completed in a matter of minutes, others might take hours or even days. You may utilize a task runner as a frontend developer to do ordinary activities on your code, such as minification, auto-prefixing, optimization of images and so on.
Take the help of a screen recorder if you wish to oversee specific automated processes.
3. Stay updated about the latest technology in the industry
Developers have a particular area of focus and the tools that go with it. Every developer will require various tools that are unique to the kind of work they do. Your work style or work signature is defined by the means you employ. You should invest some time studying new tools you’re interested in, even if you’re an expert or even a master of the ones you use now. Always keep an eye out for tools that might help you make the least manual or repetitive effort.
Stay updated on the newest programming news and buzzwords in the developer community to find tools that can help you do more in less time. After doing some preliminary research to ensure it contains the capabilities you want, you can put the device to the test to see whether it has the potential to boost your productivity.
Stay at par with the latest trends in the industry and fast-changing technology to maintain your productivity levels.
4. Prioritize your work
According to research, just 2% of the population can multitask, while the rest can lose up to 40% of their productivity. So, if you’re part of the 2%, keep multitasking; otherwise, prioritize your work and concentrate on only one item at a time.
Make it a habit to schedule time to focus on your priorities — complete the most important task first thing in the morning. Before reading or responding to emails or phone calls, complete your most vital chores. It’s ok to assist a coworker and share a load of a difficult assignment on occasion, but don’t keep it for too long.
Plan out your work for the day by creating a to-do list. Planning is an excellent way to get all the essential tasks done first and maintain your productivity levels. Make sure you understand all of the criteria before you start coding — you need to know precisely what you need to construct since even the tiniest nuances may have a significant influence on the solution you’re trying to create.
5. Learn how to use the command line correctly
Aside from automating chores, it’s also a good idea to include the command line into your daily routine. First, instead of using a GUI, you may drastically speed up your process by using a CLI (Command Line Interface) (Graphical User Interface).
Every time you click on a GUI, the system takes a few moments to generate the new interface. You may believe that the amount of time spent using GUIs is insignificant, yet when all factors are considered, using GUIs slows you down significantly. However, if you understand the command line, you can do activities such as generating and modifying files and processing large amounts of data without ever leaving the keyboard.
The command line’s initial purpose: more control, is perhaps the most apparent reason to master it. You’ll be able to install packages, check for updates, restart a local server, and add modules for increased capabilities. On Unix/Linux and Windows platforms, there are commands available solely via shell that may handle exceedingly complex operations.
The command line will prove to be a formidable weapon in your arsenal no matter what language you’re using or attempting to learn. In a market of excellent web engineers, even a rudimentary mastery of shell scripting may boost your confidence and workplace value.
There is no magic formula to getting more productive as a developer overnight. It can only be accomplished by instilling particular habits, some of which are listed above. Remember that the secret to productivity is experimenting. If a strategy or tool doesn’t work for you, abandon it and try another until you discover the one that best suits your routine and personality.
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