8 Best Productivity Tips For Developers
It’s not easy to stay productive as a developer. It’s a mentally stressful job that can quickly exhaust the mind and also requires a lot of attention. Understanding how you can focus on your work, take shortcuts using automation, and deal with distractions can help you a lot in making the most out of your working hours. In this collection, you can find our best productivity tips for developers and programmers, from finding the best developer tools to taking regular breaks to successfully eliminating distractions while working.
1. FIND THE BEST CODE EDITOR
Developer productivity starts with a good source code editor. Although there are many great options in the market, it’s hard to tell which is the best one — it all depends on your goals and needs. It’s worth trying out different code editors to see which one fits best with your workflow. Here are some important things to take into consideration…
- Which programming language(s) you are using. You need a code editor that offers syntax highlighting for the languages you need (at least as a plugin). Some code editors also come with syntax highlighters for popular technologies such as React, not only for programming languages.
- If your chosen code editor has an adequate theme and plugin ecosystem that provides the functionality you need (for instance, a high contrast theme if you have low vision).
- If you commit your work to a code sharing platform, such as GitHub or Bitbucket, you might find built-in Git functionality useful. For instance, Visual Studio Code lets you directly commit your work to GitHub without leaving the editor.
- If you want to use your own code snippets and/or keyboard shortcuts, it’s also a good idea to pick a code editor that lets you add or import them.
2. START WITH THE MOST DIFFICULT TASK EVERY DAY
It’s easy to get lost in daily tasks and procrastination is also a common habit of developers — especially, if you work as a freelancer and have to manage your own deadlines. Therefore, it frequently happens that you work all day and by the end of the day, you realize that you have barely accomplished anything. You can avoid that if, rather than multitasking, you create a hierarchy of daily tasks and start with the most difficult task every day.
Although multitasking had been seen as a positive thing for many years, it turned out that it’s not suitable for most people. Research has shown that only 2% of the population are good at multitasking, while the rest can suffer a loss of productivity as high as 40%. So, if you are in the 2% keep going on with multitasking, otherwise prioritize your tasks and focus only on one thing at the same time.