Productivity Tips for Codenewbies

Maintaining a high level of productivity as a developer, especially if you are working remotely can be challenging. Not every line of code you write will come easy, and at times you find yourself scratching your head as you search for a solution to an issue. Distractions can be particularly problematic during these times. From the beginning of a new project to the moment the final line of code has been written, maintaining focus and productivity levels is essential.

Here are a few tips tips that can improve efficiency:

Manage Distractions

Email, Slack, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and even a cluttered desk can distract even the most dedicated developer. Take some time each day to manage distractions. Set aside scheduled breaks, close unnecessary applications, and keep your environment clean. Even reducing the presence of many tabs on the Google Chrome browser can can help. Overall whatever you can do to bring your focus back to what you need to focus on can help.

Schedule and Take Breaks

If you push yourself to work through the majority of the day, it can be easy to burn yourself out, making it difficult to get back to work later. If you have a list of tasks to complete throughout the day, consider scheduling breaks between tasks, and schedule out your day accordingly. Try to at least spend a minute looking out the window, or stretch your arms. Anything you can do to give your mind and eyes a pause can make it easier to renew focus as you head in to the next task.

If You Have a Road Block, Move On

If you are tackling a problem and unable to make any progress on it after 15 minutes, move on to the next thing and loop back around. Sometimes you might find the solution a lot easier to uncover after you have spent some time away.

Think Things Through

Sometimes it’s best to take a moment and think about how you would implement something. Many developers jump into writing code only to realize their approach is inflexible, wrong or difficult to understand. Sitting down and thinking the system’s design will save you a lot of time in the future.

Follow the DRY principle

Don’t repeat yourself and if you need to, it’s time to make that specific code reusable. Nothing is worse than trying to maintain code that’s been duplicated multiple times. It’s a huge waste of time and will undoubtedly create bugs. A programmer is far more productive if a change doesn’t need to be applied in 20 different places.

In this blogpost I wanted to share with you some productivity tips that can be handy for developers especially junior developers. Thank you for reading this blogpost and I hope you learned some thing new.