3 habits that helped me to increase my productivity as a developer
3 Simple habits that will help you to work effectively
Being productive is not something that happens overnight, it takes practice.
On average, we need about sixty days to incorporate a new habit into our life. The previous phase is just a repetition of steps that we consciously need to make day after day. As a developer, we try to code as much as we can in a single day, however, sometimes we might feel like we have too much on our plates and we don’t know how to handle it.
So, if you end your days with the feeling of not having completed much work, here are some small habits that you can practice that will help you stay more focused, and be more productive.
1. Create a morning (or first thing to do) routine
First thing to do when you start your workday.
It doesn’t matter if it’s 10 minutes or 2 hours. What matters is that will help you prepare for the rest of your day.
Everybody’s routine is different, what works for me, maybe doesn’t work for you. You should focus on getting the things done that only depend on you. If you start trying to complete things that have a dependency on other people, there are big chance that you don’t get that task done in the time you want. Perhaps your routine is a simple task like checking your inbox and reading all the emails, or maybe it is something more complex like checking your inbox, reviewing the pull requests assigned to you, and getting ready for your first meeting. The number of tasks is not important, the key point is to start your day with an accomplished feeling. This way, you will have a GTD (Get Things Done) momentum for the coming hours.
So, create a routine that works for you, and stick to it. Think of things you need to do as a developer and that you have trouble making room for it in your day (I like to review my code documentation, no judging). Once you have defined what is best for your working context, write it down and incorporate it into your life.
Don’t skip any task of your routine and you will have a better feeling for the rest of your day.
2. Focus on one task at the time
Multitasking is bad.
As developers, we all try to multitask on a daily basis, but that doesn’t mean that is a good habit. On the contrary, if you put your brain’s attention on two (or more) different assignments, guess what? You’ll not focus on either one!
There’s a reason why we tend to do several stuff in parallel. We are afraid to forget the things that come to our mind while we are performing a task. So what do we generally do? We multitask, we try to code many features at the same time meanwhile we review some colleagues’ PRs, or we do some testing at the same time as we’re preparing for our next meeting. We try to get as much work done as we possibly can. However, we don’t give 100% to every chore.
Avoid working on various things at the same time. If you focus on one thing until you’re done, your work will have much better quality. And, as a result, you will grow in your career.
Focus on getting full attention to one assignment until it is done, and then move to the next one.
3. Schedule breaks
Our brain needs to rest.
We have all been there, working for hours with no stopping because we need to figure out some bug to meet the release date. Nevertheless, that working style end up being exhausting.
If we are working on something too deeply, it’s easy to continue working until we’re done. The problem is, that “until we’re done” could be eight hours in a row, no stop. We try to avoid taking a break because we tend to think that every minute matters until we finish our task. Although that is partially true, we also need to let our brains rest for a bit in order to recharge. If you rest, your thoughts will be clear, and as crazy as it sounds, you will work faster.
If you spend too much time working on something without getting a solution, you need a break. There are many ways and techniques you can adopt to take breaks, you should try as many as you can until you find the one that suits you best. It could be working deeply for two hours, taking a fifteen minutes break, and starting over, or just going for a light walk in the middle of your day.
If you don’t take regular breaks, you will cloud your judgment.
