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Carl Bergenhem
Carl Bergenhem

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Tried & True Tips from 25 React Experts to Make You More Productive

In our quest to become the best React developers we can ever be there's a constant drive to improve not just the code we write, but other aspects of being a developer as well. While development concepts are important to learn there is also something to be said about being more productive and being able to do more with your time. Time, after all, is a truly finite resource.

In this line of thinking, my team at KendoReact wanted to put together a resource with productivity tips and tricks for React developers. While our own team had a ton of good ideas, we wanted to see what others had to say and crowd-source the best productivity tips out there. So, the KendoReact turned to 25 experts from the React and JavaScript community to ask them:

What are your top productivity tips (tools, shortcuts, practices, resources) you'd give fellow React developers?

We were absolutely thrilled with everyone being so open to chat with us and the responses that we received. Folks like Emma Wedekind, Kent C. Dodds, Kitze, and Jen Luker (and more!) all contributed tips and tricks to create the Tried & True Tips from 25 React Experts to Make You More Productive resource.

Just to give you a taste of the type of helpful tips you can find here are a few quotes coming from some of the experts we reached out to.

Don't Get Stuck with Analysis Paralysis

When you're first getting started on your app, spin it up with Create React App, and don't worry about making all of your decisions about what libraries you'll use upfront. People get stuck with "analysis paralysis" trying to figure all of that out when they could just be getting things built. Refactoring later is easy, you have a delete key, use it.

- Ben Lesh
@BenLesh
RxJS core team member and React dev at Citadel Securities

Don't Try to Learn Everything All at Once

Don’t try to learn everything all at once. Pick one aspect of React, such as render props, and learn it well by trying out different tutorials, by reading blogs, taking online courses, etc. Then reinforce this knowledge with small side projects. If you’re confused about something, ask questions. Chances are, someone else is just as confused as you, so you should never feel embarrassed to admit confusion. Practice a little bit each day. These atomic habits compound to ensure your comprehension of the library.

- Emma Wedekind
@EmmaWedekind
Software Engineer at LogMeIn and co-host of Ladybug Podcast

More Tips & Tricks

The tips I just mentioned certainly focused on some good topics: take things easy and one step at a time: don't let the idea of learning something new be daunting. I would venture to say that any developer could take something from these tips and apply it to their language, framework, or library of choice.

As I mentioned we collected 25 tips in total and we are planning on adding in more tips as we hear more from the community. For the full list of all tips & tricks, head on over to the Tried & True Tips from 25 React Experts to Make You More Productive overview page and see what else was shared. I personally picked up quite a few things from these tips and I feel confident that you will find at least one or two good things to take away today :)

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