“If you don't pay appropriate attention to what has your attention, it will take more of your attention than it deserves.” --David Allen
While productivity is an essential component in every organization across various industries, the stakes only increase when it comes to a complex profession like that of a web developer.
Many software organizations often look around for formulas and solutions that can result in making a product efficient but tend to overlook the most evident one: developers.
A productive developer with high zeal and motivation wouldn’t only deliver more in less time but would also rub off the same positive energy on others in the workplace. This ripple effect reflects on the team’s excellent performance as well.
A productive developer does reap what they sow. For example, getting higher pays for delivering quality work done in less time, appreciation and recognition, better work-life balance, and, most importantly, internal satisfaction.
That said, it’s not easy for web developers to keep their productivity levels consistently high. They can get stalled due to several reasons like workplace distractions, distractions while working from home, multi-tasking, fatigue, and poor work-life balance among many others.
How Web Developers Can Be More Productive Without Making Things Complex
Trying to be a productive web developer doesn’t mean that you have to make things complex for yourself. For instance, you would often find yourself setting seemingly tough (near impossible) deadlines, working overtime, etc,. Remember that we could all be more productive by following simple things.
Staying consistently productive calls for imbibing certain work ethics and habits, which become an integral part of your daily routine after a while.
Let’s take a look at some simple yet effective ways to take your productivity a notch higher without crossing that crucial work-life barrier.
Let’s get started!!
1. Use A Web Development Framework
Some web developers are skeptical about using frameworks because these might be complex to use all on their own. However, ask those who have adopted a web development framework and they would tell you how it can be of great use in more ways than one.
Good web development frameworks with powerful features can help you with:
- Making code reuse easier due to consistent API
- Enhancing development through community-developed extensions and tools
- Saving time and improving the quality of your deliverables
- Ensure that you follow best practices of coding and great programming design patterns
- Are easier for beginners to start using
- Obtaining secure code quickly
2. Using The Right Tools
This is one aspect where web developers have to be spot-on. Using the right tools effectively is the key to help you get the job done as a web developer. Using a good set of web development apps is essential to improve productivity for web developers.
Of course, people having different professional backgrounds would need different productivity tools. That said, web developers can also use top-rated project management and team collaboration software for a better view of the project’s status and stay on the same page with other team members.
A good project management tool offers a host of powerful features, like online proofing, task management, time management, group chat, Gantt charts, work hour calculator and much more for enabling web developers to coordinate and function better.
3. Don’t Try To Multitask
Yaron Sinai, an Author and CEO of Elementool, says, “One of the main reasons as to why many information technology professionals, including web developers, fail to make any progress with their tasks and projects after a certain point is none other than trying to multitask.”
Web developers often face a scenario where they are pulled from one task to the next almost too frequently. They might hop from development to fixing bugs, to answering questions, and so on.
So, the question is how can developers avoid ‘jumping tasks’ in their development projects?
The answer is not hard to find. The work plan should be created in a way that one team is only focused on one task at a time. Each web developer should focus on one task until it’s completed, and only then start the next task.
4. Take Breaks
Developers often have to manage loads of work and complete it within set deadlines, which invariably results in longer working hours. And, these deliberate working hours might not allow the adequate number of breaks.
When your mind and body don’t get breaks from time to time, it affects your overall functioning and productivity adversely.
Be easy on yourself and give yourself breathing space in the form of regular, short breaks to divert your mind away from your workspace. Go outside for a walk, do some stretching exercises, get some snacks from the kitchen, listen to your favorite tunes, or anything else that relaxes your mind.
You can also follow the Pomodoro technique to discover how to balance your time at work smartly to become more productive.
5. Keep Things Simple
This tip may be placed lower down the order, but is probably the most important one of them all.
Web developers can complicate their jobs quite often. From finding yourself doing more stuff than the work assigned to setting yourselves up for too much work in a given time period, it seems like web developers are always caught in precarious situations.
This is not to say that web developers should deliver the minimum deliverable to clients every time, but there is certainly no need to impress them by delivering the maximum. Though there can be projects where you might be required to work overtime, those cases are far and few.
Developers should only deliver the work that is asked for by the client, no more, no less. Keep things simple and don’t over complicate your productivity strategy.
If you feel like there are things a client may not understand even after they've been simplified then you can always create an explainer video to help simplify a concept for a client but keep it as straightforward as possible.
To Sum It Up
Being a web developer in a highly competitive IT industry is no easy task. You can easily get bogged down by an increasing amount of work, and easily cross the thin work-life balance.
You do not have to follow the steps mentioned in this blog when trying to be most productive; every individual is different and has his own way of getting things done.
However, if you keep the above tips in mind and earnestly follow them, hopefully your workflow will gradually get more streamlined than it was before. Good luck.
Top comments (1)
I totally agree with this opinion.