Your hours of work as a programmer represent a cost to you if you are self – employed or a substantial investment for your company if you work for someone else. In any case, in today’s article we will share 8 tips to become more productive programmer . Everything is to use common sense and remove obstacles that prevent you from using 100% of your abilities.
Programmers generally have higher incomes than average if we compare with other office positions with equal experience and level of education and in many places there is shortage of good programmers. Taking in consideration the hourly cost of a programmer, it makes sense to make an extra effort to improve our productivity.
# 1: Minimize distractions
Most of our superiors are aware that programming is a job that requires long periods of continuous concentration. However, what they do not realize is that make our life more difficult by not letting us focus on our work. Distractions come in all colors and shapes: instant messages, emails, requests for project status reports, noises, silly conversations, etc … The list goes to infinity. What can we do?
You can talk to your superiors and ask them how communication is changed. Calls and conversations in person to be limited to critical issues, and let you have the email and instant messaging disabled in the middle of the day. The workplace is important. The ideal is to have a separate space for each programming team. Finally, set specific days for delivery of reports and not at the request of the superior.
# 2: Maximize time working
Workdays last 8 hours and it only depends on how you utilize them. Your boss just think you’ll be more productive working more than 8 hours daily. If you notice, many of those 8 hours are thrown hours. Meetings, for example. It is not only the time of the meeting, but the time destine to prepare for the meetings, go to the meeting place, cut what you are planning, come back and resume at the point you were stopped, and so on. A 30-minute meeting can consume up to 60 minutes of actual time. If you talk to your colleagues they can draw several black holes waste of time. The time you need to dedicated to 100% programming is 6 hours per day and destine other two hours to other things to stay organized and for other chores.
# 3: Be physically and mentally healthy
Good mental and physical health are essential for effective workers. You’re not very useful for work if you’re stressed. Poor physical condition makes it harder to be alert and comfortable in an office environment. It is important to set goals and prioritize them in this regard. If you want to be more productive you have to train in the morning and arrive a little later, looking at the flexibility options of your company. If you have to stay a little longer, be flexible in your company. It is also advised to keep a check of diet and sugar consumption be aware of the no of drinks you had from that fancy vending machines. If you feel stressed or a little burned all the time its an alarm before the situation could be worse.
# 4: Stop hammering nails with screwdrivers
There is something in the world of software programmers that makes us think that all the tools are free. Much of this culture has also moved to the bosses. Perhaps it is because of the abundance of free open source tools … But you can not insist that with these tools you can do everything, as this often is detrimental to your own productivity and that of your peers.
If you need the full version of software, ask for without fear. Tell your superiors to purchase that. Many of the most productive tools are not free, for good and bad.There are few tools on the market that cost more than the salary of a week of a developer, but often the use of wrong or limited software makes you lose weeks of development.Occasionally you have to buy software to finish programming tasks. Get used to ask tools.You are professional and you have to consultant seniors if you want to get in term developments.
# 5: Program, one program
A few years ago I had to book a flight to go to a programming seminal. I took 10 minutes looking for the flight at a price that seemed reasonable. To my superior he did not like the price and told me to find another flight. I threw one and a half work day looking for a more reasonable price end up saving 50 €. I spent 12 hours working as a programmer looking for a flight. The morale? Let me schedule. All things out of my job description is by definition a waste of time. If you have to fly for office, others in the company take charge of looking for the flight.
# 6: Be very clear with specifications of project
Any development project begins with some specification 🙂 The bad or confusing specifications always end in hours lost because at the end you have to check back to work and get new specifications. If you have questions, ask. The specifications provided in writing to return to them whenever needed. With a project definition process you save tens of hours a year.
Programmers like we reasoned arguments. If you give me some illogical indications I get nervous and reluctant to follow. The indications are that make sense to you. I personally HATE reschedule things.
# 7: Look at your attitude and care for your loved ones
This not only serves to programmers. The attitude at work samples reverses in the way they treat others. If you have a good attitude, your teammates will work best to help. If you have an improved attitude, always go infighting and personal performance is affected. That simple.
Do not forget your family or people you want. It is very important to be happy outside the work environment to have a good attitude in the office and in life in general.
# 8: Continuous training
One of the most common complaints of my colleagues is that their leaders do not invest enough in their ongoing training, vital to a long-lived career as a programmer look much innovation every year. As a programmer you are expected to constantly learn things on your own. But the truth is that there is never enough time or inclination. As a result we have to stick a huge binges with new while the technologies we are using to program.Take online courses and keep up with the pace of new inventions and innovations by following great programming forums and blogs
How to avoid it? Search mentors, young and old, all the same. Young people can steer you in that new language that has both bum, while older teach you to work better in general.Requests to attend courses. NO already you have it sitting behind the screen. You have to find moments of less workload to attend courses and focus only on that. Your business and your career will thank you in the long run.
