How to Increase Productivity as A Software Engineer

The sheer volume of app downloads on iOS and Android Play Store suggests software engineers have been kept busy over the past decade. With over 100 billion downloads by 2021, software applications are here to stay. Smartphones have further propagated this growth, and now it is almost unthinkable not to have some app environment in our lives.

App development was already sometimes an exhausting venture with stringent deadlines and cutthroat competition. The quest to come up with the best and most unique app has put the lives of software engineers under a lot of duress. For this reason alone, software engineers and developers always look for shortcuts and apply trade tricks to minimize their hassles.

Here, we will discuss how software engineers could employ specific tips to increase productivity. Software engineers spend a lot of time in front of a computer screen which is sure to put a lot of stress on their eyes. These tips include finding the correct times to take breaks to find the most efficient automation tools like JFrog, to enhance app development productivity.

1.    Knowing your System:

App developers or software engineers must be well-acquainted with their development environment. It means you should know the ins and outs of the program or system you’re using to code, and it should take little time to perform simple tasks such as bugging, debugging, finding libraries, etc.

2.    Keep the Code Concise:

It is always a good thing to keep your code simple and clean as it will be easier to debug and understand for others. Keeping the code concise will help you become a better coder by helping you find errors much more easily and understanding your code later.

3.    Rewriting your Code:

Although it may seem counterproductive, rewriting your code has been known to increase productivity by making your code leaner and smarter. Rewriting and revisiting your code will help you see your errors, and you will improve your code in each iteration.

4.    Documenting your Code:

It is a great nuisance to keep explaining your code to your peers. To help avoid doing this, you can annotate your code so that anyone who is reading the code understands what you’ve written.

5.    Automate Wherever Possible:

It is advised to use automation tools such as AI and others available online to increase productivity while performing your development chores. AI has eliminated many time-consuming tasks into one or two-click procedures, and if you still need to start using them, you’re wasting your precious time.

6.    Maintain Life/Code Balance:

It is essential for software engineers to refrain from diving into the deep end of app development, as there will be no coming back from there. App development is like a drug, and most developers get hitched to it with no social life or life of their own, for that matter. It is vital to give your body sound sleep, muscle movement, and multiple positive thoughts instead of just programming happy thoughts. Personal care is the first step to increasing app development productivity.

7.    Take Regular Intervals:

Another thing that coders and developers must do is take breaks between their coding sessions. A common method in the software industry is the Pomodoro Technique which recommends a short break after a 25 minutes cycle and longer breaks every four such cycles. Taking breaks helps the brain by giving it some much-needed rest from the constant rigors of coding continuously.

8.    Starting with Winnable Tasks:

Starting your day off with small winnable tasks gives you the boost you’ll require to finish a high-octane programming day. These small wins will motivate one to accomplish more complex tasks later in the day.

9.    Keep Your Desk Clean:

An excellent way to end your day is to clean up your desk of any clutter that may have accumulated over the day. It helps to have a clean desk at the start of the day. Just as cleaning your brain of distractions is necessary, a clutter-free desk also helps increase productivity.

10. Minimizing Distractions:

Our smartphones can cause many distractions, which need to be filtered out if we have to have any semblance of productivity throughout a workday. Turning off all social notifications and allowing only work-related calls or messages is one way of minimizing distractions. Also, our generation is checking their phones constantly, which can be avoided by allowing yourself to check the phone after a fixed interval.

The world of software development couldn’t be more complex, and the stress on software engineers is increasing daily. However, by following the above simple tips, you can also adapt to this changing environment and reduce the stress load to improve your productivity.