How To Become More Productive As A Developer.

Being productive as a developer can be really hard. Almost 99% of the entire developer community is made of average developers who are not producing much. These are the developers who make a medium income or who are in the mediocre range. Although, the top 1% of all developers are the ones who produce at a really high level. If you want to become a highly productive developer, you should stick around.

1. Study The Successful People:

Always try to study the successful people. Think of people like Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates, these are the people who produce not 2x more than a normal developer, not 10x, not 100x, but a 1000x more than a mediocre developer. How I like to think about it is that they can achieve something in 1 year, which a normal developer would achieve in a 1000 years. This might seem as if this is far fetched, although this is possible. Let’s see what sets them apart.

They Touch Type…

touch typing is one of the most essential skills to have. Not only does it make you extremely fast, but also it lets you do trial and error really fast. At the end of the day, it is all about trial and error. The faster you can type, the faster can you make errors, and the faster can you learn from those errors. If you can write code really fast, then you can produce really fast, which in turn lets you get more clients.

They Do Not Care About The World’s Opinion…

If you start thinking about the world’s opinion, you will never succeed. The world has several people, both positive and negative. Ignoring the world’s opinion does not mean that you will become ignorant to people who are trying to give feedback. If your friends start to say that “you have turned!” or “you are not responding to our texts”, you should try to stay away from them. But if you see someone who is genuinely trying to give you feedback or trying to tell you how you can improve, then you should consider them, and make an improvement. Being a total asshole will not do you much good, although try to avoid as many negative people as you can. It is better if you surround yourself with people who motivate you or people who want you to succeed rather than pull you down.

remember, success leaves clues. Studying the successful people will show you how they hustled and how you can become a better version of yourself. We just have to be like Sherlock Holmes and try to identify about those clues.

2. Improve On Your Communication Skills…

If you wanna work at companies like google or Facebook, You should expect them to just spend 20–30 seconds reading your resume, because whenever a job posting opens, there are hundreds of applications which reach each recruiter, so your resume should stand out. Although, there’s one more thing which you can have which is more powerful than an amazing resume, and that is a referral.

Referrals are normally coming from people who are already in the company. If you can get even 1 referral, then you are considered as a potential developer.

How can communication skills help you?

If you have good communication skills, and if you have friends who work at good companies, you can get some really great referrals. People who work at big tech companies are normally really highly skilled developers. The company trusts its employees, and often times these employees can recommend looking at you or your profile. That gives the employers a clear idea of how you are, because if someone is recommending you, you must be someone good. Although, for making people who are working at big tech companies your friends, you do need to have some good communication skills. People working at those companies are also just like you, and even they do not want to be surrounded by people who let them down or are not supportive. If you can get on projects with them, and if you can show them that you are actually quite talented, they might be highly interested in working along side you. So, that gives you a really high chance of landing that job.

But also, if you get in any tech company, you will find more developers like you who are working as a team. So, that is also an extremely important skill to have. Remember, programming is a teams’ sport. You have to be good at communicating with people. Whenever you come across someone, tell them what you are doing, tell them about the bugs, but do not be scared. They will be more than happy to help you if you are stuck, and you will find a way out. Communication skills can be really helpful, and they are crucial for your success.

3. Maintain Your Health:

Health is one of the key factors to anyone’s success. Remember the slogan — “Health Is Wealth”, this is totally true. Just by maintaining your health can help you make a difference in your life and career. I see so many developers who just stay up till night because they think that its cool and it is okay to do that. Not gonna lie, even i was a victim of this, and my health deprecated a lot. I used to have 2–3 cups of coffee, which is not recommended at my age, and I used to have deep dark circles. Even though I did learn a lot in that period of time, I would not recommend it to anyone. Coffee can be good to a certain extent, but try to avoid it and lead a healthy life. Being a programmer, you have to stare at screens throughout the day. It is crucial for you to give your eyes and brain some rest from the virtual world.

These were a few of the tips and tricks which I recommend to anyone. If you wanna achieve success, I believe that it is crucial for you to follow these steps, although there is a lot more to it. Focusing on your soft skills is really important, and for that, there is a book called Soft Skills by John Sonmez. I cannot recommend this book enough, and once you are done with your technical skills, the skills which John teaches in his book are crucial for you to stand out.

Thank You! I hope that you found value from this article!