Development is a challenging profession where burnout rates are always high.
So what’s the reason?
First, they get sucked in the world of coding without proper guidance.
Second, they have little or no idea on how to be efficient and productive.
Here are 10 tips to help you get started on your journey as a programmer & to increase your productivity as a software developer:
1) Take baby steps: Every piece of code starts with “Hello World”. Just like you build a house brick by brick, the same has to be done as far as development is concerned.
2) Don’t give up: Most of the times you would be knowing the solution and yet you would be all over the place with ideas. Happens with the best of us.
3) Take breaks: Keep the blood flow going by taking breaks and walking around. Sometimes the best way to get to a solution is too move away from the problem for a while
4) Don’t bite more than you can chew (at least initially): A lot of programmers take too much work and end up not being able to finish any of it. In technology there is nothing as almost, you either finish something or you don’t.
5) Create builds everyday: Nothing can be more motivating than seeing your code in action. Try to plan your tasks in a manner that you are able to build a partial working solution before switching off your workstation.
6) Learn from your mistakes and others: You would learn a lot from your fellow programmers, start reading other developers’ code and you would realize how you can code in a better and efficient manner.
7) Keep Improving: With every project try to implement your learnings from past experiences.
8) Keep Learning: This field is one of the most evolving, use your spare time to learn new technologies.
9) Pick up a side project: Sometimes your workplace would not let you play with new technologies. Work on something that excites you or drives you like Mark Zuckerberg came up with Jarvis.
10) Unwind: You have worked hard, take time to enjoy.
These few steps can help in making you a better developer.